464 



from the wound are abundant, the strength of our patient must be 

 sui^ported by good food and tonics. One of the best tonics is as fol- 

 lows: Powdered sulphate of iron, powdered gentian, and powdered 

 ginger, of each 4 ounces. Mix thoroughly and give a heaping table- 

 spoonful twice a day on the feed, or as a drench. 



Punctured luounds are produced by the penetration of a sharp or 

 blunt pointed substance, as a thorn, fork, nail, etc., and the orifice of 

 these wounds is always small in proportion to their depth. In veteri- 

 nary practice punctured wounds are much more common than the 

 others. They involve the feet most frequently, next the legs, and often 

 the head and face from nails protruding through the stalls and trough. 

 They are not only the most frequent but they are also the most serious. 

 One circumstance rendering them so is the lack of attention that they 

 at first receive. The external wound is so small that but little or no 

 importance is attached to it, yet in a short time swelling, pain, and 

 acute inflammation, often of a serious character, are manifested. Con- 

 sidering the most common of the punctured wounds we must give 

 precedence to those of the feet. Horses worked in cities, about iron 

 works, around building places, etc., are most likely to receive "nails 

 in the feet." The animal treads upon nails, pieces of iron or screws, 

 and forces them into the soles of the feet. If the nail, or whatever it is 

 that has punctured the foot, is fast in some large or heavy body, and 

 is withdrawn as the horse lifts his foot, lameness may last for only a 

 few steps; but unless properly attended to at once he will be found in 

 a day or two to be excrutiatingly lame in the injured member. If 

 the foreign body remains in the foot he gradually grows worse from the 

 time of puncture until the cause is discovered and removed. If, when 

 shoeing, a nail is driven into the "quick" (sensitive laminae) and 

 allowed to remain, the horse gradually evinces more pain from day to 

 day; but if the nail has at once been removed by the smith lameness 

 does not, as a rule, show itself for some days; or, if the nail is simply 

 driven "too close," not actually pricking the horse, he may not show 

 any lameness for a week or even much longer. At this point it is due 

 the blacksmith to say that, considering how thin the walls of some feet 

 are, the uneasiness of many horses while shoeing, the ease with which 

 a nail is diverted from its course by striking an old piece of nail left 

 in the wall, or froi#the nail itself splitting, the wonder is not tliat so 

 many horses are pricked or nails driven ''too close," but rather that 

 many more are not so injured. It is not always carelessness or igno- 

 rance on the part of the smith, by any means, that is to account for 

 this accident. Bad and careless shoers we do meet with, but let us be 

 honest and say that the rarity of these accidents points rather to the 

 general care and attention given by these much-abused mechanics. 

 " From the construction of the horse's foot (being encased in an 

 impermeable horny box), and from the elasticity of the horn closing 

 the orifice, punctured wounds of the feet are almost always productive 



