Prognosis.—­In the case of sand-crack this should always be guarded.  It may be taken as a general rule that cracks commencing from the coronary margin are more troublesome to deal with than those originating below.  The reason is not far to seek.  They here affect the wall just where the bevel in it for the accommodation of the coronary cushion has rendered it weakest.  Not only is it weakest, but being more resilient than the portions below it, it suffers more from the alternate movements of expansion and contraction of the foot than does the horn below.

Although in many cases a cure of the existing crack may be easily accomplished, regard should be paid to the possibility of its recurrence, either in the same position or elsewhere.  Really, in offering an opinion as to the future usefulness of an animal so affected, a greater attention should be directed to the animal’s conformation than to the crack itself.  Where the vice of conformation giving rise to it (as, for example, contracted heels or upright hoof) gives hope of being remedied, then naturally it may be safely said that the liability to sand-crack goes with it.

A like favourable prognosis may be given in the case of cracks occasioned by purely accidental causes.

Ordinarily, however, cracks once commenced tend rather to increase than decrease in size and severity.  From being superficial and incomplete, they become complete and deep, with every unfavourable circumstance that an increase in size and depth brings with it.

This much, however, may be promised to the owner.  A simple crack, even though originating from the coronary margin, is, in the vast majority of cases, curable.  Under a rational treatment its increase in size may be prevented, and a sound wall caused to grow down from the coronet.

Treatment.—­The principles governing the treatment of sand-crack are simple enough in themselves, if not always followed by success.

1. Preventive.

This, as a rule, does not suggest itself until a crack of greater or less extent has made its appearance.  Then, simultaneously with the treatment proper of the lesion, preventive measures should be adopted, to aid both in the healing of the fissure already present, and to ward off the occurrence of others that might be likely to form.  The hoof, if abnormally brittle, should be regularly dressed with a suitable ointment (one containing glycerine for preference), and its horn kept as nearly as possible in a normal condition.  When the condition of the horn predisposing to its fracture is brought about by excessive wet, then the appropriate preventive measures to be adopted suggest themselves.

With regard to the lesion itself, we may term ‘preventive treatment’ all those measures having for their object the prevention of increase in the size of the crack.  They are as follows: