383 



PUMICED FEET. 



The sensible and horny little plates which were elongated and partially sepa- 

 rated during the intensity of the inflammation of founder, will not always per- 

 fectly unite again, or will have lost much of their elasticity, and the coffin-bone, 

 no longer fully supported by them, presses upon the sole, and the sole becomes 

 flattened, or convex, from this unnatural weight, and .the horse acquires a 

 pumiced foot. This will also happen when the animal is used too soon after 

 an attack of inflammation of the feet, and before the laminae have regained suf- 

 ficient strength to support the weight of the horse, or to contract again by their 

 elastic power when they have yielded to the weight. When the coffin-bone is 

 thus thrown on the sole, and renders it pumiced, the crust at the front of the 

 hoof will "fall in," leaving a kind of hollow about the middle of it. 



Pumiced feet, especially in horses with large, wide feet, are frequently 

 produced without this acute inflammation. Undue work, and especially 

 much battering of the feet on the pavement, will extend and sprain these 

 laminae so much, that they will not have the power to contract, and thus the 

 coffin-bone will be thrown backward on the sole, A very important law of 

 nature will unfortunately soon be active here. When pressure is applied to any 

 part, the absorbents become busy in removing it; so, when the coffin-bone 

 begins to press upon the sole, the sole becomes thin from the increased wear 

 and tear to which it is subjected by contact with the ground, and also because 

 these absorbents are rapidly taking it away. 



This is one of the diseases of the feet for which there is no cure. No skill 

 is competent to effect a reunion between the separated fleshy and horny laminae, 

 or to restore to them the strength and elasticity of which they have been 

 deprived, or to take up that hard horny substance which speedily fills the space 

 between the crust and the receding coffin-bone. Some efforts have been made 

 to palliate the disease, but they have been only to a slight degree successful. 

 If horses, on the first appearance of flat feet, were turned out in a dry place, 

 or put into a box for two or three months, sufficient stress would not be thrown 

 on the laminae to increase the evil, and time might be given for the growth of 

 horn enough in the sole to support the coffin-bone ; yet it is much to be doubted 

 whether these horses would ever be useful, even for ordinary purposes. The 

 slowest work required of them would drive the coffin-bone on the sole, and the 

 projection would gradually reappear, for no power and no length of time can again 

 unite the separated leaves of the coffin-bone and the hoof. All that can be done 

 in the way of palliation is by shoeing. Nothing must press on the projecting 

 and pumiced part. If the projection is not considerable, a thick bar shoe is the 

 best thing that can be applied ; but should the sole have much descended, a 

 Bhoe with a very wide web, bevelled off so as not to press on the part, may be 

 used. These means of relief, however, are only temporary, the disease will 

 proceed ; and, at no great distance of time, the horse will be useless. 



The occasional removal of the shoe, and compelling the horse to stand for 

 a while on the crust and laminae, has been resorted to. The bar shoe and the 

 leathern sole, and occasional dressing with tar ointment have had their advocates, 

 and it is sufficiently plain that the pumiced foot should have plenty of cover. 



A somewhat similar affection, known by the name of a " Seedy Toe," is thus 

 described by Mr. W. C. Spooner :— " It can scarcely be called a disease, but it 

 is rather a natural defect, which may be considerably increased by labour and 

 bad shoeing. It arises from too great dryness of the horn, which renders it 

 brittle, and causes its fibres to separate. There is a want of that tough 

 elastic material which connects the longitudinal fibres together, and produces 

 that strong bond of union between them and the horny laminae and the sole. There* 



