434 lAMINITlS. 



feetle, or where the disease does not arise from excessive cold, 

 as a general rule I should recommend Hot Water Tomenta- 

 tions to the feet, in preference to Ice or Cold Water. 



Tor all necessary instruction as to the application of 

 Fomentations and Poultices to the feet and limbs, see pages 

 149 to 156. 



Hasping and Paring the Feet. — Many reterinary surgeons 

 recommend the soles of the feet to be pared, and the crusts 

 to be rasped, until the structures operated upon spring when 

 pressed upon ; as a rule, however, I dissent from such a prac- 

 tice. Pare the sole until it springs, but avoid rasping the 

 crust to any considerable extent. "When this latter operation 

 is done to excess, it favours the disorganization of the laminsB, 

 and the descent of the sole. 



Bleeding from the Foot. — Bleeding from the toe, or from 

 the artery at the side of the sole, will often prove of signal 

 benefit in Laminitis. It is a bad practice, however, to abstract 

 blood at the commencement of the malady. If the laminitic 

 inflammation be associated with a vigorous state of the system, 

 let the disease exhaust its violence to some extent before the 

 abstraction of blood is effected ;* while, if the vital energies 

 are feeble (which is always the case in the metastatic forms of 

 the malady), to bleed at any time under such conditions will be 

 productive of more harm than good. As a rule, then, in cases 

 of Laminitis where bleeding is necessary, allow the disease to 

 have been from six to ten hours in existence ; and do not operate 

 then unless the pulse has become hard, firm, and wiry. The 



* Perhaps the reader may exclaim — ^why not bleed at the commenoement of 

 the attack, and prevent the violence to which you allude ? In reply, I have 

 simply to observe, that it coMnot, in the majority of cases, be so prevented. 

 For a more complete exposition of the principleof treatment now laid down, 

 the reader is directed to pages 70 and 71 of my "Principles and Practice of 

 Veterinary Medicine and Surgery." London : J. Churchill, 1858. 



