DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. • 39 



sense would have said, if nature is trying to sweat the horse, let 

 us help her, and the man would have got right out and put on a 

 blanket. Then he would let the horse stand right still. Usually 

 in from five to ten minutes he will take a long breath and then 

 you can let him walk a short distance. If you are far from 

 home, do not try to get home. Do not try to hurry and get 

 medicine ; you do not need any great amount of medicine. Go 

 to the nearest farm house and get some hot water and if possible 

 a piece of old rag carpet. It is the ideal thing because it is 

 alw^ays a yard wide and a piece of it is usually long enough to 

 run the whole length of the animal's spine, and there is where 

 the congestion would be, if any. Wring that out of hot water 

 and lay it along the spine and put on a dry blanket, over it. And 

 do not give the horse anything to eat. Here is where a mistake 

 is often made. About the time he begins to feel all right he 

 wants to eat, and the man will wonder if the horse will eat, and 

 nine times out of ten will go and throw him a mess of feed. 

 People think if a horse can eat he is all right. I have seen the 

 housewife, and the sons and daughters feed him. He does not 

 need a bit of feed for the next twelve hours, at any rate, and 

 then a little light bran mash. I know there are men who would 

 have said that horse had congestion of the kidneys. Not one 

 time in fifty have I ever found any disease of the kidneys what- 

 ever. They would think so from the high colored discharges. 

 The office work of the kidneys is to carry off the waste mate- 

 rial, and they were doing their very best. I have seen horses 

 killed by giving them drugs for their kidneys. The man will 

 send to the drug store and get that wonderful remedy, spirits 

 of nitre. What is that? It is a diuretic, or a kidney irritator. 

 If the kidneys were irritated and you gave nitre it would be like 

 trying to put your fire out with kerosene oil. If the horse 

 needed any medicine it would be a mild physic, three-fourths of 

 an ounce of barbadoes or lucrative aloes. 



How could this trouble have all been prevented? When an 

 idle day comes, cut your ration right in two. Then the trouble 

 need not occur. If it does occur, follow the line of treatment I 

 have given you and you will save a valuable animal. 



