THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
491 
by taking off the shoe, are sufficient to bring on a cure. But if 
the contusion has been great and deep, recovery is more difficult 
to obtain on account of the suppuration which will follow. Then 
the application of poultices is indicated ; if there is formation of 
a core and mortification of tissues, poultices of honey are especially 
indicated; in case of phlegmon, the poultice must be warm, and 
then incisions and counter openings must be made for the escape 
of pus ; afterwards dressings are made with oakum saturated with 
tepid wine or tincture of aloes. 
When the calking is horny, the use of emollient topically is in¬ 
sufficient ; an excellent way then is to obtain the required slough¬ 
ing of the tissues by actual cauterization—the iron heated to 
white heat: by thus destroying a portion of the hoof and the 
soft tissues, one will avoid the excessive pressure at the coronary 
band ; this may also be prevented by the thinning down of the 
wall with the sage knife; but one must be careful not to remove 
too soon the portions of horn which may be detached. 
When the calking takes place at the heel, it is good—so as to 
prevent other complications—to pare the foot down, especially at 
the heel, to remove the divided hoof and transform the wound 
to a simple one which can be dressed, as already stated, or with 
digestive ointment secured by several turns of a roller. 
When there are wounds of the teguments, it sometimes hap¬ 
pens, if the immediate union has not been obtained, that the por¬ 
tion of skin forming the inferior edge of the wound turns down 
and that the granulations protrude, tending to form a kind of 
fungoid growth. Ohabert says that these must be cut off and 
dressed with oakum soaked in alcohol. 
Calking at the hind feet being the most severe, and those 
which are followed by most serious complications, on account of 
the urine and droppings of the animal, which impregnate the 
wound, one can never be too particular in keeping them clean 
and dressing them well. When they end in cartilaginous quittor, 
they must be treated as that disease usually is. 
As to the means of prevention, they consist in not placing the 
horses too close to each other in stables, fairs, &c., in not forcing 
them too much in their gait, in shoeing properly those which 
