DISEASES. gjg 



entire mass of the loosened hoof, as by this the dressing will be 

 much facihtated. 



Cold baths are useful in aU cases of corns ; at other times 

 poultices of bran or other material are preferred. Sometimes 

 sulphate of iron or of copper are added to the bath, especiaUy in 

 the moist corn. In the suppurative kind, when the suppuration 

 IS uregular, and when compHcations are likely to follow, warm and 

 shghtly aromatic baths are better, and after this, a dressing with 

 tmcture of creosote, renewed the same day or the next. Later, 

 cold iron or copper baths may be used again; if the suppui-ation 

 has broken out between hairs and hoofs, injections of ViUates' 

 solution, after free escape of the pus by the plantar surface, are 

 indicated. 



In the complicated suppurative corn these means are insuffi- 

 cient. We must cut deeper, and for this the animal must be 

 thrown. Then, when the diseased tissues are exposed by the 

 removal of the loosened hoof, the nature of the lesion must indi- 

 cate the requirements of the treatment. The velvety and podo- 

 phyllous tissues, if gangrenous, must be excised as far as then- 

 diseased condition extends ; carious bone is to be scraped, the 

 fibrous and fibro-cartilaginous structures, if necrosed, are to be 

 excised or cauterized, or sometimes left alone and watched, ac- 

 cording to the peculiar character and extent of their lesions and 

 the extent to which they exist. Once operated on, a dressing with 

 plates and bands is appUed, and the animal allowed to rise. 



It is by a pecuUar shoeing that, for some time, the painful heel 

 must be relieved from supporting its part of the weight of the 

 body, and protected from outside pressure. This is the "bar 

 shoe." By the transverse bar, which unites both branches, it pre- 

 sents a support to the frog and protects the heels. The resting 

 of the shoe takes place equally upon the wall of the toe and of 

 the quarters, especially the external, and it does not rest on the 

 diseased heels which may have been first cut away. Some veter- 

 inarians prefer the truncated, or the obUque bar shoe, or that with 

 a bar forming an acute re-entering angle. Hartmann recommends 

 the first ; Mayer prefers the bar shoe in which the bar heels have 

 been thinned down, and even hollowed, to avoid as much as possi- 

 ble the pressure on the diseased part ; this shoe has sometimes 

 given us good results in horses with a weak frog. In many cases 

 ordinary shoeing answers ; then the diseased hoof is pared down. 



