Another artifice is to draw a hot iron over the sole at every shoeing. The intention is to stimulate the horn and thus render the sole of greater thickness. But that which may affect the secreting membrane of the foot may also stimulate the bone to which that membrane is attached. Thus the intended remedy may turn out to be a positive aggravation. There are also other methods of intended relief, but all are equally useless.
A PUMICED FOOT DIVIDED.
Showing the altered state of the internal structures.
A DISH SHOE.
Employed in cases of severe pumice foot.
The only means of real benefit lies in the treatment of the hoof and in the mode of shoeing. For the last, select what is denominated a "dish" shoe; that is, a bar shoe, having the web hollowed out like to the sides of a pie-dish. The only part of this shoe which touches the ground is the rim of the inner circle.
This kind of shoe will protect the bulging sole, and if shod with leather, the protection will be greater, though the shoe will, in that case, be more difficult to retain. The flat surface at the posterior part of the shoe presents a point for the bearing of the frog, which can afford almost any amount of pressure. The many nail holes made around the shoe denote the difficulty the smith encounters when fixing a protection of this sort upon the pumiced hoof. The crust of the foot is always brittle, and the weight of iron employed being greater than usual requires an extra number of nails to fasten it securely. The smith consequently, in such cases, has no choice. He must drive a nail wherever he can find the horn which will sustain one.
With regard to the horn, keep that continually dressed with equal parts of animal glycerin and tar. Moisten the hoof with this mixture twice a day. No improvement may be remarked in a week; but in two or three months the crust will have become perceptibly less brittle, and the labor of the smith will be rendered far less perplexing. For the abnormal condition of the foot—that is permanent and nothing can be done beyond employing such artifices as are calculated to relieve the affliction.