430 DISEASES OF TPIE HORSE. 



gives rise to lameness. Usually but one foot is affected at a time, but 

 when both are diseased the change is greater in one Ahan in the other. 

 Occasionally but one heel, and that the inner one, is contracted ; in 

 these cases there is less liable to be lameness and permanent impair- 

 ment of the animal's usefulness. According to the opinion of some 

 of the French veterinarians, hoofbound should be divided into two 

 classes — total contraction, in which the whole foot is shrunken in 

 size, and contraction of the heels, when the trouble extends only from 

 the quarters backward. (PI. XXXV, figs. 4 and 7.) 



Causes. — Animals raised in wet or marshy districts, when taken to 

 towns and kept on dry floors, are liable to have contracted heels, not 

 olone because the horn becomes dry, but because fever of the feet and 

 wasting away of the soft tissues result from the change. Another 

 common cause of contracted heels is to be found in faulty shoeing, 

 such as rasping the wall, cutting away the frog, heels, and bars ; high 

 calks and the use of nails too near the heels. Contracted heels may 

 happen as one of the results of other diseases of the foot ; for instance, 

 it often accompanies thrush, sidebones, ringbones, canker, navicular 

 disease, corns, sprains of the flexor tendons, of the sesamoid and sus- 

 pensory ligaments, and from excessive knuckling of the fetlock joint. 



Symftoms. — In contraction of the heels the foot has lost its circu- 

 lar shape, and the walls from the quarters backward approach to a 

 straight line. The ground surface of the foot is now smaller than the 

 coronary circumference; the frog is pinched between the inclosing 

 heels, is much shrunken, and at times is affected with thrush. The 

 sole is more concave than natural, the heels are higher, and the bars 

 are long and nearly perpendicular. The whole hoof is dry and so 

 hard that it can scarcely be cut ; the parts toward the heels are scaly 

 and often ridged like the horns of a ram, while fissures, more or less 

 deep, may be seen at the quarters and heels following the direction 

 of the horn fibers. (Plate XXXVI, fig. 10.) When the disease is 

 well advanced lameness is present, while in the earlier stages there is 

 only an uneasiness evinced by frequent shifting of the affected foot. 

 Stumbling is common, especially on hard or rough roads. In most 

 cases the animal comes out of the stable stiff and inclined to walk on 

 the toe, but after exercise he may go free again. He wears his shoes 

 off at the toe in a short time, no matter whether he works or remains 

 in the stable. If the shoe is removed and the foot pared in old cases, 

 a dry, mealy horn will be found where the sole and wall unite, ex- 

 tending upward in a narrow line toward the quarters. 



Treatment. — First of all, the preventive measures must be consid- 

 ered. The feet are to be kept moist and the horn from drying out by 

 the use of damp sawdust or other bedding ; by occasional poultices of 

 boiled turnips, linseed meal, etc., and greasy hoof ointments to the 

 sole and walls of the feet. The wall of the foot should be spared 



