_Treatment._--Preventive measures include the use of boots to protect
the coronet of the hind foot and of a blunt calk on the outside heel of
the fore shoe, since this is generally the offending instrument when the
fore feet are injured. If the wound is not deep and the soreness slight,
cold-water bandages and a light protective dressing, such as carbolized
cosmoline, will be all that is needed. When the injury is deep, followed
by inflammation and suppuration of the coronary band, lateral
cartilages, sensitive laminae, etc., active measures must be resorted to.
Cold, astringent baths, made by adding 2 ounces of sulphate of iron to 1
gallon of water, should be used, followed by poultices, if it is
necessary to hasten the cleansing of the wound by stimulating the
sloughing process. If the wound is deep between the horn and the skin,
especially over the anterior tendon, the horn should be cut away so that
the injured tissues may be exposed. The subsequent treatment in these
cases should follow the directions given in the article on toe cracks.

FROSTBITES.

Excepting the ears, the feet and legs are about the only parts of the
horse liable to become frostbitten. The cases most commonly seen are
found in cities, especially among car horses, where salt is used for the
purpose of melting the snow on curves and switches. This mixture of
snow and salt is splashed over the feet and legs, rapidly lowering the
temperature of the parts to the freezing point. In mountainous
districts, where the snowfall is heavy and the cold often intense,
frostbites are not uncommon, even among animals running at large.

_Symptoms._--When the frosting is slight the skin becomes pale and
bloodless, followed soon after by intense redness, heat, pain, and
swelling. In these cases the hair may fall out and the epidermis peel
off, but the inflammation soon subsides, the swelling disappears, and
only an increased sensitiveness to cold remains.

In more severe cases irregular patches of skin are destroyed and after a
few days slough away, leaving slow-healing ulcers behind. If produced by
low temperatures and deep snow, the coronary band is the part most often
affected.

In many instances there is no destruction of the skin, but simply a
temporary suspension of the horn-producing function of the coronary
band. The fore feet are more often affected than the hind ones, and the
heels and quarters are less often involved than the front part of the
f