778 
DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 
suppuration lias not set in, cold applications, in the form of foot-baths or 
poultices, may be tried. The parts must be cleansed, and infection 
prevented by giving the animal plenty of clean bedding, and, if neces- 
sary, applying a suitable dressing. Once suppuration occurs, treatment 
follows the above-described principles. 
II.—PICKED-UP NAILS. PURULENT CELLULITIS OF 
THE FIBRO-FATTY FROG. RESECTION OF THE 
FLEXOR PEDIS PERFORANS . 1 
The above title will, for convenience, be regarded as including all 
injuries caused by the animal treading on foreign bodies which thus 
penetrate the soft structures of the foot. Such bodies include nails and 
wire, as well as pieces of iron or glass. As the horny sole usually offers 
sufficient protection, such foreign bodies almost invariably enter through 
the frog, and may injure the fleshy and fibro-fatty frogs, or, in exceptional 
cases, even the flexor pedis perforans tendon, os pedis, or os naviculare. 
(On account of their different behaviour when injured, we distinguish— 
(1) a horny frog; (2) a sensitive frog; and (3) a fibro-fatty frog. The 
two latter are usually included under the term “ plantar cushion.”) Cases 
have been recorded of injury even to the os corome. The foreign body 
usually glides off the bars and penetrates the side or furrow of the frog. 
Provided injury is confined to the surface of the fleshy frog, no bad 
results usually follow; but should the fibro-fatty frog be involved, 
diffuse purulent cellulitis may set in, suppuration may extend to the 
flexor pedis perforans tendon, and be followed by necrosis of the latter 
and by suppuration in the navicular bursa. The condition is then exces¬ 
sively dangerous, and animals generally die if treatment be delayed. 
The rapidity of the process is largely determined by the virulence of the 
infectious material*. 
Prognosis depends, therefore, firstly on the position of the injury, and 
afterwards on its extent and the character of the infection. The depth 
of the wound may be determined by the length of the foreign body 
removed, and sometimes by probing; but as the probe may easily 
become the vehicle for introducing infectious material into the depths 
of the wound, it should be used with considerable care. 
The position of the injury is important, the most dangerous spot being 
the centre of the frog, immediately above which lies the navicular bone 
covered by the flexor pedis perforans tendon. Injuries at the point of 
the frog may extend to the lower surface of the os pedis, causing 
necrosis, which, however, is seldom so dangerous as disease of the 
1 For a detailed description of several cases of resection of the tendon of the flexor pedis 
perforans tendon, see Cadiot and Dollar’s “ Clinical Veterinary Medicine and Surgery,” p. 78. 
