upon the extent of the injury. If the case is one of chronic dry corn,
with but slight lameness, the foot should be poulticed for a day or two
and the discolored horn pared out, care being taken not to injure the
soft tissues. The heel on the affected side is to be lowered until all
pressure is removed and, if the patient's labor is required, the foot
must be shod with a bar shoe or with one having stiff heels. Care must
be taken to reset the shoe before the foot has grown too long, else the
shoe will no longer rest on the wall, but on the sole and bar.
I believe in cutting moist corns out. If there is inflammation, cold
baths and poultices should be used; when the horn is well softened and
the fever allayed, pare out the diseased horn, lightly cauterize the
soft tissues beneath, and poultice the foot for two or three days. When
the granulations look red, dress the wound with oakum balls saturated in
a weak solution of tincture of aloes or spirits of camphor and apply a
roller bandage. Change the dressing every two or three days until a
firm, healthy layer of new horn covers the wound, when the shoe may be
put on, as in dry corn, and the patient returned to work.
In suppurative corns the loosened horn must be removed, so that the pus
may freely escape. If the pus has worked a passage to the coronary band
and escapes from an opening between the band and hoof, an opening must
be made on the sole, and cold baths made astringent with a little
sulphate of iron or copper are to be used for a day or two. When the
discharge becomes healthy, the fistulous tracts may be injected daily
with a weak solution of bichlorid of mercury, nitrate of silver, etc.,
and the foot dressed as after operation for moist corns. When
complications arise, the treatment must be varied to meet the
indications; if gangrene of the lateral cartilage takes place it must be
treated as directed under the head of cartilaginous quittor; if the
velvety tissue is gangrenous, it must be cut away; if the coffin bone is
necrosed, it must be scraped, and the resulting wounds treated on
general principles. After any of the operations for corns have been
performed, in which the soft tissues have been laid bare, it is best to
protect the foot by a sole of soft leather set beneath the shoe when the
animal is returned to work. Only in rare instances are the complications
of corns so serious as to destroy the life or usefulness of the patient.
It is the wide, flat foot with low heels and thin wall which is most
liable to resist all efforts toward effecting a complete cure.
BRUISE OF THE FROG.
When the frog is severely bruised the injury is followed by suppuration
beneath the horn, and at times by partial gangrene of the plantar
cushion.
_Causes._--A bruise of the frog generally happens from stepping on a
rough stone or other hard object. It is more liable to take place when
trotting, running, or jumping than when at a slower pace. A stone wedged
in the shoe and pressing on the frog or between the sides of the frog
and the shoe, if it remains for a time, produces the same results. A cut
through the horny frog with some sharp instrument or a punctured wound
by a blunt-pointed instrument may also cause suppuration and gangrene of
the plantar cushion. Broad, flat feet with low heels and a fleshy frog
are most liable to these injuries.
_Symptoms._--Lameness, severe in proportion to the extent of the bruise
and the consequent suppuration, is always an early symptom. When the
animal moves, the toe only is placed to the ground or the foot is
carried and the patient hobbles along on three legs. When he is at rest,
the foot is set forward with the toe on the ground and the leg flexed at
the fetlock joint. As soon as the pus finds its way to the surface the
lameness improves. If the frog is examined early the injured spot may
usually be found; later, if no opening exists, the pus may be discovered
working its way toward the heels. The horn is loosened from the deeper
tissues, and, if pared through, a thin, yellow, watery and offensive pus
escapes. In other cases a ragged opening is found in the frog, leading
down to a mass of dead, sloughing tissues, which are pale green in color
if gangrene of the plantar cushion has set in. In rare cases the coffin
bone may be involved in the injury and a small portion of it may become
carious.
_Treatment._--If the injury is seen at once, the foot should be placed
in a bath of cold water to prevent suppuration. If suppuration has
already set in, the horn of the frog, and of the bars and branches of
the sole, if necessary, is to be pared thin so that all possible
pressure may be removed, and the foot poulticed. When the pus has
loosened the horn, all the detached portions are to be cut away. If the
pus is discharging from an opening near the hair, the whole frog, or
one-half of it, will generally be found separated from the plantar
cushion, and is to be removed with the knife. After a few days the
gangrenous portion of the cushion will slough off from the effects of
the poultice; under rare circumstances only should the dead parts be
removed by surgical interference. When the slough is all detached, the
remaining wound is to be treated with simple stimulating dressings, such
as tincture of aloes or turpentine, oakum balls, and bandages as
directed in punctured wounds. When the lameness has subsided, and a thin
layer of new horn has covered the exposed parts, the foot may be shod.
Cover the frog with a thick pad of oakum, held in place by pieces of tin
fitted to slide under the shoe, and return to slow work. Where caries of
the coffin bone, etc., follow the injury the treatment recommended for
these complications in punctured wounds of the foot must be resorted to.
PUNCTURED WOUNDS OF THE FOOT.
Of all the injuries to which the foot of the horse is liable, none are
more common than punctured wounds, and none are more serious than these
may be when involving the more important organs within the hoof. A nail
is the most common instrument by which the injury is inflicted, yet
wounds may happen from glass, wire, knives, sharp pieces of rock, etc.
A wound of the foot is more serious when made by a blunt-pointed
instrument than when the point is sharp, and the nearer the injury is to
the center of the foot the more liable are disastrous results to follow.
Wounds in the heel and in the posterior parts of the frog are attended
with but little danger, unless they are so deep as to injure the lateral
cartilages, when quittor may follow. Punctured wounds of the anterior
parts of the sole are more dangerous, for the reason that the coffin
bone may be injured, and the suppuration, even when the wound is not
deep, tends to spread and always gives rise to intense suffering. The
most serious of the punctured wounds are those which happen to the
center of the foot, and which, in proportion to their depth, involve
the plantar cushion, the plantar aponeurosis, the sesamoid sheath, the
navicular bone, or the coffin joint.
Punctured wounds are more liable to be deep in flat or convex feet than
in well-made feet, and as a rule, recovery is neither so rapid nor so
certain. These wounds are less serious in animals used for heavy draft
than in those required to do faster work; for the former may be useful,
even if complete recovery is not effected. Lastly, punctured wounds of
the fore feet are more serious than of the hind feet, for the reason
that in the former the instrument is liable to enter the foot in a
nearly perpendicular line, and, consequently, is more liable to injure
the deeper structures of the foot; in the hind foot, the injury is
generally near the heels and the wound oblique and less deep.
_Symptoms._--A nail or other sharp instrument may penetrate the frog and
remain for several days without causing lameness; in fact, in many cases
of punctured wound of the frog the first evidence of the injury is the
finding of the nail or the appearance of an opening where the skin and
frog unite, from which more or less pus escapes. Even when the sole is
perforated, if the injury is not too deep, no lameness develops until
suppuration is established. In all cases of foot lameness, especially if
the cause is obscure, the foot should be examined for evidence of
injury.
The lameness from punctured wounds, accompanied with suppuration, is
generally severe, the patient often refusing to use the affected member
at all. The pain being lancinating in character, he stands with the
injured foot at rest or constantly moves it back and forth. In other
cases the patient lies down most of the time with the feet outstretched;
the breathing is rapid, the pulse fast, the temperature elevated, and
the body covered with patches of sweat.
When the plantar aponeurosis is injured, the pus escapes with difficulty
and the wound shows no signs of healing; the whole foot is hot and very
painful. If the puncture involves the sesamoid sheath, the synovial
fluid escapes. At first this fluid is pure, like joint water, but later
becomes mixed with the products of suppuration and loses its clear,
amber color. Suppuration generally extends up the course of the flexor
tendon, an abscess forms in the hollow of the heel, and finally opens
somewhere below the fetlock joint. The whole coronet is more or less
swollen, the discharge is profuse and often mixed with blood, yet the
suffering is greatly relieved from the moment the abscess opens.
If the puncture reaches the navicular bone the lameness is intense from
the beginning; but the only certain way to determine the existence of
this complication is by the use of the probe; and unless there is a free
escape of synovia it must be used with the greatest of care, else the
coffin joint may be opened. If the coffin joint has been penetrated,
either by the offending instrument or by the process of suppuration,
acute inflammation of the joint follows, accompanied with high fever,
loss of appetite, etc. The ankle and coronet are now greatly swollen,
and dropsy of the leg to the knee or hock, or even to the body, often
follows. If the process of suppuration continues, small abscesses appear
at intervals on different parts of the coronet, the patient rapidly
loses flesh, and may die from intense suffering and blood poisoning. In
other cases the suppuration soon disappears, and recovery is effected by
the joint becoming stiff (anchylosis).
When the wound is forward, near the toe, and deep enough to injure the
coffin bone, caries always results. The presence of the dead pieces of
bone can be determined by the use of the probe; the bone feels rough and
gritty. Furthermore, there is no disposition upon the part of the wound
to heal.
Besides the complications above mentioned, others equally as serious may
be met with. The tendons may soften and rupture, the hoof may slough
off, quittors develop, or sidebones and ringbones grow. Finally,
laminatis of the opposite foot may happen if the patient persists in
standing, or lockjaw may cause early death.
_Treatment._--In all cases the horn around the seat of injury should be
thinned down, a free opening made for the escape of the products of
suppuration, and the foot placed in a poultice. If the injury is not
serious, recovery takes place in a few days. When the wound is deeper it
is better to put the foot into a cold bath or under a stream of cold
water, as advised in the treatment for quittor.
If the bone is injured, cold baths, containing about 2 ounces each of
sulphate of copper and sulphate of iron, may be used until the dead bone
is well softened, when it should be removed by an operation. The animal
must be cast for this operation. The sole is pared away until the
diseased bone is exposed, when all the dead particles are to be removed
with a drawing knife, and the wound dressed with 3 per cent compound
cresol solution or a 5 per cent solution of carbolic acid, oakum balls,
and a roller bandage.
Wounds of the bone which are made by a blunt-pointed instrument, like
the square-pointed cut nail, in which a portion of the surface is driven
into the deeper parts of the bone, always progress slowly, and should be
operated upon as soon as the conditions are favorable. Even wounds of
the navicular bone, accompanied with caries, may be operated on and the
life of the patient saved; but the most skillful surgery is required and
only the experienced operator should undertake their treatment.
If there is an escape of pure synovial fluid from a wound of the sole,
without injury to the bone, a small pencil of corrosive sublimate
should be introduced to the bottom of the wound and the foot dressed as
directed above.
The other complications are to be treated as directed under their proper
headings.
After healing of the wounds has been effected, lameness, with more or
less swelling of the coronary region, may remain. In such cases the
coronet should be blistered or even fired with the actual cautery, and
the patient turned to pasture. If the lameness still persists, and is
not due to a stiff joint, unnerving may be resorted to in many cases
with very good results. If the joint is anchylosed, no treatment can
relieve it, and the patient must either be put to very slow work or kept
for breeding purposes only.
"_Prick in shoeing_" is an injury which should be considered under the
head of punctured wounds of the foot. The nails by which the shoe is
fastened to the hoof may produce an injury followed by inflammation and
suppuration in two days, by penetrating the soft tissues directly or by
being driven so deep that the inner layers of the horn of the wall are
pressed against the soft tissues with such force as to crush them. In
either case, unless the injury is at the toe, the animal generally goes
lame soon after shoeing, when the first evidence of the trouble may be
the discharge of pus at the coronet. If lameness follows close upon the
setting of the shoes, without other appreciable cause, each nail should
be lightly struck with a hammer, when the one at fault will be detected
by the flinching of the animal.
Treatment consists in drawing the nail, and if the soft tissues have
been penetrated or suppuration has commenced, the horn must be pared
away until the diseased parts are exposed. The foot is now to be
poulticed for a day or two, or until the lameness and suppuration have
ceased. If the discharge of pus from the coronet is the first evidence
of the disease, the offending nail must be found and removed, the horn
pared out, and a weak solution of carbolic acid or compound cresol
injected at the coronet until the fistulous tract has healed.
CONTRACTED HEELS, OR HOOFBOUND.
Contracted heels, or hoofbound, is a common disease among horses kept on
hard floor in dry stables, and in such as are subject to much saddle
work. It consists in an atrophy, or shrinking, of the tissues of the
foot, whereby the lateral diameter of the heels is diminished. It
affects the fore feet principally; but it is seen occasionally in the
hind feet, where it is of less importance, for the reason that the hind
foot first strikes the ground with the toe, and consequently less
expansion of the heels is necessary than in the fore feet, where the
weight is first received on the heels. Any interference with the
expansibility of this part of the foot interferes with locomotion and
ultimately gives rise to lameness. Usually but one foot is affected at
a time, but when both are diseased the change is greater in one than in
the other. Occasionally but one heel, and that the inner one, is
contracted; in these cases there is less liable to be lameness and
permanent impairment of the animal's usefulness. According to the
opinion of some of the French veterinarians, hoofbound should be divided
into two classes--total contraction, in which the whole foot is shrunken
in size, and contraction of the heels, when the trouble extends only
from the quarters backward. (Pl. XXXV, figs. 4 and 7.)
_Causes._--Animals raised in wet or marshy districts, when taken to
towns and kept on dry floors, are liable to have contracted heels, not
alone because the horn becomes dry, but because fever of the feet and
wasting away of the soft tissues result from the change. Another common
cause of contracted heels is to be found in faulty shoeing, such as
rasping the wall, cutting away the frog, heels, and bars; high calks and
the use of nails too near the heels. Contracted heels may happen as one
of the results of other diseases of the foot; for instance, it often
accompanies thrush, sidebones, ringbones, canker, navicular disease,
corns, sprains of the flexor tendons, of the sesamoid and suspensory
ligaments, and from excessive knuckling of the fetlock joint.
_Symptoms._--In contraction of the heels the foot has lost its circular
shape, and the walls from the quarters backward approach to a straight
line. The ground surface of the foot is now smaller than the coronary
circumference; the frog is pinched between the inclosing heels, is much
shrunken, and at times is affected with thrush. The sole is more concave
than natural, the heels are higher, and the bars are long and nearly
perpendicular. The whole hoof is dry and so hard that it can scarcely be
cut; the parts toward the heels are scaly and often ridged like the
horns of a ram, while fissures, more or less deep, may be seen at the
quarters and heels following the direction of the horn fibers. (Plate
XXXVI, fig. 10.) When the disease is well advanced lameness is present,
while in the earlier stages there is only an uneasiness evinced by
frequent shifting of the affected foot. Stumbling is common, especially
on hard or rough roads. In most cases the animal comes out of the stable
stiff and inclined to walk on the toe, but after exercise he may go free
again. He wears his shoes off at the toe in a short time, no matter
whether he works or remains in the stable. If the shoe is removed and
the foot pared in old cases, a dry, mealy horn will be found where the
sole and wall unite, extending upward in a narrow line toward the
quarters.
_Treatment._--First of all, the preventive measures must be considered.
The feet are to be kept moist and the horn from drying out by the use of
damp sawdust or other bedding; by occasional poultices of boiled
turnips, linseed meal, etc., and greasy hoof ointments to the sole and
walls of the feet. The wall of the foot should be spared from the abuse
of the rasp; the frog, heels, and bars are not to be mutilated with the
knife, nor should calks be used on the shoe except when absolutely
necessary. The shoes should be reset at least once a month to prevent
the feet from becoming too long, and daily exercise must be insisted on.
As to curative measures, a diversity of opinion exists. A number of
kinds of special shoes have been invented, having for an object the
spreading of the heels, and perhaps any of these, if properly used,
would eventually effect the desired result. But a serious objection to
most of these shoes is that they are expensive and often difficult to
make and apply. The method of treatment which I have adopted is not only
attended with good results, but is inexpensive, if the loss of the
patient's services for a time is not considered a part of the question.
It consists, first, in the use of poultices or baths of cold water until
the horn is thoroughly softened. The foot is now prepared for the shoe
in the usual way, except that the heels are lowered a little and the
frog remains untouched. A shoe, called a "tip," is made by cutting off
both branches at the center of the foot and drawing the ends down to an
edge. The tapering of the branches should begin at the toe, and the shoe
should be of the usual width, with both the upper and lower surfaces
flat. This tip is to be fastened on with six or eight small nails, all
set well forward, two being in the toe. With a common foot rasp begin at
the heels, close to the coronet, and cut away the horn of the wall until
only a thin layer covers the soft tissues beneath. Cut forward until the
new surface meets the old 2-1/2 or 3 inches from the heel. The same
sloping shape is to be observed in cutting downward toward the bottom of
the foot, at which point the wall is to retain its normal thickness. The
foot is now blistered all round the coronet with Spanish-fly ointment;
when this is well set, the patient is to be turned to pasture in a damp
field or meadow. The blister should be repeated in three or four weeks,
and, as a rule, the patient can be returned to work in two or three
months.
The object of the tip is to throw the weight on the frog and heels,
which are readily spread after the horn has been cut away on the sides
of the wall. The internal structures of the foot at the heels, being
relieved of excessive pressure, regain their normal condition if the
disease is not of too long standing. The blister tends to relieve any
inflammation which may be present, and stimulates a rapid growth of
healthy horn, which, in most cases, ultimately forms a wide and normal
heel. In old, chronic cases, with a shrunken frog and increased
concavity of the sole, accompanied with excessive wasting of all the
internal tissues of the foot, satisfactory results can not be expected
and are rarely obtained. Still, much relief, if not an entire cure, may
be effected by these measures.
When thrush is present as a complication, its cure must be sought by
measures directed under that heading. If sidebones, ringbones, navicular
disease, contracted tendons, or other diseases have been the cause of
contracted heels, treatment will be useless until the cause is removed.
SAND CRACKS.
A sand crank is a fissure in the horn of the wall of the foot. These
fissures are quite narrow, and, as a general rule, they follow the
direction of the horny fibers. They may occur on any part of the wall,
but ordinarily are only seen directly in front, when they are called toe
cracks; or on the lateral parts of the walls, when they are known as
quarter cracks. (Plate XXXVI.)
Toe cracks are most common in the hind feet, while quarter cracks nearly
always affect the fore feet. The inside quarter is more liable to the
injury than the outside, for the reason that this quarter is not only
the thinner, but during locomotion receives a greater part of the weight
of the body. A sand crack may be superficial, involving only the outer
parts of the wall, or it may be deep, involving the whole thickness of
the wall and the soft tissues beneath.
The toe crack is most likely to be complete--that is, extending from the
coronary band to the sole--while the quarter crack is nearly always
incomplete, at least when of comparatively recent origin. Sand cracks
are most serious when they involve the coronary band in the injury. They
may be complicated at any time by hemorrhage, inflammation of the
laminae, suppuration, gangrene of the lateral cartilage and of the
extensor tendon, caries of the coffin bone, or the growth of a horny
tumor known as a keraphyllocele.
_Causes._--Relative dryness of the horn is the principal predisposing
cause of sand cracks. Excessive dryness is perhaps not a more prolific
cause of cracks in the horn than alternate changes from damp to dry. It
is even claimed that these injuries are more common in animals working
on wet roads than those working on roads that are rough and dry; at
least these injuries are not common in mountainous countries. Animals
used to running at pasture when transferred to stables with hard, dry
floors are more liable to quarter cracks than those accustomed to
stables. Small feet, with thick, hard hoofs, and feet which are
excessively large, are more susceptible to sand cracks than those of
better proportion. A predisposition to quarter cracks exists in
contracted feet, and in those where the toe turns out or the inside
quarter turns under.
Heavy shoes, large nails, and nails set too far back toward the heels,
together with such diseases as canker, quittor, grease, and suppurative
corns, must be included as occasional predisposing causes of sand
cracks.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXVI.
QUARTER-CRACK AND REMEDIES.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXVII.
FOUNDERED FEET.]
Fast work on hard roads, jumping, and blows on the coronet, together
with calk wounds of the feet, are accidental causes of quarter cracks in
particular. Toe cracks are more likely to be caused by heavy pulling on
slippery roads and pavements or on steep hills.