FAULTY CONFOEMATION 1 



menced regular walking exercise, and she daily improved. 

 After fourteen days there was no lameness, but still short 

 action. I thereupon gave the mare another week's walking 

 exercise, at the expiration of which I drove her a short 

 turn of five miles, which she did quite well, and free from 

 lameness. For three months I kept the saw-cuts open to 

 the coronet, and continued the bar shoes, keeping the mare 

 at exercise, and giving her occasionally a drive. She never 

 liked the bar shoes, and I was glad when I could discon- 

 tinue them, which I did in the fourth month When shod 

 with the usual shoes the complete success of the treatment 

 was shown. I have now had her going with the ordinary 

 shoes for the past two or three months, and the improve- 

 ment in the shape of the feet is very marked ; there is 

 no lameness ; the mare is free in movement, fast, and 

 spirited, whereas previously she was quite the reverse, and 

 almost unfit to drive.'* 



This method, though but recently introduced to the 

 English veterinary surgeon, is by no means new. Accord- 

 ing to Zundel, it was recently made known on the Conti- 

 nent by Weber, but was previously known and mentioned 

 by Lagueriniere, Brognier, and Hurtrel d'Arboval. 



When the grooving is in a horizontal direction, a single 

 incision is sufficient. This is made f inch below the 

 coronary margin of the wall, and parallel with it, extend- 

 ing from the point of the heel for 2 or 3 inches in a forward 

 direction. As in the previous method, a bar shoe is applied, 

 and the animal daily exercised. Thus separated from the 

 fixed and contracted portion of the wall below, the more 

 elastic coronet under pressure of the body-weight com- 

 mences to bulge. The bulging is of such an extent as to 

 cause the new growing hoof from the top to considerably 

 overhang the contracted portion below, and cure of the 

 condition results from the newly - expanded wall above 

 growing down in a normal direction. 



This consideration of contracted heels may be concluded 

 by drawing attention to the advisability of always main- 



* W. S. Adams, M.R.C.V.S., Veterinary Journal, vol. xxx., p. 19. 



