190 THE HORSE 



tissues. The heel on the affected side is to be lowered until all pressure 

 is removed, and, if the patient's labor is required, the foot must be shod 

 with a bar shoe or with one having stiff heels. Care must be taken to 

 reset the shoe before the foot has grown too long, else the shoe will no 

 longer rest on the wall but on the sole and bar. 



In moist corns cut them out. If there is inflammation present, cold 

 baths and poultices should be used; when the horn is well softened and 

 the fever allayed, pare out all of the diseased horn, lightly cauterize 

 the soft tissues beneath, and poultice the foot for two or three 

 days. When the granulations look red dress the wound with oakum 

 balls saturated in a weak solution of tincture of aloes or spirits of cam- 

 phor, and apply a roller bandage. Change the dressing every two or 

 three days until a firm, healthy layer of new horn covers the wound, 

 when the shoe may be put on, as in dry corn, and the patient returned 

 to work. 



In suppurative corns the loosened horn must be removed so that the 

 pus may freely escape. If the pus has worked a passage to the coronary 

 band, and escapes from an opening between the band and hoof, an open- 

 ing must be made on the sole, and cold baths, made astringent with a 

 little sulphate of iron or copper, are to be used for a day or two. When 

 the discharge becomes healthy the fistulous tracts maj' be injected daily 

 with a weak solution of bichloride of mercury, nitrate of silver, etc., and 

 the foot dressed as for the operation for moist corns. 



Contracted Heels. Contracted heels, or hoof-bound as it is some- 

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

 diameter of the heels 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 strikes the ground with the toe, and, 

 consequently, less expansion of the heel 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 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 permanent loss of the animal's usefulness. 

 According to the opinion of some of the French veterinarians, hoof- 



