406 DISEASES OF THE HORSE, 
This mixture of snow and salt is splashed over the feet and legs, 
rapidly lowering the temperature of the parts to the freezing point. 
In mountainous districts, where the snowfall is heavy and the cold 
often intense, frostbites are not uncommon, even among animals 
running at large. 
Symptoms.—When the frosting is slight the skin becomes pale and 
bloodless, followed soon after by intense redness, heat, pain, and 
swelling. In these cases the hair may fall out and the epidermis 
peed off, but the inflammation soon subsides, the swelling disappears, 
and only an increased sensitiveness to cold remains. 
In more severe cases irregular patches of skin are destroyed and 
after a few days slough away, leaving slow-healing ulcers behind. If 
produced by low temperatures and deep snow, the coronary band is 
the part most often affected. 
In many instances there is no destruction of the skin, but simply a 
temporary suspension of the horn-producing function of the coronary 
band. The fore feet are more often affected than the hind ones, and. 
the heels and quarters are less often involved than the front part of 
the foot. The coronary band becomes hot, swollen, and painful, and 
after two or three days the horn separates from the band and slight 
suppuration follows. For a few days the animal is lame, but as the 
suppuration disappears the lameness subsides. New horn, often of an 
inferior quality, is produced by the coronary band, and in time the 
cleft is grown off and complete recovery is effected. The frog is 
occasionally frostbitten and may slough off, exposing the soft tissues 
beneath and causing severe lameness for a time. 
Treatment.—Simple frostbites are best treated by cold fomenta- 
tions followed by applications of a 5 per cent solution of carbolized 
oil. When portions of the skin are destroyed, their early separation 
should be hastened by warm fomentations and poultices. Ulcers 
are to be treated by the application of stimulating dressings, such as 
carbolized oil, a 1 per cent solution of nitrate of silver or of chlorid 
of zinc, with pads of oakum and flannel bandages. In many of 
these cases recovery is exceedingly slow. The new tissue by which 
the destroyed skin is replaced always shrinks in healing, and, as a 
consequence, unsightly scars are unavoidable. When the coronary 
band is involved it is generally advisable to blister the coronet over 
the seat of injury as soon as the suppuration ceases, for the purpose 
of stimulating the growth of new horn. Where a crevasse is formed - 
between the old and the new horn no serious trouble is liable to be 
met with until the cleft is nearly grown out, when the soft tissues 
may be exposed by a breaking off of the partly detached horn. But 
even if this accident happens final recovery is effected by poulticing 
the foot until a sufficient growth of horn protects the parts from 
injury. 
