390 



shoe is fastened to the hoof may produce an injury followed by iuflam- 

 mation and suppuration in two days, either by penetrating the soft tis- 

 sues directly or by being driven so deep that the inner layers of the 

 horu of the wall are pressed against the soft tissues with such force as 

 to crush them. In either case the animal generally goes lame soon 

 after shoeing unless the injury is at the toe, when the first evidence of 

 the trouble may be the discharge of pus at the coronet. When lame- 

 ness follows close upon tbe setting of the shoes, without other appre- 

 ciable canse, each nail should be lightly struck with a hammer when 

 the one at fault will be detected by the flinching of the animal. 



The treatment consists in drawing the nail, and if the soft tissues 

 have been penetrated, or if suppuration has commenced the horn must 

 be pared away until the diseased parts are exposed. The foot is now 

 to be poulticed for a day or two, or until the lameness and suppuration 

 have ceased. If the discharge of pus from the coronet is the first evi- 

 dence of the disease the offending nail must be found and removed, 

 the parts pared out, and a weak solution of carbolic acid injected at the 

 coronet until the fistulous tract has healed. 



CONTRACTED HEELS. 



Contracted heels, or hoof-bound as it is sometimes called, is a common 

 disease, especially among horses kept on hard floors in dry stables, and 

 in such as are subject to much saddle work. It consists in an atrophy or 

 shrinking of the tissues of the foot, whereby the lateral diameter of the 

 heels in particular is diminished. It affects the fore feet principally, 

 but is seen occasionally in the hind feet, where it is of less importance 

 for the reason that the hind foot first strikes the ground with the toe, and, 

 consequently, less expansion of the heels is necessary than in the fore 

 feet where the weight is first received on the heels, and any interference 

 with the expansibility of this part of the foot interferes with locomotion 

 and ultimately gives rise to lameness. Usually but one foot is affected 

 at a time, but when both are diseased the change is greater in one than 

 in the other. Occasionally but one heel, and that the inner one, is 

 contracted ; in these cases there is less likely to be lameness and per- 

 manent impairment of the animal's usefulness. According to the opin- 

 ion of some of the French veterinarians, hoof- bound should be divided 

 into two classes — total contraction^ in which the whole foot is shrunken 

 in size, and contraction of the heels, when the trouble extends only from 

 the quarters backward. (Plate xxxiv, Figs 4 and 7.) 



Causes. — Animals raised in wet or marshy districts, when taken to 

 towns and kept on dry floors, are liable to have contracted heels, not 

 alone because the horn becomes dry but because fever of the feet and 

 ■wasting away of the soft tissues result from the change. Another com- 

 mon cause of contracted heels is to be found in faulty shoeing, such as 

 rasping the wall, cutting away the frog, heels, and bars ; high calks and 

 the use of nails too near the heels. Contracted heels may happen also 



