320 VETERINARY SURGICAL OPERATIONS 



to a good friction with alcohol and then painted with a fifty 

 per cent solution of tincture of iodine. 



The instruments should be either boiled well or else sub- 

 merged for twenty minutes or more in pure phenol and then 

 managed so as to prevent their subsequent contamination 

 while operating. 



The hands must be cleaned in the usual manner and 

 gloves worn while handling the patient and casting appar- 

 atus ; and after the operation has begun unnecessary han- 

 dling of the wound must be avoided. 



The sutures, above all, must be perfectly sterilized arid 

 the needles handled only with forceps. Care must be taken 

 not to drag the threads over dirty parts of the hoof, leg or 

 table. 



INSTRUMENTS, ETC.— 



i. Horseshoer's knife. > 



2. Scalpel. 



3. Curettes (sharp). 



4. Blunt chisel. 



5. Dissecting forceps. 



6. A strong forcep to tear off the section of hoof. 



7. Small full-curve needle and suture material, cat- 



gut or silk. 



8. Sterilized antiseptic solution of mercuric chloride 



1 -500. 



9. Sterilized cotton. 



10. Lowering net of rubber. 



11. Tar bandages. A total of about twenty. yards. 



12. Iodoform, or an etheral solution of iodine crys- 



tals ten per cent. 



The tar bandages are made by simply rolling common 

 fabric bandages in pine tar. Sage knives, right and left, em- 

 ployed by some operators, are handy but not absolutely es- 

 sential, as no difficulty will be found in removing the carti- 

 lage- with the common scalpel and curette. 



TECHNIQUE. — The feat of resecting the lateral carti- 

 lage is accomplished by different methods, each of which is 

 but a slight modification of the other. The variations will 

 be mentioned in each step. 



First Step. — Removal of the Hoof Covering the Whole 

 Base of the Cartilage.— Beginning at a point along the coro- 

 net, slightly in advance of the anterior end of the cartilage, 

 a curved groove is cut backward through the wall so as to 

 dip downward about one and a half inches from the coronet 

 at its middle and to -end at the heel opposite the posterior 



