Cracked Heels in Horses. 521 



^ain and stiffness. The sores become the seat of active suppura- 

 tion, with it may be considerable destruction of tissue. Even in 

 the milder forms there may often be seen a foetid muco-purulent 

 secretion in the depth of the folds of the pastern, and in the worst 

 •cases this extends to the whole surface after the manner of grease. 



Prognosis. The milder uncomplicated cases recover readily 

 and perfectly under rest and judicious treatment ; the more ad- 

 vanced cases are liable to leave swelled legs with susceptibility to 

 a relapse, and in cases associated with a constitutional diathesis or 

 .chronic internal disease, recovery may become problematical and 

 uncertain. 



Treatment. In all cases the cause must be done away with, 

 whether filthy stalls, reeking dunghills, septic pools, work in ir- 

 ritating road-mud, or melting snow, washing the heels with caustic 

 soaps, drying them in cold draughts, pricking with stubble or 

 clipped hairs, and all the causes of stocking of the limbs. If 

 heels are washed, use pure tepid water, and, if necessary, the 

 best Castile soap, and rub them dry at once. If this cannot be 

 •done bandage them rather than leave them in a cold draught. 



Give rest in a clean stall and thoroughly clean the affected heel, 

 then wrap in a bandage wet with an acetate of lead or sulphate of 

 zinc lotion (i : 50), or apply benzoated oxide of zinc, or cream of 

 ■glycerine and salicylic acid. 



When chaps have formed they will often promptly heal under 

 standard solution of sulphurous acid i , glycerine i , and water i . 

 This is applied on soft cotton and covered by a rubber bandage to 

 confine the acid. The sulphurous acid solution should be recently 

 prepared, since it will prove injurious if it has oxidized into sul- 

 phuric acid. To one or other of these preparations the addi- 

 tion of a little carbolic acid, creolin, pyoktanin, or lysol will 

 -often prove useful. When the cracks have healed, zinc ointment, 

 -chrysarobin ointment, chrysophanic acid i, vaseline 15, or other 

 soothing and antiseptic agent may be employed till all inflamma- 

 tion has subsided, and the animal must not be returned to work 

 until the skin has been restored to its former healthy and elastic 

 condition. 



It may be desirable to greatly restrict the grain during treat- 

 ment and even to give cooling laxatives or diuretics. With a 

 ■constitutional diathesis arsenic or other alterative may be tried. 



