lateral cartilage, but in the great majority of cases it appears as a
sequel to cutaneous or subhorny quittor. It may affect either the fore
or hind feet, but is most commonly seen in the former. As a rule, it
attacks but one foot at a time, and but one of the cartilages, generally
the inner one. It is always a serious affection for the reason that, in
many cases, it can only be cured by a surgical operation, requiring a
thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the parts involved, and much
surgical skill.
_Causes._--Direct injuries to the coronet, such as trampling, pricks,
burns, and the blow of some heavy falling object which may puncture,
bruise, or crush the cartilage, are the common direct causes of
cartilaginous quittor. Besides being a sequel to the other forms of
quittor, it sometimes develops as a complication in suppurative corn,
canker, grease, laminitis, and punctured wounds of the foot. Animals
used for heavy draft, and those with flat feet and low heels, are more
liable to the disease than others, for the reason that they are more
exposed to injury. Rough roads also predispose to the disease by
increasing liability to injury.
_Symptoms._--When the disease commences as a primary inflammation of the
cartilage, lameness develops with the formation of a swelling on the
side of the coronet over the quarter. The severity of this lameness
depends largely upon the part of the cartilage which is diseased, for if
the disease is situated in that part of the cartilage nearest the heel,
where the surrounding tissues are soft and spongy, the lameness may be
very slight, especially if the patient is required to go no faster than
a walk; but when the middle and anterior parts of the cartilage are
diseased, the pain and consequent lameness are much greater, for the
tissues are less elastic and the coffin joint is more liable to become
affected.
Except in the cases to be noted hereafter, one or more fistulous
openings finally appear in the tumor on the coronet. These openings are
surrounded by a small mass of granulations which are elevated above the
adjacent skin and bleed readily if handled. A probe shows these
fistulous tracts to be more or less sinuous, but always leading to one
point--the gangrenous cartilage. When cartilaginous quittor happens as a
complication of suppurative corn, or from punctured wounds of the foot,
the fistulous tract may open alone at the point of injury on the sole.
The discharge in this form of quittor is generally thin, watery, and
contains pus enough to give it a pale-yellow color; it is offensive to
the sense of smell, due to the detachment of small flakes of cartilage
which have become gangrenous and are seen in the discharge as small,
greenish-colored particles. In old cases it is not unusual to find some
of the fistulous openings heal at the surface; this is followed by the
gradual collection of pus in the deeper parts, forming an abscess, which
in a short time opens at a new point. The wall of the hoof, over the
affected quarter and heel, in very old cases becomes rough and wrinkled
like the horn of a ram, and generally it is thicker than the
corresponding quarter, owing to the stimulating effect which the disease
has upon the coronary band.
Complications may arise by an extension of the disease to the lateral
ligament of the coffin joint, to the joint itself, to the plantar
cushion, and by caries of the coffin bone.
_Treatment._--Before recovery can take place all the dead cartilage must
be removed. In rare instances this is effected by nature without
assistance. Usually, however, the disease does not tend to recovery, and
active curative measures must be adopted. The best and simplest
treatment, in a majority of cases, is the injection of strong caustic
solutions, which destroy the diseased cartilage and cause its discharge,
along with the other products of suppuration. In favorable cases these
injections will secure a healing of the wound in from two to three
weeks. While the saturated solution of sulphate of copper, or a solution
of 10 parts of bichlorid of mercury to 100 parts of water, has given the
best results in my hands, equally as favorable success has been secured
by others from the use of caustic soda, nitrate of silver, sulphate of
zinc, tincture of iodin, etc. No matter which one of these remedies may
be selected, however, it must be used at least twice a day for a time.
The solution is injected into the various openings with force enough to
drive it to the bottom of the wound, after which the foot is to be
dressed with a pad of oakum, held in place by a roller bandage tightly
applied. While it is not always necessary, it is often of advantage to
relieve the pressure on the parts by rasping away the hoof over the seat
of the cartilage; the coronary band and laminae should not be injured in
the operation.
If the caustic injections prove successful, the discharge will become
healthy and gradually diminish, so that by the end of the second week
the fistulous tracts are closing up and the injections are made with
much difficulty.
If, on the other hand, there is but little or no improvement after this
treatment has been used for three weeks, it may reasonably be concluded
that the operation for the removal of the lateral cartilage must be
resorted to for the cure of the trouble. As this operation can be safely
undertaken only by an expert surgeon, it will not be described in this
connection.
THRUSH.
Thrush is characterized by an excessive secretion of unhealthy matter
from the cleft of the frog. While all classes of horses are liable to
this affection, it is more often seen in the common draft horse than in
any other breed, owing to the conditions of servitude and not to the
fault of the breed. Country horses are much less subject to the
disease, except in wet, marshy districts, than are the horses used in
cities and towns.
_Causes._--The most common cause of thrush is the filthy condition of
the stable in which the animal is kept. Mares are more liable to
contract the disease in the hind feet when filth is the cause, while the
gelding and stallion are more liable to develop it in the fore feet.
Hard work on rough and stony roads may also induce the disease, as may a
change from dryness to excessive moisture. The latter cause is often
seen to operate in old track horses, whose feet are constantly soaked in
the bathtub for the purpose of relieving soreness. Muddy streets and
roads, especially where mineral substances are plentiful, excite this
abnormal condition of the frog. Contracted heels, scratches, and
navicular disease predispose to thrush, while by some a constitutional
tendency is believed to exist among certain animals which otherwise
present a perfect frog.
_Symptoms._--At first there is simply an increased moisture in the cleft
of the frog, accompanied with an offensive smell. After a time a
considerable discharge takes place--thin, watery, and highly offensive,
changing gradually to a thicker puriform matter, which rapidly destroys
the horn of the frog. Only in old and severe cases is the patient lame
and the foot feverish--cases in which the whole frog is involved in the
diseased process.
_Treatment._--Thrushes are to be treated by cleanliness, the removal of
all exciting causes, and a return of the frog to its normal condition.
As a rule, the diseased and ragged portions of horn are to be pared away
and the foot poulticed for a day or two with boiled turnips, to which
may be added a few drops of carbolic acid or a handful of powdered
charcoal to destroy the offensive smell. The cleft of the frog and the
grooves on its edges are then to be cleaned and well filled with dry
calomel and the foot dressed with oakum and a roller bandage. If the
discharge is profuse, the dressing should be changed daily; otherwise it
may be left on two or three days. Where a constitutional taint is
supposed to exist, with swelling of the legs, grease, etc., a purgative,
followed by dram doses of sulphate of iron, repeated daily, may be
prescribed. In cases where the growth of horn seems too slow a
Spanish-fly blister applied to the heels is often followed by good
results. Feet in which the disease is readily induced may be protected
in the stable with a leather boot. If the thrush is but a sequel to
other disease, a permanent cure may not be possible.
CANKER.
Canker of the foot is due to the rapid reproduction of a vegetable
parasite. It not only destroys the sole and frog, but, by setting up a
chronic inflammation in the deeper tissues, prevents the growth of a
healthy horn by which the injury may be repaired. Heavy cart horses are
more often affected than those of any other class.
_Causes._--The essential element in the production of canker is the
parasite; consequently the disease may be called contagious. As in all
other diseases due to specific causes, however, the seeds of the
disorder must find a suitable soil in which to grow before they are
reproduced. It may be said, then, that the conditions which favor the
preparation of the tissues for a reception of the seeds of this disease
are simply predisposing causes.
The condition most favorable to the development of canker is
dampness--in fact, dampness seems indispensable to the existence and
growth of the parasite; the disease is rarely, if ever, seen in high,
dry districts, and is much more common in rainy than in dry seasons.
Filthy stables and muddy roads have been classed among the causes of
canker; but it is very doubtful whether these conditions can do more
than favor a preparation of the foot for the reception of the disease
germ.
All injuries to the feet, by exposing the soft tissues, may render the
animal susceptible to infection; but neither the injury nor the
irritation and inflammation of the tissues which follow are sufficient
to induce the disease.
For some unknown reason horses with lymphatic temperaments--thick skins,
flat feet, fleshy frogs, heavy hair, and particularly with white feet
and legs--are especially liable to canker.
_Symptoms._--Usually, canker is confined to one foot; but it may attack
two, three, or all of the feet at once; or, as is more commonly seen,
the disease attacks first one then another, until all may have been
successively affected. When the disease follows an injury which has
exposed the soft tissues of the foot, the wound shows no tendency to
heal, but instead there is secreted from the inflamed parts a profuse,
thin, fetid, watery discharge, which gradually undermines and destroys
the surrounding horn, until a large part of the sole and frog is
diseased. The living tissues are swollen, dark colored, and covered at
certain points with particles of new, soft, yellowish, thready horn,
which are constantly undergoing maceration in the abundant liquid
secretion by which they are immersed. As this secretion escapes to the
surrounding parts, it dries and forms small, cheesy masses composed of
partly dried horny matter, exceedingly offensive to the sense of smell.
When the disease originates independently of an injury, the first
evidences of the trouble are the offensive odor of the foot, the liquid
secretion from the cleft and sides of the frog, and the rotting away of
the horn of the frog and sole.
In the earlier stages there is no interference with locomotion, but
later the foot becomes sensitive, particularly if the animal is used on
rough roads, and, finally, when the sole and frog are largely destroyed
the lameness is severe.
_Treatment._--Since canker does not destroy the power of the tissues to
produce horn, but rather excites them to an excessive production of an
imperfect horn, the indications for treatment are to restore the parts
to a normal condition, when healthy horn may again be secreted. In my
experience, limited though it has been, the old practice of stripping
off the entire sole and deep cauterization, with either the hot iron or
strong acids, is not attended with uniformly good results.
I am of the opinion that recovery can generally be effected as surely
and as speedily with measures which are less heroic and much less
painful. True, the treatment of canker is likely to exhaust the
patience, and sometimes the resources, of the attendant; but after all
success depends more on the persistent application of simple remedies
and great cleanliness than on the special virtues of any particular
drug.
First, then, clean the foot with warm baths and apply a poultice
containing powdered charcoal or carbolic acid. A handful of the charcoal
or a tablespoonful of the acid mixed with the poultice serves to destroy
much of the offensive odor. The diseased portions of horn are to be
carefully removed with sharp instruments, until only healthy horn
borders the affected parts. The edges of the sound horn are to be pared
thin, so that the swollen soft tissues may not overlap their borders.
With sharp scissors cut off all the prominent points on the soft
tissues, shorten the walls of the foot, and nail on a broad, plain shoe.
The foot is now ready for the dressings, and any of the many stimulating
and drying remedies may be used; but it will be necessary to change
frequently from one to another, until finally all may be tried.
The list from which a selection may be made comprises wood tar, gas tar,
petroleum, creosote, phenic acid; sulphates of iron, copper, and zinc;
chlorid of zinc, bichlorid of mercury, calomel, caustic soda, nitrate of
silver, chlorid of lime; carbolic, nitric, and sulphuric acids.
In practice I prefer to give the newly shod foot a bath for an hour or
two in a solution of the sulphate of iron made by adding 2 ounces of the
powdered sulphate to a gallon of cold water. When the foot is removed
from the bath it is dressed with oakum balls dipped in a mixture made of
Barbados tar 1 part, oil of turpentine 8 parts, to which is slowly added
2 parts of sulphuric acid, and the mixture well stirred and cooled. The
diseased parts being well covered with the balls, a pad of oakum
sufficiently thick to cause considerable pressure is placed over them,
and all are held in place by pieces of heavy tin fitted to slip under
the shoe. The whole foot is now incased in a boot or folded gunny sack
and the patient turned into a loose, dry box. The dressings are to be
changed daily or even twice a day at first. When they are removed, all
pieces of new horny matter which are now firmly adherent must be rubbed
off with the finger or a tent of oakum. As the secretion diminishes, dry
powders, such as calomel, sulphates of iron, copper, etc., may prove of
most advantage. The sulphates should not be used pure, but are to be
mixed with powdered animal charcoal in the proportion of one of the
former to eight or ten of the latter. When the soft tissues are all
horned over, the dressings should be continued for a time, weak
solutions being used to prevent a recurrence of the disease. If the
patient is run down in condition, bitter tonics, such as gentian, may be
given in 2-dram doses twice a day and a liberal diet of grain allowed.
CORNS.
A corn is an injury to the living horn of the foot, involving the soft
tissues beneath, whereby the capillary blood vessels are ruptured and a
small quantity of blood escapes which, by permeating the horn in the
immediate neighborhood, stains it a dark color. If the injury is
continuously repeated, the horn becomes altered in character and the
soft tissues may suppurate or a horny tumor develop. Corns always appear
in the sole in the angle between the bar and the outside wall of the
hoof. In many cases the laminae of the bar, of the wall, or of both, are
involved at the same time.
Three kinds of corns are commonly recognized--the dry, the moist, and
the suppurative--a division based solely on the character of the
conditions which follow the primary injury.
The fore feet are almost exclusively the subjects of the disease, for
two reasons: First, because they support a greater part of the body;
secondly, because the heel of the fore foot during progression is first
placed upon the ground, whereby it receives much more concussion than
the heel of the hind foot, in which the toe first strikes the ground.
_Causes._--It may be said that all feet are exposed to corns, and that
even the best feet may suffer from them when conditions necessary to the
production of the peculiar injury are present. The heavier breeds of
horses generally used for heavy work on rough roads and streets seem to
be most liable to this trouble. Mules rarely have corns.
Among the causes and conditions which predispose to corns may be named
high heels, which change the natural relative position of the bones of
the foot and thereby increase the concussion to which these parts are
subject; contracted heels, which in part destroy the elasticity of the
foot, increase the pressure upon the soft tissues of the heel, and
render lacerations more easy; long feet, which by removing the frog and
heels too far from the ground deprive them of necessary moisture; this,
in turn, reduces the elastic properties of the horn and diminishes the
transverse diameter of the heels; weak feet, or those in which the horn
of the wall is too thin to resist the tendency to spread, whereby the
soft tissues are easily lacerated. Wide feet with low heels are always
accompanied with a flat sole whose posterior wings either rest upon the
ground or the shoe, and as a consequence are easily bruised; at the same
time the arch of the sole is so broad and flat that it can not support
the weight of the body, and in the displacement which happens when the
foot is rested upon the ground the soft tissues are liable to become
bruised or torn.
It is universally conceded that shoeing, either as a direct or
predisposing cause, is most prolific in producing corns. One of the most
serious as well as the most common of the errors in shoeing is to be
found in the preparation of the foot. Instead of seeking to maintain the
integrity of the arch, the first thing done is to weaken it by freely
paring away the sole; nor does the mutilation end here, for the frog,
which is nature's main support to the branches of the sole and the
heels, is also largely cut away. This not only permits of an excessive
downward movement of the contents of the horny box, but it at the same
time removes the one great means by which concussion of the foot is
destroyed. As adjuncts to the foregoing errors must be added the faults
of construction in the shoe and in the way it is adjusted to the foot.
An excess of concavity in the shoe, extending it too far back on the
heels, high calks, thin heels which permit the shoe to spring, short
heels with a calk set under the foot, and a shoe too light for the
animal wearing it or for the work required of him, are all to be avoided
as causes of corns. A shoe so set so as to press upon the sole or one
that has been on so long that the hoof has overgrown it until the heels
rest upon the sole and bars becomes a direct cause of corns. Indirectly
the shoe becomes the cause of corns when small stones, hard, dry earth,
or other objects collect between the sole and shoe. Lastly, a rapid gait
and excessive knee action, especially on hard roads, predispose to this
disease of the feet.
_Symptoms._--Ordinarily a corn induces sufficient pain to cause
lameness. It may be intense, as seen in suppurative corn, or it may be
but a slight soreness, such as that which accompanies dry corn. It is by
no means unusual in chronic corns to see old horses apparently so
accustomed to the slight pain which they suffer as not to limp at all.
But they are generally very restless. They paw their bedding behind them
at night and often refuse to lie down for a long rest. The lameness of
this disease, however, can hardly be said to be characteristic, for the
reason that it varies so greatly in intensity; but the position of the
leg while the patient is at rest is generally the same in all cases. The
foot is so advanced that it is relieved of all weight, and the fetlock
is flexed until all pressure by the contents of the hoof is removed
from the heels. In suppurative corn the lameness subsides or entirely
disappears as soon as the abscess opens. When the injured tissues are
much inflamed, as may happen in severe and recent cases, the heel of the
affected side, or even the whole foot, is hot and tender to pressure. In
dry corn and in most chronic cases all evidences of local fever are
often wanting. It is in these cases that the patient goes well when
newly shod, for the smith cuts away the sole over the seat of injury
until all pressure by the shoe is removed and lowers the heels so that
concussion is reduced to a minimum.
If a corn is suspected, the foot should be examined for increased
sensibility of the inside heel. Tapping the heel of the shoe with a
hammer and grasping the wall and bar between the jaws of pincers with
moderate pressure will cause more or less flinching if the disease is
present. For further evidence the shoe is removed and the heel cut away
with the drawing knife. As the horn is pared out, not only the sole in
the angle is found discolored, but in many instances the insensible
laminae of the bar and wall adjacent are also stained with the escaped
blood. In moist and suppurative corns this discoloration is less marked
than in dry corn and even may be entirely wanting. In these cases the
horn is soft, often white, and stringy or mealy, as seen in pumiced sole
resulting from founder. When the whole thickness of the sole is
discolored and the horn dry and brittle it is generally evidence that
the corn is an old one and that the exciting cause has existed
continuously. A moist corn differs from the dry one in that the injury
is more severe. The parts affected are more or less inflamed, and the
horn of the sole in the angle is undermined by a citron-colored fluid,
which often permeates the injured sole and laminae, causing the horn to
become somewhat spongy.
A suppurative corn differs from others in that the inflammation ends in
suppuration. The pus collects at the point of injury and finally escapes
by working its way between the sensitive and insensible laminae to the
top of the hoof, where an opening is made between the wall and coronary
band at or near the heels. This is the most serious form of corns, for
the reason that it may induce gangrene of the plantar cushion,
cartilaginous quittor, or caries of the coffin bone.
_Treatment._--Since a diversity of opinion exists as to what measures
must be adopted for the radical cure of corns, the author will advise
the use of those which have proved most efficient in his hands.
As in all other troubles, the cause must be discovered, if possible, and
removed. In the great majority of cases the shoeing is at fault. While
sudden changes in the method of shoeing are not advisable, it may be
said that all errors, either in the preparation of the foot, in the
construction of the shoe, or in its application may very properly be
corrected at any time. Circumstances may at times make it imperative
that shoes be worn which are not free from objections; as, for
instance, the shoe with a high calk; but in such cases it is considered
that the injuries liable to result from the use of calks are less
serious than those which are sure to happen for the want of them.
For a sound foot perfectly formed, a flat shoe, with heels less thick
than the toe, and which rests evenly on the wall proper, is the best. In
flat feet it is often necessary to concave the shoe as much as possible
on the upper surface, so that the sole may not be pressed upon. If the
heels are very low the heels of the shoe may be made thicker. If the
foot is very broad and the wall light toward the heels, a bar shoe
resting upon the frog will aid to prevent excessive tension upon the
soft tissues when the foot receives the weight of the body. A piece of
leather placed between the foot and shoe serves largely to destroy
concussion, and its use is absolutely necessary on some animals to
enable them to work.
Last among the preventive measures may be mentioned those which serve to
maintain the suppleness of the hoof. The dead horn upon the surface of
the sole not only retains moisture for a long time, but protects the
living horn beneath from the effects of evaporation; for this reason the
sole should be pared as little as possible. Stuffing the feet with
flaxseed meal, wet clay, or other like substances, or damp dirt floors
or damp bedding of tanbark, greasy hoof ointments, etc., are all means
which may be used to keep the feet from becoming too dry and hard.