400 DISEASES OF THE HOUSE. 



ings, such as tincture of aloes or turpentine, oakum balls, and band- 

 ages as directed in punctured wounds. When the lameness has sub- 

 sided, and a thin layer of new horn has covered the exposed parts, the 

 foot may be shod. Cover the frog with a thick pad of oakum, held 

 in place by pieces of tin fitted to slide under the shoe, and return to 

 slow work. ^Vhere caries of the coffin bone, etc., follow the injury, 

 the treatment recommended for these complications in punctured 

 wounds of the foot must be resorted to. 



PUNCTURED WOUNDS OF THE FOOT. 



Of all the injuries to which the foot of the horse is liable, none are 

 more common than punctured wounds, and none are more serious than 

 these may be when involving the more important organs contained 

 within the hoof. A nail is the most common instrument by which the 

 injury is inflicted, yet wounds may happen from sharp pieces of rock, 

 glass, wire, knives, etc. 



A wound of the foot is more serious when made by a blunt-pointed 

 instrument than when the point is sharp, and the nearer the injury is 

 to the center of the foot the more likely are disastrous results to fol- 

 low. Wounds in the heel and in the posterior parts of the frog are 

 attended with but little danger, unless they are so deep as to injure 

 the lateral cartilages, when quittor may follow. Punctured wounds 

 of the anterior parts of the sole are more dangerous, for the reason 

 that the coffin bone may be injured, and the suppuration, even where 

 the wound is not deep, tends to spread and always gives rise to intense 

 suffering. The most serious of the punctured wounds are those 

 which happen to the center of the foot, and which involve, in pro- 

 portion to their depth, the plantar cushion, the plantar aponeurosis, 

 the sesamoid sheath, the navicular bone, or the coffin joint. 



Punctured wounds are more likely to be deep in flat or convex feet 

 than in well-made feet, and, as a rule, recovery is neither so rapid nor 

 so certain. These wounds are less serious in animals used for heavy 

 draft than in those required to do faster work ; for the former may be 

 useful, even if complete recovery is not effected. Lastly, punctured 

 wounds of the fore feet are more serious than of the hind feet, for the 

 reason that in the former the instrument is apt to enter the foot in a 

 nearly perpendicular line, and, consequently, is more likely to injure 

 the deeper structures of the foot; in the hind foot, the injury is 

 generally near the heels and the wound oblique and less deep. 



Symptoms. — A nail or other sharp instrument may penetrate the 

 frog and remain for several days without causing lameness ; in fact, 

 in many cases of punctured wound of the frog the first evidence of 

 the injury is the finding of the nail or the" appearance of an opening 

 where the skin and frog unite, from which more or less pus escapes. 

 Even when the sole is perforated, if the injury is not too deep, no 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



