392 TREAD AND OVER-REACH. 



sound horn and the crack. The connexion between the sound part and the 

 crack will thus be prevented, and the new horn will gradually and safely 

 descend, but the horse should not be used until sufficient horn has grown down 

 fairly to isolate the crack. In this case, as in almost every one of sand-crack, 

 the horse should be kept as quiet as possible. It is not in the power of the 

 surgeon to effect a perfect cure, if the owner will continue to use the animal. 

 When the horn is divided at the coronet, it will be five or six months before it 

 will grow fairly down, and not before that, should the animal be used even foi 

 ordinary work. When, however, the horn is grown an inch from the coronet, 

 the horse may be turned out — the foot being well defended by the pitch plaster, 

 and that renewed as often as it becomes loose — a bar-shoe being worn, chambered 

 so as not to press upon the hoof immediately under the crack, and that shoe 

 being taken off, the sole pared out, and any bulbous projection of new horn 

 being removed once in every three weeks. 



To remedy the undue brittleness of the hoof, there is no better application 

 than that recommended in page 182, the sole being covered at the same time 

 with the common cow-dung or felt stopping. 



TREAD AND OVER-REACH. 



Under these terms are comprised bruises and wound of the coronet, inflicted 

 by the other feet. 



A tread is said to have taken place when the inside of the coronet of one 

 hind foot is struck by the calkin of the shoe of the other, and a braised or 

 contused wound is inflicted. The coronary ring is highly vascular externally, 

 and within it is cartilaginous ; the blow, therefore, often produces much pain 

 and hemorrhage, and contusion and destruction of the parts. The wound may 

 appear to be simple, but it is often of a sadly complicated nature, and much 

 time and care will need to be expended in repairing the mischief. Mr. Perci- 

 vall very accurately states that " the wound has, in the first place, to cast off a 

 slough, consisting of the bruised, separated, and deadened parts; then the chasm 

 thereby exposed has to granulate ; and finally, the sore has to cicatrize and form 

 new horn *." 



A tread, or wound of the coronet, must never be neglected, lest gravel 

 should insinuate itself into the wound, and form deep ulcerations, called sinuses 

 or pipes, and which constitute quittor. Although some mildly stimulating escha- 

 rotic may be occasionally required, the caustic, too frequently used by farriers, 

 should be carefully avoided, not only lest quittor should be formed, but lest the 

 coronary ligament should be so injured as to be afterwards incapable of secret- 

 ing perfect horn. When properly treated, a tread is seldom productive of 

 much injury. If the dirt is well washed out of it, and a pledget of tow, dipped 

 in Friar's balsam, bound over the wound, it will, in the majority of cases, 

 speedily heal. Should the bruise be extensive or the wound deep, a poultice 

 may be applied for one or two days, and then the Friar's balsam, or digestive 

 ointment. Sometimes a soft tumour will form on the part, which will be 

 quickly brought to suppuration by a poultice ; and when the matter has run 

 out, the ulcer will heal by the application of the Friar's balsam, or a weak 

 solution of blue vitriol. 



An over-reach is a tread upon the heel of the coronet of the fore foot by 

 the shoe of the corresponding hind foot, and either inflicted by the toe or by the 

 inner edge of the inside of the shoe. The preventive treatment is the bevel- 

 ling, or rounding off, of the inside edge or rim of the hind shoes. The cure is, 

 the cutting away of the loose parts, the application of Friar's Balsam, and pro- 

 tection from the dirt. 



Purcivall's Hippopathology, vol. i. p. 243. 



