430 DISEASES OF THE 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 than 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. (Pl. XXXYV, 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 
alone 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. 
Symptoms.—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 
