PEICKS IN SHOEING. 215 



TREATMENT.— If the wound be slight, apply a little tincture 

 of myrrh or arnica. The spirit on evaporating will leave a thin 

 resinous coating, which will effectually exclude the air. Or put 

 on burnt alum, resin ointment, or a saturated solution of camphor 

 or of iodoform in turpentine. If the tread be severe, remove all 

 loose ends, bathe the part in warm water and apply tannotorm, 

 creolin (1 to 20 of water), or some other suitable antiseptic (p. 67). 

 If the wound begins to suppurate, poultice for a day or so, but 

 do not continue poulticing so long as to lower the vitality of the 

 structures. If, after this, the sore does not assume a healthy ap- 

 pearance, apply a fly blister round its edges to stimulate the part 

 to healthy action, and continue to treat antiseptically. The 

 blister may be repeated. A neglected tread is very apt to run 

 into a quittor. 



Pricks in Shoeing 



are caused by nails actually penetrating the sensitive parts, or 

 by their being driven too " close." Pain and lameness may be- 

 come manifest immediately after the accident, or may not appear 

 until next day, or even for a fortniglit or longer, during which 

 interval pus (matter) forms. It may happen that while a nail 

 is being driven, it may split into two branches, one penetrating 

 the sensitive structures, the other passing through the wall in 

 the usual manner. This accident, which was not uncommon when 

 nails were hand-made, hardly ever occurs with good machine-made 

 nails. It is probable that pricks in shoeing are most frequently 

 caused by the point of a nail which, in the act of being driven, 

 comes in contact with the concealed portion of an old broken 

 nail. Hence, before putting on a shoe, all good shoeing smiths 

 are most careful to see that no " stubs " of this kind are in the 

 wall of the hoof. The injury done by " drawn nails " is generally 

 more serious, and always more difficult of detection and treatment 

 than when the offending nail has been left in. A " drawn nail " is 

 the term used to denote a nail which, in the first instance, has been 

 driven in a wrong direction, and then removed. As a shoeing 

 smith who pricks a horse is almost always held in a court of 

 law to be liable for anv damao^e therefrom ensuino;, notwith- 

 standing proof of the exercise of all reasonable care and skill ; we 

 may take for granted that the man who inflicted the injuiy, whether 

 carelessly or by pure accident, is not the best person to conduct 

 the practical investigation of the hurt foot. It is evident that the 

 thicker and broader a nail is towai^is its pointed end, the more 

 liable it will be to lame a horse, if driven close, and as a nail, when 

 in use, is apt to break only at a point close to its entrance into 



