E. ACCIDENTAL TEARING OFF OF THE ENTIRE HOOF.

Causes.—­Seeing that this accident to, and consequent severe wounding of, the keratogenous membrane nearly always occurs in but one way, it is worthy of special mention.  So far as we are able to ascertain, it is an accident peculiar to horses continually engaged in shunting operations either in pits or station-yards.  At the moment the animal is released from the waggon he has been pulling, and should turn to the right or the left in order to allow it to pass him, the shoe either becomes wedged in between two converging rails, or is trapped by the wheel of the waggon.  Either the approaching waggon with the added weight its impetus gives it then pushes the animal suddenly away, leaving a part of his foot still fixed to the rails, or the animal himself, feeling securely held, makes a sudden effort to release himself, and draws his foot cleanly out of the imprisoned horny box.

The author calls to mind a case in which entire removal of the horn of the foot of an ox occurred through the passing over it of the wheel of a heavily-laden cart.  It is therefore quite conceivable that the same accident might occur to the horse.  As a matter of fact, we find one case on record where one-half of the horny box was thus removed.[A]

[Footnote A:  Veterinary Record, vol. xiii., p. 129.]

So far as we are able to gather, it is more a result of imprisonment of the shoe than of the foot.  It appears, further, to be always a result of the animal being newly shod, and the clinches firmly secured; so much so that it would be probable, with imperfectly secured clinches, that the animal would draw the hoof from the clinches and the shoe rather than the foot from its horny covering.

Therefore, as the author of one of the cases we shall afterwards relate suggests, it should be proposed as a preventive that the shoe-nails of animals regularly engaged in work on the metals should not be clinched in the regulation manner, but should have their points merely screwed off, and the nails afterwards rasped level with the wall.

These cases are particularly interesting as illustrating the rapid manner in which a new hoof is afterwards formed, and the way in which the exposed sensitive laminae take their share in adding to, though not forming the bulk of, the horn of the wall.

From the cases we are able to record it will be seen that this accident need not be looked upon as fatal, nor the injury itself beyond hope of repair.  Dependent largely upon the temperament of the animal, the amount of pain that is caused, and the way in which the animal bears it, recovery may be looked for.  Even from the very commencement of the accident, however, the pain may be so acute and the animal so violent with it that slaughter becomes necessary.

Treatment.—­This consists in applying an antiseptic and sedative dressing to the injured parts (for example, Carbolized Oil and Tincture of Opium, equal parts) and afterwards bandaging.