DISEASES OF THE FETLOCK, ANKLE, AND FOOT. 429 



should be introduced to the bottom of the wound and the foot dressed 

 as directed above. 



The other complications are to be treated as directed under their 

 proper headings. 



After healing of the wounds has been effected, lameness, with more 

 or less swelling of the coronary region, may remain. In such cases 

 the coronet should be blistered or even fired with the actual cautery, 

 and the patient turned to pasture. If the lameness still persists, and 

 is not due to a stiff joint, unnerving may be resorted to in many 

 cases with very good results. If the joint is anchylosed, no treatment 

 can relieve it, and the patient must either be put to very slow work or 

 kept for breeding purposes only. 



" Pricle in shoeing " is an injury which should be considered under 

 the head of punctured wounds of the foot. , The nails by which the 

 shoe is fastened to the hoof may produce an injury followed by 

 inflammation and suppuration in two days, by penetrating the soft 

 tissues directly or by being driven so deep that the inner layers of the 

 horn of the wall are pressed against the soft tissues with such force 

 as to crush them. In either case, unless the injury is at the toe, the 

 animal generally goes lame soon after shoeing, when the first evi- 

 dence of the trouble may be the discharge of pus at the coronet. If 

 lameness follows close upon the setting of the shoes, without other 

 appreciable cause, each nail should be lightly struck with a hammer, 

 when the one at fault will be detected by the flinching of the animal. 



Treatment consists in drawing the nail, and if the soft tissues have 

 been penetrated or suppuration has commenced, the horn must be 

 pared away until the diseased parts are exposed. The foot is now to 

 be poulticed for a day or two, or until the lameness and suppuration 

 have ceased. If the discharge of pus from the coronet is the first 

 evidence of the disease, the offending nail must be found and re- 

 moved, the horn pared out, and a weak solution of carbolic acid or 

 compound cresol injected at the coronet until the fistulous tract has 

 healed. 



CONTRACTED HEELS, OR HOOFBOUND. 



Contracted heels, or hoofbound, is a common disease among horses 

 kept on hard floor in dry stables, and in such as are subject to much 

 saddle work. It consists in an atrophy, or shrinking, of the tissues of 

 the foot, whereby the lateral diameter of the heels is diminished. It 

 affects the fore feet principally ; but it is seen occasionally in the hind 

 feet, where it is of less importance, for the reason that the hind foot 

 first strikes the ground with the toe, and consequently less expansion 

 of the heels is necessary than in the fore feet, where the weight is 

 first received on the heels. Any interference with the expansibility 

 of this part of the foot interferes with locomotion and ultimately 



