This is rarely seen among cattle. It may occur in weak walls, in heavily bodied cattle, caused by stepping on an uneven surface, especially when the point of the toe is grown out long. One may find the point of the toe broken and the wall split almost up to the hair.
Treatment.—The divided sections may be brought into approximation and held in place by drilling a small hole from one side into and through the other, commencing half an inch back of the fissure on each side; then drive a light horseshoe nail through the hole and clinch it. Pare the injured claw as short as it will bear.
INTERDIGITAL FIBROMA.
Hard, nodular, fibrous tumors sometimes grow in the cleft of the foot, and cause inconvenience, lameness, absorption, or ulceration of the contiguous parts.
Treatment.—They should be dissected out and the wound dressed with carbolic-acid lotion and pine tar once a day until healing is completed.
DEFORMITIES.
Deformities in the feet of cattle usually consist in overgrowth of horn, generally from want of wear in animals which are stabled. The hoof may turn inward, outward, or upward, and may give rise to lameness, inability to walk, foul foot, etc. Bulls which are continually stabled and dairy cows very frequently have misshapen feet from want of an occasional trimming, and this deformity may eventually lead to permanent injury.
Treatment.—Cut the superabundant growth of horn down with saw, knife, or rasp, until the foot assumes its natural form.
PRICKS AND WOUNDS.
If an animal suffers with a penetrating wound from prick of fork or nail, the orifice of the wound should be enlarged to permit a free discharge of pus; then the foot should be soaked in a cresol compound solution (3 per cent) in a tub, or a flaxseed poultice applied, changing it three times a day until the fever has abated. The foot should be kept bandaged and dressed with pine tar and oakum; the animal must also be kept on a clean floor until the wound is closed and all or nearly all lameness has disappeared.