_Treatment._—First of all, the discovered causes should be removed, or, if this is not possible, as is frequently the case, they should be ameliorated. Very often the lameness may be removed by proper shoeing, a change in the animal’s work, and better care of the hoof. When there is intense inflammation within the foot, the shoe should be removed for a few days. When the inflammation is moderate and confined to a small area, it is usually sufficient to alter the shoeing by regulating unnatural relations of height in the different parts of the wall, and by removing all superfluous horn from the wall and sole (to a less degree from the frog), partly for the purpose of rendering the horn capsule more yielding, and partly to make the poultices which are used more effective. The shoe is then to be so applied that the diseased region will be _relieved of the body-weight_, and will remain free from all pressure from the shoe. This can be done partly by making the underlying branch of the shoe somewhat wider and longer than the other, and partly by cutting down the bearing-edge of the wall where this is possible without weakening it too much, otherwise by concaving or beating down the upper surface of the shoe. By reason of the fact that the posterior half of the hoof is the seat of most diseases of the hoof, it is to be recommended that the nail-holes in shoes used in these diseases be placed as far as possible in the anterior half of the shoe, and in some special cases distributed evenly around the toe. Among shoes suitable for diseased hoofs the bar-shoe (Fig. 185) holds the first place, because it renders superfluous many other shoes specially designed for various diseases of the hoof. It is made like an ordinary flat shoe, except that it requires a somewhat longer piece of iron; the ends of the branches are bent inward over a dull corner of the anvil, bevelled, laid one over the other, and welded together to form the bar. The width and thickness of the bar should be the same as of the rest of the shoe, and its frog-surface should be slightly concave. The _bar-shoe is valuable, because_ it protects from pressure diseased sections of the wall which have been laid free, allows part of the body-weight to be borne by the frog, and restores normal activity to the disturbed physiological movements of the foot. By using it we can either gain a more extensive bearing-surface for the hoof, or can make it easier for the surface that bears the weight to do the work. If on account of _weakness_ of the bearing-surface of the hoof, or from any other cause, we wish to distribute the body-weight over the entire plantar surface of the foot with the exception of the painful region, we add a _leather sole_ to the bar-shoe.