387 



the pas has loosened the horn, all the detached portions are to be cut 

 away. If the pus is discharging from an opening near the hair the 

 whole frog, or one-half of it will generally be found separated from the 

 plantar cushion, and is to be removed with the knife. After a few 

 days' time the gangrenous portion of the cushion will slough off under 

 the stimulating effects of the poultice, and under rare circumstances 

 only should the dead parts be removed by surgical interference. Where 

 the slough is all detached the remaining wound is to be treated with 

 simple stimulating dressings, such as tincture of aloes or turpentine, 

 oakum balls, and bandages as directed in punctured wounds. The lame- 

 ness having subsided, and a thin layer of new horn having grown on 

 the exposed i^arts, the foot may be shod, the frog covered with a thick 

 pad of oakum, held in place by pieces of tin fitted to slide under the 

 shoe, and the animal returned to slow work. Where caries of the cof- 

 fin bone, etc., follow the injury the treatment recommended for these 

 complications in punctured wounds of the foot must be resorted to. 



PUNCTURED WOUNDS OF THE FOOT. 



Of all the injuries to which the foot of the horse is liable none are 

 more common than punctured wounds, and none are more serious than 

 these may be when involving the more important organs contained within 

 the hoof. A nail is the most common instrument by which the injury 

 is inflicted, yet wounds may happen from sharp pieces of rock, glass, 

 wire, knives, etc. 



A wound of the foot is more serious when made by a blunt-pointed in- 

 strument than when the point is sharp, and the nearer the injury is to 

 the center of the foot the more likely are disastrous results to follow. 

 Wounds in the heels and in the posterior parts of the frog are attended 

 with but little danger, unless they are so deep as to injure the lateral 

 cartilages, when quittor may follow. Punctured wounds of the anterior 

 parts of the sole are more dangerous for the reason that the coffin bone 

 may be injured and the suppuration, even where the wound is not deep, 

 tends to spread and always gives rise to intense suffering. The most 

 serious of the punctured wounds are those which happen to the center 

 of the foot, and which involve, in proportion to their depth, the plantar 

 cushion, the plantar aponeurosis, the sesamoid sheath, the navicular 

 bone, or the coffin joint. 



Punctured wounds are more likely to be deep in flat or convex feet 

 than in well-made feet, and, as a rule, recovery is neither so rapid nor 

 so certain. These wounds are less serious in animals used for heavy 

 draught than in those required to do faster work ; for the former may 

 bo useful, even if complete recovery is not effected. Lastly, punctured 

 wounds of the fore feet are more serious than of the hind feet, for the 

 reason that in the former the instrument is apt to enter the foot in a 

 nearly perpendicular line, and, consequently, is more likely to injure 



