Patent ID: 7762048

Claim:
A hoof boot assembly, the hoof boot assembly for treating a hoof, the hoof boot assembly comprising: an outer hoof-enveloping casing, the casing being constructed from an elastic material, the elastic material being of uniform, integral material construction and comprising a relaxed casing state; an inner cavity-filling core, the core being received within the casing, the core being constructed from a viscoelastic material, the core having upper and lower core surfaces, a uniform relaxed core thickness intermediate the upper and lower core surfaces, and a uniform, horseshoe-shaped area perpendicular to the core thickness, the core thus having a relaxed core volume defined by the product of the core thickness and the horseshoe-shaped area; and a medicament, the medicament being pre-applied to the upper core surface of the core and deliverable therefrom to a target treatment site via viscoelastically back-stressing the core to a third core volume lesser in magnitude relative to the second core volume, the boot assembly being outfittable upon a hoof such that the casing envelopes the hoof in a first actuated casing state, the core compressibly fills a hoof cavity thereof in a first compressed core state, and the medicament topically treats the target treatment site, the casing being elastically actuable to a second actuable casing state and the core being creep-compressible to a second compressible core state during hoof loading, the casing being elastically returnable to the first actuated casing state and the core being creep-returnable to the first compressed core state during hoof unloading, the hoof boot assembly thus for treating the outfitted hoof.