Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/261

of the animal is concerned) diseases known to veterinary science. Many horses are predisposed to injuries and diseases because of imperfectly formed feet, in consequence of which they are peculiarly liable to diseases of this character. Flat-footed horses are liable to corns, pumiced sole, bruises of the sole, and kindred troubles, owing to the fact that the soles of their feet have little, if any, convexity. The flat foot has no arch, so that the weight of the animal falls on the entire plantar surface instead of on the wall, which allows of little, if any, elasticity in the sole. In clubfoot the feet have the wall set nearly perpendicular, and consequently the heels stand high and the fetlock joint is either thrown forward or knuckled, and the weight of the animal is thrown onto the toes. In crooked foot one side of the wall is higher than the other, causing the animal to be pigeon-toed as well as making it ‘interfere.’ Interfering is when one foot in action strikes the opposite leg. Knuckling is another fault, which causes stumbling, and while not always an unsoundness in itself, yet frequently leads to fracture of the pastern. It is a partial dislocation of the fetlock joint, and is caused more often by heavy work in hilly districts or fast work on race-tracks or hard roads than anything else. The principal remedy for all faults of conformation will be found in suitable horseshoeing; which subject is discussed at some length under Horseshoeing. Sprains of the fetlock are the consequence of knuckling or any diseases which interfere with proper locomotion, such as, navicular disease, chronic laminitis, contracted heels, side bones; or such external causes as a rut or hole in the road, or any accident which causes the animal to fall. For slight injuries cold-water bandages and a few days' rest will be found sufficient. Should there be severe lameness or much swelling, a stream of cold water playing upon the leg will be found very beneficial. On the subsidence of the inflammation a blister should be applied to the joint. When the shoe of the hind foot strikes the heel or quarter of the fore foot the animal is said to overreach, a trouble common to trotting and running horses. When the hind foot catches well back on the heel of the fore foot the horse will frequently be thrown on his knees or the shoe torn from the fore foot, an accident known colloquially as grabbing. The art of the shoeing smith is demanded, if future injuries are to be avoided. Wounds should be dressed with tincture of aloes, oakum, and a roller bandage; and in any case the animal should never be driven at a very fast gait unless his heels and quarters are protected with quarter-boots. Heavy or draught horses are liable to calk wounds, caused from tramping either on themselves or each other. Good shoeing and the use of boots will be found the best remedy. Quittors (q.v.) have been authoritatively divided into four classes: (a) Cutaneous quittor; (b) tendinous quittor: (c) subhorny quittor; and (d) cartilaginous quittor. Thrush (q.v.) is more common with draught-horses than any other breed, and is usually caused by a filthy, ill-kept stable. Corns are injuries to the living horn of the foot, appearing in that part of the sole which is included in the angle between the bar and the outside wall of the hoof. They are described, according to the character of the conditions which follow the primary injury, as the dry, the moist, and the suppurative. The disease is confined almost exclusively to the fore feet, because of the greater weight which they support, and because the heel of the fore foot in action first strikes the ground and thus receives much more shock or concussion than the heel of the hind foot, in which the toe first makes contact with the ground. Faulty shoeing is the great predisposing cause, or else the presence of small stones or other objects between the sole and shoe. Lameness caused by bruises of the frog is best treated by putting the foot at once in a bath of cold water in order to prevent suppuration, which will frequently be effective if the disease is caught at the beginning. If suppuration, however, has already commenced, the horn of the frog and of the bars and branches of the sole, if necessary, is to be pared thin in order that the foot may be poulticed and all pressure removed. When the lameness has subsided and the exposed part covered by a new layer of horn, the foot may be shod. Punctured wounds of the foot are of everyday occurrence, and when they, as frequently happens, involve the more important organs contained in the hoof, no disease or wound can be more serious. Most frequently a ‘picked-up’ nail is the cause of trouble, and again the wounds may happen from sharp pieces of rock, glass, wire, etc. The nearer the injury is to the centre of the foot the more possibilities there are of disastrous results. Punctured wounds of the anterior parts of the sole are the more dangerous because of the possibility of injury to the coffin-bone, the most serious wounds being those which puncture the centre of the foot. Sometimes it happens that a nail has penetrated the frog and remained there for several days without causing lameness, the first evidence of an injury betraying itself when the foot is being cleaned. It must be remembered that if the injury is not too deep, suppuration will be established before lameness develops, so that the feet should always be most closely scrutinized. Should the coffin-joint have been penetrated either by the external cause or by the process of suppuration, an acute inflammation of the joint will follow, which will be invariably accompanied by high fever as well as loss of appetite. The treatment recommended in all cases of punctured wounds is the thinning down of the horn near the seat of injury, a free opening created for the escape of suppurated matter, and the foot itself placed in a poultice. Where the injury is not serious, recovery in a few days' time is ordinarily assured; but where serious injuries have been inflicted, the foot should be treated to a cold bath or the stream of cold water described in the treatment for quittor (q.v.). Contracted heels, or, as it is more frequently called, hoof-bound, is common among saddle-horses and those kept on hard floors in dry stables. Ordinarily, but one foot is affected at a time, and it affects the fore feet principally. The disease itself is an atrophy or shrinking of the tissues of the foot, which diminishes in particular the diameter of the heels. Another very prevalent cause is faulty shoeing, although it sometimes happens that it results from other diseases of the foot, as, for instance, thrush, side bones, corns, etc. The disease is indicated by a pinched and shrunken frog, high heels, long bars, straight walls, and hoof so dry that it is almost impossible to cut it. The treatment consists first of all of preventive measures. The feet are kept moist and the horn is prevented from drying