DISEASES FROM FAULTY CONFORMATION 169 



The overlapping of the edges of the crack before referred 

 to occasionally gives rise to the condition known as false 

 quittor. A probe or a director passed beneath the over- 

 hanging ledge of horn reveals sometimes a fissure of 1 inch 

 or considerably more in depth, and quittor is diagnosed. 

 A careful paring away of the overhanging horn, however, 

 reveals the true state of affairs, and exposes to view the 

 original cause of the mischief — a simple fissure in the 

 wall. 



A serious complication — one fortunately met with but 

 rarely — is that of keraphyllocele. This is a tumour-like 

 growth of horn, varying in size from the thickness of an 

 ordinary quill pen to that of one's middle finger, growing 

 down from the coronary cushion, and attached to the inner 

 side of the wall of the hoof- With this lameness is always 

 present, and more or less deformity of the hoof results. 

 This condition will be found described at greater length in 

 Chapter IX. 



Prognosis. — In the case of sand-crack this should always 

 be guarded. It may be taken as a general rule that cracks 

 commencing from the coronary margin are more trouble- 

 some to deal with than those originating below. The 

 reason is not far to seek. They here affect the wall just 

 where the bevel in it for the accommodation of the coronary 

 cushion has rendered it weakest. Not only is it weakest, 

 but being more resilient than the portions below it, it suffers 

 more from the alternate movements of expansion and con- 

 tractoin of the foot than does the horn below. 



Although in many cases a cure of the existing crack may 

 be easily accomplished, regard should be paid to the possi- 

 bility of its recurrence, either in the same position or else- 

 where. Really, in offering an opinion as to the future use- 

 fulness of an animal so affected, a greater attention should 

 be directed to the animal's conformation than to the crack 

 itself. Where the vice of conformation giving rise to it 

 (as, for example, contracted heels or upright hoof) gives 

 bope of being remedied, then naturally it may be safely said 

 that the liability to sand-crack goes with it. 



