WOUNDS 231 



Although ordmarily inflicted at the gallop, the same 

 injury may, nevertheless, be caused by allowing a fast 

 trotter, and one with extreme freedom of action behind, to 

 push forward at the utmost limit of his pace. The outside 

 heel is the one most subject to the injury. 



While the common form of injury to the coronet is, as we 

 have described, that occasioned by the animal's own shoe, 

 or that of a companion, it is evident that the foot is also 

 open to similar injuries from quite outside sources. Falls 

 of the shafts when unyoking animals from a heavy cart, 

 blows or wounds from the stable fork, wounds resulting 

 from the foot becoming fixed in a gate or a fence, either 

 may equally well set up the mischief. 



Apart from severe injury, a particularly troublesome 

 form of coronitis may arise from the condition of the roads. 

 We refer to the conditions attendant on a thaw after snow. 

 The animal is called upon to labour in, or perhaps stand 

 for long periods in, a mixture of snow and water, or snow 

 and mud. That this must have a prejudicial effect upon 

 the structure of the coronet is plain. The circulation of 

 the part, already predisposed to sluggishness by reason of 

 its distance from the heart, is farther impeded by the action 

 of the cold. Small abrasions of the skin, so small as to 

 scarce be noticeable, are in this case freely open to infection 

 with the septic matter the mud contains. Necrosis and 

 consequent sloughing of the skin is bound to follow, and an 

 extensive ulcerous wound, or a spreading suppuration of 

 the coronary cushion is the result. 



Sijmptoms.—We will take first the case in which no 

 actual wound is observable. Here the first indication of 

 the trouble is the appearance of an inflammatory swelling, 

 confined usually to one side, but extending sometimes to 

 the whole of the coronet. Always the part is hot and 

 tender, and with it the patient is lame— so much so, in 

 many eases, as to be unable to put the foot to the ground, 

 the toe alone being used. 



In a mild case, uncomplicated by septic infection, these 

 symptoms rapidly subside, and resolution occurs. 



