street
nails. This does not include accidental nail pricks occasioned in
shoeing. In city practice, in some stables, these cases are of frequent
occurrence; and, generally speaking, nail punctures are observed more
frequently in urban horses than in animals that are kept in the country.

Occurrence and Method of Examination.--This condition, then, is a
rather common cause of lameness and in no case, where cause of the
claudication is not obvious, is the practitioner warranted in concluding
his examination without careful search for the possible existence of
nail puncture of the solar surface of the foot.

[Illustration: Fig. 39--Skiagraph of foot. The X-ray offers very limited
possibilities in the diagnosis of lameness. The location of a "gravel"
or a nail that had worked its way some distance from the surface, or of
an abscess of some proportion, deep in the tissues, might be facilitated
under some circumstances by the aid of the X-ray. Its use in the
detention of fractures is very limited, owing to the difficulty
encountered in getting a view from the right position--many trials being
necessary in most cases. The case shown above was diagnosed clinically
as incipient ringbone. The X-ray revealed no lesions. (Photo by L.
Griessmann.)]

In occasional instances there co-exists an obvious cause for
supporting-leg-lameness and an occult cause--a nail puncture. Where such
complications are met, the practitioner is not necessarily guilty of
neglect or carelessness when the nail puncture is not discovered at
once, nevertheless, an examination is not complete until practically
every possible cause of lameness has been located or excluded in any
given case.

In a search for nail puncture it is necessary to expose to view every
portion of the sole and frog in such manner that the existence of the
smallest possible wound will be revealed. This necessitates removal of
the shoe, if, after a preliminary examination, a puncture is not found,
when there is good reason to suspect its presence. However, where it is
readily possible to locate and care for a wound without removal of the
shoe, allowing the shoe to remain materially facilitates retaining
dressings in position and relieves the solar surface of contact with the
ground. If extensive injury or infection exists, it is of course
necessary to remove the shoe and leave it off. By removing a superficial
portion of all of the sole and frog, thus carefully and completely
exposin