700 SHOEING. 



" Tho only thing to be done is to take off the shoe, and turn the 

 horse out to grass. In slight cases, however, this may not be 

 absolutely necessary, and is often inconvenient, but it is by far the 

 best plan, and, 1 may add, perhaps the only effectual one, when a 

 radical cure is desired." 



This writer being good authority, I will include what he says 

 on direct or palliative treatment : 



" When a horse cannot be sent to grass, and the disease is so 

 slight as not to produce lameness, let the affected heel, crust as well 

 as sole, be rasped or cut down with the drawing knife, so that 

 when a bar-shoe is applied, there may be no pressure upon the affected 

 heel, or about an inch beyond it, that is, toward the toe. . . . The 

 practice commonly is to scoop out the reddened solo or corn between 

 the bar and crust, and have these receive the bearing of the shoe; 

 but this will not do ; the crust also must be removed as well as the 

 bar to the depth of a quarter of an inch. . . . Caustics and even 

 a hot iron have sometimes been applied to corns ; they may have 

 had the effect of deadening the feeling of the part for a short time, 

 but they often do great mischief, and should never be employed or 

 permitted in any case of corn whatever. Tar ointment, Friar's 

 balsam, or a solution of blue vitriol have also been used.* They 

 may be innocent, but certainly not necessary. When corns are 

 not attended to, severe lameness is often the consequence. Smiths 

 frequently do nothing more than scoop out the corn, and apply a 

 common shoe. This sometimes relieves the horse for a short time, 

 but he soon becomes lame again, and generally lamer than at first. 

 It is in this way that corns are rendered troublesome, and produc- 

 tive of so much inconvenience. Inflammation and suppuration are 

 thus sometimes induced in the heels, and matter breaks out at the 

 coronet. In this case the whole of the affected heel must be 

 removed, even the crust of the heel and the bar ; and when the 

 part has been well soaked with a poultice, that is, after a few days, 

 it may be dressed with tar ointment, and about a week after it has 

 been thus dressed, the horse should be turned to grass without 

 shoes." 



WEAK HEELS. 



If from any cause there has been much fever in the feet for 

 some time in consequence of being driven on hard roads, or being 

 partially foundered, there will be diminished supply of horn, so 

 that the wall will not only grow slower but thinner. Sec refer- 

 ence to inflammation and Figs. 505 and 506, on page 677. T 



* Formulas for these prescriptions will be found among miscellaneous recipes. 



t According to scientific authority, ordinary inflammation of the horn-secreting 

 surfaces gives a greater cell proliferation in general ; but when inflammation ap- 



