826 
DISEASES OF THE CLAWS IN CATTLE AND SHEEP. 
III.—LAMINITIS IN OXEN. 
Working oxen used on hard roads, and fat beasts which consume large 
quantities of highly-nutritious food, often suffer from a disease of the 
claws which closely resembles laminitis in horses. The hind feet suffer 
more frequently than the fore, though the fore or, indeed, all four feet 
are occasionally attacked. 
The disease is caused either by mechanical injury or by over-feeding. 
The symptoms closely resemble those in the horse. Pain is evinced 
whether the animal merely stands or endeavours to walk. The horn of 
the coronet seems to sink in, and the claws to separate from the bulbs 
of the heel. At a later stage suppuration occurs, the disease in this 
respect differing from laminitis in horses, and the pus may break through 
at the coronet or the horny claw may be entirely lost. 
The course is usually acute, though chronic forms are seen and 
deformity of the wall and sole, together with “ringing” of the hoof and 
increased breadth of the white line may occur. 
Treatment consists in absolute rest and local cold applications for 
working oxen. The diet should be light. When suppuration and loss 
of the hoof occur, they render the case so serious that treatment is 
seldom justifiable from an economic standpoint, and the animal should 
be slaughtered. 
IY.—WHITLOW OF THE CLAW, JOINT FELON, 
PANARITIUM. 
The term “ panaritium ” is used to distinguish an acute inflammation, 
rapidly leading to suppuration, and always attended with necrosis, which 
in man occurs under the nail, in oxen appears at different parts of the 
claws, and extends thence to more distant points. The use of the word 
is quite justifiable, for in cattle the condition attacks the part homo¬ 
logous with the nail, and the process develops in just the same way as 
in man. Panaritium is due to wound infection, followed by cellulitis, 
which, partly in consequence of the action of the infecting agent, partly 
of the anatomical formation of the diseased parts, always tends to 
necrosis. In oxen the claws are exceedingly exposed to such infection. 
Being almost always surrounded by dirt, slight injuries of the skin, 
which are certainly not uncommon, at once open the way to infection, 
and this again often extends to deeper-seated structures. The process 
is, therefore, not confined to the skin, but extends to the subcutis, and 
not infrequently to the tendon sheaths, bones, and joints, producing 
conditions of the gravest character. 
