Trench foot
Trench foot can be prevented by keeping the feet clean, warm, and dry. It was also discovered in World War I that a key preventive measure was regular foot inspections; soldiers would be paired and each made responsible for the feet of the other, and they would generally apply whale oil to prevent trench foot. If left to their own devices, soldiers might neglect to take off their own boots and socks to dry their feet each day, but if it were the responsibility of another, this became less likely. Later on in the war, instances of trench foot began to decrease, probably as a result of the introduction of the aforementioned measures; of wooden duckboards to cover the muddy, wet, cold ground of the trenches; and of the increased practice of troop rotation, which kept soldiers from prolonged time at the front.
Treatment of equine lameness
DDFT tenotomy is usually recommended in cases of laminitis and coffin bone rotation that is chronic or non-responsive to other forms of treatment. Transection of the DDFT reduces the pull on the bottom of the coffin bone, and subsequently decreases the stress placed on the laminae of the hoof. A horse will not be athletically useful following a DDFT tenotomy, with a best-case scenario of the animal returning to pasture soundness or possibly for comfortable enough for light pleasure riding. It is therefore considered a salvage procedure to improve the quality of life of the horse, often as final effort to avoid euthanasia. This procedure may be performed standing under local anesthesia. The DDFT is cut at the level of the mid-cannon or mid-pastern, although the mid-cannon is preferred to avoid the flexor tendon sheath. A DDFT tenotomy can also be used to treat severe cases of flexural limb deformity in foals, but it is also a salvage procedure and prevents the animal from any future athletic use.