KNEE, FETLOCK, ANKLE, AND FOOT. 221 



an operation in which the sense of feeling is destroyed in the foot by 

 cutting out pieces of the nerve at the fetlock. This operation in nowise 

 cures the disease, and since it may, be attended with serious results can 

 only be advised in certain favorable cases, to be determined by the 

 veterinarian. 



Quittor. This is a term applied to various affections of the foot 

 wherein the tissues which are involved undergo a process of degenera- 

 tion that results in the formation of a slough, followed by the elimination 

 of the diseased structures by means of a more or less extensive sup- 

 puration. 



Causes. Bruises and other wounds of the coronet are often the cause 

 of cutaneous quittor, yet there can be no question but that in the great 

 majority of these cases the disease develops without any known cause. 

 For some reason, not yet satisfactorily explained, most cases happen in 

 the fall of the year. One explanation of this fact has been attempted in 

 the statement that the disease is due to the injurious action of cold and 

 mud. This claim, however, seems to lose force when it is remembered 

 that in many parts of this country the most mud, accompanied by freez- 

 ing and thawing weather, is seen in the early spring-time without a cor- 

 responding increase of quittor. Furthermore, the very serious out- 

 breaks of this disease in the mountainous regions of Colorado, Wyoming, 

 and Montana, are seen in the fall and winter seasons, when the weathei 

 is the driest. It may be claimed, and perhaps with justice, that during 

 these seasons when the water is low, animals are compelled to wade 

 through more mud to drink from lakes and pools than is necessary at 

 other seasons of the year, when these lakes and pools are full. Add to 

 these conditions the further fact that much of this mud is impregnated 

 with alkaline salts, which, like the mineral substances always found in 

 the mud of cities, are more or less irritating, and it seems fair to conclude 

 that under certain circumstances mud may become an important factor 

 in the production of quittor. 



Symptoms. L,ameness, lasting from one to three or four days, nearly 

 always precedes the development of the strictly local evidences of quittor. 

 The next sign is the appearance of a small, tense, hot, and painful tumor 

 in the skin of the coronary region. If the skin of the affected foot is 

 white the inflamed portion will present a dark red or even a purplish ap- 

 pearance near the center. Within a few hours' time the ankle, or even 

 the whole leg as high as the knee or hock, becomes much swollen. The 

 lameness is now so great that the patient refuses to use the foot at all, 



