All this is enough, and more than enough, to lead the veterinary surgeon to examine the foot.  It is hot to the touch, and at the coronet tender to pressure, possibly in a neglected case fluctuating at the heel.  Pain is evinced by the animal withdrawing his foot when percussion takes place over the affected spot.  In a bad case one gentle tap is all that is needed.  The animal at once snatches away his foot, holds it high from the ground, and makes pawing movements in the air.  At that moment, too, his countenance is highly expressive of the pain he is suffering.  Again the foot is explored, the injury found, and the pus liberated.

Regarding the manner of exploration of the foot we will take first that case in which the veterinary surgeon is called in early, and in which pus has not yet had time to form.  Sometimes the merest cleaning up of the inferior surface of the foot then reveals a distinct stab either in the sole or the frog.

If the accident be recent only a little blood will be found, either liquid, or coagulated about the wound.  Later there exudes from the stab a flow of yellow, serous fluid.  The opening thus found should be carefully probed, and its depth and situation noted.

At other times the prick is not so readily apparent.  The nail or other object has penetrated and afterwards withdrawn itself.  The natural elasticity of the horn, especially that of the frog, causes it to contract upon the puncture, and to largely obliterate the hole made.  What, therefore, may look to be but a simple injury to the horn alone may in reality be the only evidence of a stab complicating the sensitive structures.  It thus behoves the veterinary surgeon to follow up and carefully cut out any unnatural-looking mark in the horn, more especially if the horn is discoloured, or if blood is extravasated into its fibres, or there is moisture exuding from the part.

In some cases of this description the knife in the act of paring comes into contact with the cause of the trouble.  Sometimes this is a nail, sometimes a sharp and small piece of flint, so deeply penetrated as to have become quite buried.  When met with in this manner, however, the foreign body is more often than not a splinter of wood deeply embedded in the cleft of the frog or in the frog itself.

The fact that multiple punctures may occur should here be remembered, and the remainder of the inferior surface of the foot thinly pared.

On withdrawal of the foreign object blood may immediately follow.  Should the former have been fixed in position for some time, however, pus is nearly always found at the bottom of the wound.  As a rule, its removal is comparatively easy, but one case recalls itself to the author’s mind in which the extraction was a matter of considerable difficulty.  The offending object was a large, flat-headed nail, some 2 inches long.  This was driven fast into the os pedis, and necessitated the employment of a pair of pincers and the exertion of some amount of force to move it from its position.