where careful
curetting of the exposed and necrotic portions and the after application of
antiseptic dressings, held in position by a plate shoe or a leather sole,
has been followed by good results, and the animal restored for a time to
labour. In our opinion, however, early slaughter is the most economical
course to adopt, and certainly the wisest advice to give to the ordinary
client.

When perforation of the sole is absent, and when serious alteration in the
shape of the horny box has not occurred, then the most simple treatment is
to put the animal straight away to slow work, with the feet protected by
suitable shoes.

Here, again, the most useful shoe is the Rocker Bar (Fig. 119). The broad
web and deep seating gives ample protection to the convex sole, and with
the ease in distributing his weight that this shoe affords the animal is
able to perform slow work on soft lands with some degree of comfort.

Should the growth of the horn at the toe and at the heels be unduly
excessive, then our attention may be directed towards reducing it to some
approach to the normal. This is accomplished by removing with the rasp and
the knife those portions indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 127. Here it
will be seen that the bulk of the horn removed is that protruding at
the toe. After this the animal should again be suitably shod. In this
connection it should be noted that the fact of the animal walking largely
on the heels tends to a forward displacement of the shoe. This must be
prevented by providing each heel of the shoe with a clip, after the manner
shown in Fig. 128; or, in the case of a bar shoe, supplying it with a clip
at the centre of the bar.

[Illustration: FIG. 126.--DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING THE ABNORMAL GROWTH OF HORN
AT THE TOE AND HEELS OF THE FOOT WITH CHRONIC LAMINITIS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 127.--THE SAME FOOT AS IN FIG. 126. The dotted lines
show the excess of horn removed preparatory to shoeing.]

Among other treatments to be noted we may mention one or two to be found
chiefly in Continental works on this subject.

The method of Gross consists in thinning down with a rasp about 1-1/2
inches of the horn of the wall immediately below the coronet, the thinned
portion extending from heel to heel. The groove made is filled with
basilicon ointment,[A] and the coronet stimulated with a cantharides
ointment, In this way there is induced to grow from the coronet a new wall
of nearly normal dimensions.

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