402 DISEASES OF THE HOBSE. 



Finally, laminitis of the opposite foot may happen if the patient per- 

 sists in standing, or lockjaw may cause early death. 



Treatment. — In all cases the horn around the seat of injury should 

 be thinned down, a free opening made for the escape of the products 

 of suppuration, and the foot placed in a poultice. If the injury is 

 not serious, recovery takes place in a few days' time. Where the 

 wound is deeper, it is better to put the foot in a cold bath or under a 

 stream of cold water, as advised in the treatment for quittor. 



If the bone is injured, cold baths, containing about 2 ounces each 

 of sulphate of copper and sulphate of iron, may be used until the 

 dead bone is well softened, when it should be removed by an opera- 

 tion. The animal must be cast for this operation. The sole is pared 

 away until the diseased bone is exposed, when all the dead particles 

 are to be removed with a drawing knife, and the wound dressed with 

 creolin or a 5 -per cent solution of carbolic acid oakum balls, and a 

 roller bandage. 



Wounds of the bone which are made by a blunt-pointed instrument, 

 like the square-pointed cut nail, in which a portion of the surface is 

 driven into the deeper parts of the bone, always progress slowly, and 

 should be operated upon as soon as the conditions are favorable. 

 Even wounds of the naAdcular bone, accompanied by caries, may be 

 operated on and the life of the patient saved; but the most skillful 

 surgery is required and only the experienced operator should under- 

 take their treatment. 



If there is an escape of pure synovial fluid from a wound of the 

 sole, without injury to the bone, a small pencil of corrosive sublimate 

 should be introduced to the bottom of the wound and the foot dressed 

 as directed above. 



The other complications are to be treated as directed under their 

 proper headings. 



After healing of the wounds has been effected, lameness, with more 

 or less swelling of the coronary region, may remain. In such cases 

 the coronet should be blistered or even fired with the actual cautery, 

 and the patient turned to pasture. If the lameness still persists, and 

 is not due to a stiff joint, unnerving may be resorted to ; in many cases 

 with very good results. If the joint is anchylosed, no treatment can 

 relieve it, and the patient must either be put to very slow work or 

 kept for -breeding purposes only. 



'■'■Prick in shoeing " is an injury which should be considered under 

 the head of punctured wounds of the foot. The nails by which the 

 shoe is fastened to the hoof may produce an injury followed by 

 inflammation and suppuration in two days, by penetrating the soft 

 tissues directly or by being driven so deep that the inner layers of the 

 horn of the wall are pressed against the soft tissues with such force 

 as to crush them. In either case the animal generally goes lame soon 



Digitized by IVIicrosoft® 



