THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
53 
ing an opening for the escape of the pus and of the slough. 
The operation is without danger ; but if it is not performed in 
good time the lesions will be likely to spread, the disease cease to 
remain a local trouble, and the life of the animal become com¬ 
promised. 
It is also more necessary to make an opening when the 
purulent secretion is established, for in this case it is important 
to avoid delay and to facilitate its escape. A simple longi¬ 
tudinal incision, four or five centimeters long, is sufficient, when 
the collection lies immediately under the cutaneous organ. This 
incision must involve the whole thickness of the skin, as far as 
the tendons, and should be made in the middle of the coronet 
region, as near the foot as possible. It gives rise to an abundant 
hemorrhage, which relieves the part, and warm poultices and 
baths, to accelerate the suppuration, are then indicated. 
When the proddct of suppuration has passed in the tendin¬ 
ous sheath, a longitudinal opening of this part towards the most 
dependent points, is indicated. To do this, a canulated directory 
is introduced to guide the bistoury; when the incision is made, 
the pus flows freely, and by this mode the large blood-vessels and 
the various ligaments of the region are avoided in the opera¬ 
tion. 
Notwithstanding the incision, or if the suppuration had 
already accumulated before it was made, the pus may also accu¬ 
mulate in the pouch formed by the tendinous sheath behind the 
tendons. It is then very difficult to prevent its collection in those 
deep parts, and it may extend to the small sesamoid. It is be¬ 
cause the pus cannot run towards the skin that it filtrates along 
the tendon. It is only by pressure and by injections that the in¬ 
dications presented can be fulfilled. After making free incisions, 
one may try by pressure to remove the pus accumulated between 
the tendons and their sheaths, following it by cleansing injec¬ 
tions, which must be repeated as often as possible. 
The wounds which remain after the slough, in the superficial 
tendinous quittor, and that which follows the opening of the sim¬ 
ple or multiple abscesses when it is deeper, are always character¬ 
ized by the presence of fistulas running down to some necrotic 
