WOUNDS 249 



acute and the animal so violent with it that slaughter be- 

 comes necessary. 



Treatment. — This consists in applying an antiseptic and 

 sedative dressing to the injured parts (for example, Car- 

 bolized Oil and Tincture of Opium, equal parts) and after- 

 wards bandaging. 



From the only data we are able to work on, it appears 

 that this dressing should be repeated daily, the bandage 

 being removed each time, the foot well bathed in warm 

 water, and the dressing and bandage afterwards replaced. 

 On first sight, it would appear that once cleansed and 

 bandaged the dressings might be left in situ for several 

 days. Seeing, however, that suppuration, if once set up, 

 would add further to the intense pain the animal is already 

 suffering, and considering the always constant exposure of 

 the foot to infection, it is perhaps wise to persist in daily 

 changing of the dressings. 



At the same time, the general health of the animal should 

 be attended to. Suitable febrifuges should be administered, 

 either in the shape of a dose of physic, or salines and liq. 

 ammonia, acetatis ; and the pain, if appearing unbearable, 

 allayed by doses of choral and hypodermic injections of 

 morphia. 



Recorded Cases. — 1. ' A short time ago I was called to 

 see a horse which had had his hoof torn off in a railway 

 " point." When I arrived at the stable the injury had been 

 done two hours, and the horse had been led from the rail- 

 way to a loose-box nearly half-a-mile off. On going to this 

 box I was surprised and horrified to find the poor animal 

 mad with pain, rolling and dashing himself about. When 

 on his back he would struggle and kick the walls with the 

 injured foot, as though unconscious of pain. Not one 

 moment was he still, and as I could see that the sensitive 

 structures were much damaged by his violence, I obtained 

 a gun and put him out of his pain. 



' The accident happened in this way. The horse was 

 employed in shunting coal-waggons, and had just drawn 

 four loaded trucks up to a point at which they diverged to 



