SIDEBONES. 



411 



lightly applied to the frog and heels or from the pressure of the 

 smith's pincers. The frog is generally shrunken, often of a pale-red 

 color, and at times is affected with thrush. If the heels are pared 

 away so that all the weight is received on the frog, or if the same re- 

 sult is attained by the application of a bar shoe, the animal is excess- 

 ively lame. The muscles of the leg and shoulder shrink away, and 

 often tremble as the animal stands at rest. After months of lameness 

 the foot is found to be shrunken in its diameter and apparently 

 lengthened ; the horn is dry and brittle and has lost its natural gloss, 

 while circular ridges, developed most toward the heels, cover the 

 upper part of the hoof. When both feet are affected, the animal 

 points first one foot, then the other, and stands with the hind feet well 

 forward beneath the body, so as to relieve the fore feet as much as 

 possible from bearing weight. In old cases the wasting of the muscles 

 and the knuckling at the fetlock become so great that the leg can not 

 be straightened; and locomotion can scarcely be performed. The 

 disease generally makes a steady progress without inclining to recov- 

 ery — ^the remission of symptoms in the earlier stages should not be 

 interpreted as evidence that the process has terminated. The compli- 

 cations usually seen are ringbones, sidebones, thrush, contracted heels, 

 quarter-cracks, and fractures of the navicular, coronet, and pastern 

 bones. 



Treatment. — But few cases of navicular disease recover. In the 

 early stages the wall of the heels should be rasped away, as directed 

 in the treatment for contracted heels, until the horn is quite thin ; the 

 coronet should be well blistered with Spanish-fly ointment, and the 

 patient turned to grass in a damp field or meadow. After three or 

 four weeks the blister should be repeated. This treatment is to be 

 continued for two or three months. Plane shoes are to be put on 

 when the patient is returned to work. In chronic cases the animal 

 should be put to slow, easy work. To relieve the pain, neurotomy 

 may be performed — an operation in which the sense of feeling is 

 destroyed in the foot by cutting out pieces of the nerve at the fetlock. 

 This operation in nowise cures the disease, and, since it may be at- 

 tended with serious results, can only be advised in certain favorable 

 cases, to be determined by the veterinarian. 



SIDEBONES. 



A sidebone consists in a transformation of the lateral cartilages 

 found on the wings of the coffin bone into bony matter by the depo- 

 sition of lime salts. The disease is a common one, especially in 

 heavy horses used for draft, in cavalry horses, cow ponies, and other 

 saddle horses, and in runners and trotters. 



Sidebones are peculiar to the fore feet, yet they occasionally de- 

 velop in the hind feet, where they are of little importance since they 



