LAMENESS IN HOUSES.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 18 September 1912, Page 1

LAMENESS IN HOUSES.

While every novice with his first horse thinks himself capable of giving the smith instruction, old hands expect him to make cripples go sound, no matter what their defects. "When ii is actually proved that a horse has been pricked in shoeing, it does not necessarily follow that the farrier is to blame a horse will plunge at the moment of driving the nail, or the horse standing next him is frightened by the "sparks that fly like chaff from the threshing floor," and sees more danger than poetry'proceeding. Or a nail will sometimes " sliver " or split at the end ; especially does this apply to handmade nails, which are rapidly disappearing with the starvelings who make them. Again, it often happens that a horse may be lamed in shoeing by the nail going so near the sensitive part that it presses upon the quick and causes lameness after a few hours or days. There is no absolute rule to be laid down as to how soou a prick will manifest itself ; it may shoV before the horse gets back to his stable, or fester after more than a week has elapsed. If he is observed to go " feel* ingly ". and the shoe is removed at once, he may be all right again immediately, or he may not. Many horses get a " stab " as farriers call it, and receive no other treatment than the pouring into the wound oL 1 a little nitric acid. If this had not proved successful, or at least not harmful, in many thousands of cases, we should say it is a barbarous custom ; but as nothing svcceeds like success, we must pass it by—unless, indeed, we stop to note the fact that modern knowledge of microbes explains how entirely satisfactory a remedy is that will at once and effectually exclude those pyogenic organisms which give rise to suppuration. If a horse is lame, and the cause is not actually known, it is bestv to consult a veterinary surgeon. The diagnosis of lameness is one of the most difficult branches of veterinary practice, and the counter prescriber who would do justice to his client will not attempt it. If a prick is known to be the cause of lameness, no time should be lost; in removing the shoe and enlarging the nail hole with a searcher, the practitioner not resting satisfied till the sensitive parts are discovered. The degree of lameness from pricks seems to be out of all proportion to the extent of injury, and a horse may be unable to bear the least weight upon the foot, though only a mere drop of matter, may be confined in it. Once this pus gets exit, the animal is greatly relieved. A matter like green sap is more often discovered "than pus ; it is decomposed horny matter, of characteristic colour and sulphretted odour. If pricks are not very quickly relieved by enlarging the orifice below, the matter makes its way upwaads in tne line of least resistance, coming out between hair and hoof, when it is a much more serious affair. If one is not called upon to treat it until this stage, a drain should be attempted below all the same, as sinuses are always feared, "which once established constitute quittor. The treatmeut of pricks consist, first of nil in having the nail-hole thoroughly paved out to give exit to any matter then placing the foot in hot water with an. antiseptic for about an hour, after which a poultice should be applied ; a poxiltice containing yeast is almost a* specific in foot treatment, the ferment drawing out much faster than a a ordinary p oulLice. A Jresh poultice should be put on every day for two or three diys until there is no discharge, after which the following oiuton a pledget of tow should be &tftte duced into .the wound and kepjOuelr hy means ©f strips of wood oftjhj^l % * 1:011 wedged under the shoe :Hfnf^Ml Cerae Flay 1 ounca 1 Z^IJHJ^^I Aclipis -} ounce * ' , Jps <'°^^^| 01 Nucus Coc I ounc3 #l# X^^^H Picis Archangel' 4 ounces £'\'Jfe '-li&i^^^l A dose of physic 'shttulj^tfy^^^H istered durihg the timeJ*2fl^^^| being poulticed. '"'",|l£^^^^^| lam etc.,' ~igj|^^^^H John 0. CawS^^^^^J P.S