[Illustration:  FIG. 131.—­EXTERNAL SEEDY-TOE COMMENCING ON THE ANTERIOR FACE OF THE WALL.]

Disease of the horn and loss of its substance may, however, also commence from without.  A report on this condition, under the title of ’External Seedy-Toe,’ is to be found in vol. xxix. of the Veterinary Journal, from which we borrow Figs. 130 and 131.

In Fig. 130 it will be seen that the disease commences at the plantar surface of the toe, and extends upwards and inwards.  The same condition may also appear anywhere between the coronet and the ground, gradually extending into the substance of the wall, as shown in Fig. 131.  According to the writer, Colonel Nunn, the progress of the disease in this latter case appears to be faster in a downward than in an upward direction.  This, however, is more apparent than real, as the rate of growth of the horn downwards detracts from the progress of the disease upwards, although it spreads over the horn at the same rate.

Before concluding the symptoms, we may again allude to the fact that, although usually occurring at the toe, the same condition may be met with in other positions—­namely, at either of the quarters.  In appearance and in other respects it is identical with that occurring at the toe.

When the animal is lame and the existence of seedy-toe is surmised, or when the cause of the lameness is altogether obscure, a little information may perhaps be gathered from noting the wear of the shoe.  If the animal has been going lame for any length of time as a result of disease in the sensitive laminae, then the shoe will be greatly thinned at the heels, and the toe but little worn.

Treatment.—­As with diseased structures elsewhere, the most rational treatment, when possible, is that of excision.  The entire portion of the wall forming the anterior boundary of the cavity is thinned down with the rasp and afterwards removed with the knife, wholly exposing the hypertrophied, but usually soft layer of horn covering the sensitive structures.  These hypertrophied portions are also removed, and every particle of the dust-like detritus cleaned away.  After-treatment consists in dressing the parts with a good hoof ointment, protecting them, if necessary, with a pad of tow and a stout bandage.  It may be that the removal of a large portion of the wall may for some time throw the animal out of work.  Acting on Colonel Fred Smith’s suggestion, this may be avoided by having made a thin plate of sheet-iron, slightly larger in circumference than the portion of horn removed, and shaped to follow the contour of the foot.  This made, it is sunk flush with the wall by hot-fitting it, and kept in position by several small steel screws fixed into the sound horn, just as in the treatment for sand-crack (see p. 174).  This will serve the useful purpose of maintaining in position any dressing that may be thought necessary, of acting as a support to the horn left on each side of the portion removed, and of keeping the exposed structures free from dirt and grit.