CHAPTER IV 
METHOD OF EXAMINING THE FOOT 
As a general rule, it may be taken that most diseases of 
the foot are comparatively easy of diagnosis. When, how- 
ever, the condition is one which commences simply with an 
initial lameness, the greatest care will have to be exercised 
by the practitioner. 
What remarks follow here should rightly be confined to 
a treatise on lameness. This much, however, we may 
state: As compared with lameness arising from abnormal 
conditions in other parts of the limb, that emanating from 
abnormalities of the foot is easy of detection. With a case 
of lameness before him, concerning which he is in doubt, 
the practitioner remembers that a very large percentage 
may safely be referred to the foot, and, if wise, subjects the 
foot to a rigorous examination. 
Much may be gathered by first putting the animal 
through his paces. When at a trot, notice the peculiarity 
of the ‘ drop,’ whether any alteration in going on hard or 
soft ground, and watch for any special characteristic in 
gait. At the same time inquiry should be made as to the 
history of the case; its duration; whether pain, as evi- 
denced by lameness, is constant or periodic; the effect of 
exercise on the lameness; and the length of time elapsed 
since the last shoeing. 
This failing to reveal adequate cause for the lameness in 
any higher part of the limb, one is led, by a process of 
negative deduction, to suspect the foot. 
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