PEICKS AND WOUNDS TO THE SOLE AND FROG 385 



at the coronet, or to be torn away from its connection with it, is always 

 present, and may at any time call for rest and active treatment. 



The feet, notwithstanding their dense horny covering, are by no means- 

 proof against pricks and other penetrating wounds. In the operation of 

 shoeing, a misdirected nail is often accountable for the former, and the sole 

 of the foot is frequently injured by forcible contact with sharp substances 

 such as glass, wire, nails, and other sharp pieces of metal, stick, &c. 



Pricks in shoeing, although mostly referred to want of care on the 

 part of the shoeing-smith, are by no means so frequently due to this cause 

 as is generally alleged. Horses with shelly, weak feet, or feet whose crust 

 is much broken away, sometimes render the safe lodgment of a nail an 

 almost impossible task, and, however careful a man may be, such feet can 

 only be shod at great risk. It is, however, true that badly-driven nails, 

 the careless stamping of nail-holes, defective pointing of nails, and badly- 

 fitted shoes are not infrequently responsible for injuries to the feet by 

 pricking and binding. It is, however, to be borne in mind that some 

 horses are of such a vicious and uncontrollable character as to render such 

 accidents possible in the hands of the most careful workman. Apart from 

 shoeing, horses doing town work frequently pick up nails on the road, in 

 the forge, or in yards or sheds where packing is going on, or in other 

 places where nails, fragments of metal or glass are always to be found. 



The frog, its commissures and cleft, being the softer parts of the sole, 

 offer the least resistance to penetrating substances, and for this reason it is 

 here that injury most frequently occurs. The danger attaching to pricks 

 to the foot is not confined to the puncture alone, but is materially added to 

 by any septic matter which may at the time be conveyed to the " quick " 

 or vascular structures within. 



The injury may be comparatively harmless, or serious, or even fatal, in 

 its effects, according to the depth of penetration and the nature of the 

 structures concerned in it. This will vary from a mere puncture of the 

 sensitive sole or frog to a more extensive and penetrating wound involving 

 the pedal-bone, the perforans tendon, the navicular joint, or the navicular 

 bone itself. 



The immediate effects of a prick to the foot are not always such as to 

 attract attention at once, and it sometimes occurs that several days elapse 

 before its existence is suspected; but as time goes on, and the injured part 

 inflames and suppurates, pain and lameness are developed, and a search 

 after the cause is provoked. 



VOL. II. 59 



