SUPPURATION OF THE FOOT AFTER NEUROTOMY. 
427 
three short calls daily, and stood the work well, with the excep¬ 
tion of a tendency to interfere on the near leg. Whenever this 
happened, she would go lame for a few steps, and then go sound 
again. This leg was now booted, and the mare received hard 
work for about two weeks, when she went lame on the off hind 
leg, from curb, and favored the near fore leg whenever at rest. 
On being called to see her now, I found the near leg infiltrated 
with serum as high as the knee; intense pain from the slightest 
pressure at the point of operating, and the lymphatics inflamed 
and tender. A close examination revealed much fever of the foot, 
and the slightest suppuration on the outside heel, near the line 
that divides the horn and skin. There was a slight abrasion of 
the skin at this point, and the tissues appeared bruised beneath. 
Cold water treatment was instituted at once, but did not arrest 
the progress of the suppurative process, for in a few days’ time 
the hoof was half sloughed away, and the animal was destroyed, 
to prevent unnecessary suffering. In making a post mortem ex¬ 
amination, some interesting lesions were found. The navicular 
bone of the near foot presented three large ulcers, extending deep¬ 
ly into the bone structure, while the surrounding tissue was dis¬ 
colored by the inflammatory changes, and adhesions formed be¬ 
tween the tendon and the navicular’s bursal surface. The os pe¬ 
dis showed periostitis of a greater part of its surface, the process, 
in many places, being accompanied by suppuration. Toward the 
toe, the suppuration was confined to the outer layers of the peri¬ 
osteum and the keratogenous membrane, but on the superior por¬ 
tion of the anterior surface, aud over both the retrossal processes, 
the entire periosteum had sloughed away, leaving the bone tissue 
exposed. The external retrossal process was almost completely 
destroyed by caries, while the same destructive changes had be¬ 
gun just beneath the attachment of the extensor pedis, and on 
the outer surface of the internal retrossal angle. The side bone 
upon the outside wing of the os pedis was fractured across, about 
half an inch from its superior border, probably as the result of 
the injury which at the same time caused abrasion of the skin on 
the heel, and started the suppuration. The coronary band was 
greatly thickened from infiltration, and both quarters were freely 
