424 DISEASES OF THE HORSE'S FOOT ■ 



As a result we get in them the changes we have already 

 described under Ostitis. 



Treatment — (a) Preventive. — Seeing that many of these 

 cases have their starting-point in stabs or penetrating 

 wounds of the sole, we shall be concerned first with a con- 

 sideration of the correct treatment to be adopted when we 

 know the wound to have reached the articulation. 



Only too frequently the treatment practised is that of 

 poulticing. In other portions of this work we have pointed 

 cut the advantages that a continued antiseptic bathing has 

 over the application of a poultice, the greater readiness with 

 which the solution comes into contact with the deeper parts 

 of the wound, and the far greater chance there is of main- 

 taining water in an antiseptic condition than there is of 

 keeping a poultice in the same state. There is no doubt, 

 that in this case also, the cold or warm antiseptic bath is to 

 be preferred to the poultice. It is questionable, however, 

 whether even the bath is sufficient for our purpose here. 

 We have in this case a deep punctured wound, and a wound 

 that in every probability is infected with the organisms of 

 pus or of putrefaction. It is a wound, moreover, which is 

 likely to impede the thorough access to it of the solution 

 in which the foot is fomented, on account of the flakes of 

 coagulated fibrin which fill it. 



The most rational treatment, therefore, if we get to the 

 case early enough, is to irrigate the wound freely with a 

 solution of carbolic acid in water (1 in 20), or with a solu- 

 tion of perchloride of mercury (1 in 1,000), injected by 

 means of a glass syringe, or the pattern of syringe devised 

 for quittor. This injecting should be done thoroughly, and 

 by that we mean that several syringefuls of the solution 

 should be injected, the joint after each injection being 

 manipulated so as to distribute the solution as far as pos- 

 sible over it. When this is done the opening in the sole may 

 be plugged with a little perchloride of mercury, or better 

 still, with a little piece of tow saturated with a concentrated 

 solution of perchloride of mercury or a solution of iodoform 

 in alcohol, and an antiseptic pad of tow or lint placed over 



