Should sloughing and ulceration have commenced, that condition claims the first attention as being the most dangerous.
Forbear all exercise while such a state exists. Throw up the animal. Allow it to rest in the stable. Give a few bran mashes or a little cut grass to open the bowels; but do not take the horse out even for exercise while such an unhealthy action is in existence. Ulceration is too dangerous and morbid a process not to be treated with every consideration; and it is far too irritable and painful a state not to necessitate perfect inaction for its relief. Apply the following to the heels:—
Wash for Ulcerated Cracked Heels.
| Animal glycerin or phosphoric acid | Two ounces. |
| Permanganate of potash or creosote | Half an ounce. |
| Water | Three ounces. |
| Mix, and apply six times daily. |
Upon the ulceration being arrested, the last prescription may be discarded, and the former recipe resorted to; with these, however, it is always well to attend to the constitution. A drink, each day, composed of liquor arsenicalis, half an ounce; tincture of the muriate of iron, one ounce; water, half a pint, should be given every night. This composition has been often recommended, but the author knows of none which is more beneficially tonic to the general system, and which, at the same time, acts so directly upon the skin.
Stablemen are fond of urging various excuses to hide their disinclination for exertion. Thus it is common for such people to assert that the horse's heels cracked while the animal was out on a cold, a wet, or a windy day: this is nonsense. Stablemen, of course, do not desire the creatures which they look after to be exposed to that soil which it is their duty to remove; but nature, that ordained the climate, formed the animal to endure it.
Were not the heels clipped, nothing short of extreme stable neglect could occasion those parts to crack. If the hair is removed, nothing but excessive good fortune will prevent this affection. The groom in the last case is not to blame, should the heels become sore. However, the best method of avoiding this affection, where the hair is cut short, experience has proved to be the following: Upon return to the stable, wash the feet scrupulously clean with cold water; then dry them thoroughly. Use several cloths to effect the latter purpose, and do not relinquish the object while the slightest moisture remains; nor cease to rub them until the parts are in a glow. Subsequently, smear over the heels a little glycerin; but even this will not in every instance prevent the affection. No care can render safe that which human folly has exposed.