308 REPORT ON THE DISEASES OF FARM HORSES. 



No. 3. 



Sulphuric acid 1 dram. 



Powdered gentian 2 to 4 do. 



"Water 6 ounces. 



To be given three or four times daily. 



Preventive measures are those advocated for colic, &c. A 

 course of chalybeates should follow recovery — say 2 drams sul- 

 phate of iron, twice daily. 



Dysentery is an aggravated formof diarrhoea, attended with 

 inflammation of the mucous membrane of the intestines, mostly 

 the large, and accompanied with ulceration and bleeding, hence 

 the name of bloody flux. The causes are those which have been 

 enumerated under diarrhoea, long continued. Two forms are 

 observed, the acute and chronic. While the acute depends 

 upon those conditions in which the blood is at fault, the chronic 

 will arise from or out of those which produce simple diarrhoea, 

 if persistent. Horses taken up from low marshy soils contract 

 the disease, which proves very frequently intractable. I have 

 seen it in several instances where animals who, having been left 

 in the low lying meadows, and surrounded by floods for some 

 days, or even a week or two, have been driven to the highest 

 ground, where but scanty food existed for them. Many of such 

 cases terminated fatally. 



Symptoms.-— In addition to the constant painful bloody and 

 fluid discharges from the bowels, we have a weak, and often in- 

 distinct pulse, mouth moist, but hot and offensive, unequal tem- 

 perature, rapid emaciation and accumulation of vermin in the 

 skin, the hair is easily removed, colicky pains are present, the 

 eyes are dull, and not unfrequently a discharge takes place from 

 them. There is tendency towards gaseous distension within the 

 bowels, and discharge of flatus with the fasces, and bubbles are 

 seen floating in the excrement. In some localities, this disease 

 is known by the name of molten grease, from the quantity of 

 mucus which is passed from the bowels. 



After death, which is protracted in the chronic variety, and 

 varies from three or four days to as many weeks, we find a red- 

 dish discoloration of the mucous membranes of the bowels, with 

 an ©edematous state, not unlike jelly in appearance ; the 

 epithelium is easily removed, and in some instances there is 

 lymph effused, a condition in which the whole of the alimentary 

 canal more or less participates, with abrasions or ulcerations, 

 which vary in extent and number, and, in some instances, abso- 

 lutely perforating the intestines. 



Treatment. — In acute cases, use emolient clysters and mild 

 aperients ; pay particular attention to principles of comfort and 

 cleanliness, all of which are sure aids towards effecting a cure. 

 Administer half a dram of opium and calomel three times a day 



