Diseases of the Horse's Foot

by H. Caulton Reeks

3. KERAPHYLLOCELE.

Definition.—By this term is indicated an enlargement forming on the inner surface of the wall. In shape and extent these enlargements vary. Usually they are rounded and extend from the coronary cushion to the sole, sometimes only as thick as an ordinary goose-quill, at other times reaching the size of one's finger. Often they are irregular in formation and flattened from side to side.

FIG. 132.—A PORTION OF THE HORN OF THE WALL AT THE TOE REMOVED IN ORDER TO SHOW A KERAPHYLLOCELE ON ITS INNER SURFACE.

Causes.—Keraphyllocele is very often a sequel to the changes occurring at the toe in laminitis. Probably, however, the most common cause is an injury upon, or a crack through, the wall. It may thus occur from excessive hammering of the foot, from violent kicking against a wall or the stable fittings, and from the injury to the coronet known as 'tread.' It may also occur as a sequel to complicated sand-crack, and to chronic corn.

That fissures in the wall are undoubtedly a cause has been placed on record by the late Professor Walley, who noticed the appearance of these horny growths following upon the operation of grooving the wall.[A]

[Footnote A: Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, vol. iii, p. 170.]

This gentleman had a large Clydesdale horse under his care for a bad sand-crack in front of the near hind-foot, and, as the lameness was extreme, he adopted his usual method of treatment—viz., rest, fomentations, poulticing, and the making of the V-shaped section through the wall, and subsequently the application of an appropriate bar shoe to the foot, and repeated blisters to the coronet. In a short time the lameness passed off, and the horse was put to work. A few days later the animal met with an accident, and was killed.

On examining a section of the hoof it was found that a vertical horny ridge corresponding to the external fissure had been formed on the internal surface of the wall, and that a well-marked cicatrix extended upwards through the structure of the hoof at the part forming the cutigeral groove; furthermore, a similar ingrowth had been taking place in the line of the oblique incisions made for the relief of the sand-crack.