120 ARTISTIC HORSE-SHOEING. 



its occurrence. Nothing can be done to relieve the horse, 

 and time only will remove the lameness, which at first is 

 often ver3^ considerable, from the bruises which the muscles 

 have received, as well as the disruption of their fibres 

 which must necessarily have occurred. 



QUITTOR, PRICKING, THORNS, ETC. 



Quittor consists of a sinus running- downwards beneath 

 the horn of the hoof, and occasioned by a blow or other 

 injui-y of the coronet; or by some cause which has pro- 

 duced an abcess under the horn. It is, in fact, a sinus 

 under the hoof ; but those only are generally called quittor 

 Avhich depend upon bruises or wounds of the coronet ; while 

 those sinuses arising from pricks or inflamed corns are 

 called ''sinuses of the foot." In the former case a stimu- 

 lating application, thrust in with a probe covered with 

 lint, will generally cause adhesion of the sides of the sinus, 

 and effect a cure. A stroug solution of nitrate of silver, 

 or chloride of zinc, is the best remedy. If the sinuses 

 arise from below, and break out on the coronet, an 

 opening must be made in the sole of the foot wherever 

 the prick or corn produced the mischief, so that the matter 

 will always gravitate towards the bottom, and thus the 

 sinus will heal at the top. The nitrate of silver will here 

 also be a good dressing ; or the friar's balsam may some- 

 times be used with advantage. 



Pricks in shoeing are constantly occurring, especially in 

 country districts, where the smith often drives three or four 

 nails in succession before he gets one tp come out g^t the 



