424 DISEASES OF THE HORSE'S FOOT 



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 

 out 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, more- 

 over, 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 solution 

 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 possible 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 alcohoh 

 and an antiseptic pad of tow or lint placed over all. The 

 foot should then be bandaged and encased in a boot or 

 sacking protective. The bandage should be removed daily 



