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The Country Gentleman' s Magazine 



disease, will in most cases recover, if the 

 case is taken in hand early and treated 

 properly; but if an animal, apparently 

 suffering from colic, has a calculus 

 formed in his intestines, then it is an obstruc- 

 tion, and not colic that he is really suffering 

 from, and recovery then is uncertain ; but in 

 ordinary cases of colic, when treated early 

 and treated properly, ninety-nine out of a hun- 

 dred will recover. Colic sometimes terminates 

 more unfavourably. It is not at all uncom- 

 mon to find strangulation of the bowels result 

 from colic. If horses suffering from that 

 complaint are allowed to roll and tumble 

 about and do as they think proper, mischief 

 in many forms may take place. A horse 

 suffering from either spasmodic or flatulent 

 colic can be subjected to no better ameliora- 

 tive treatment than walking (not galloping) 

 him quietly about. It can do no possible 

 harm. Some may say it excites circulation 

 and gives rise to inflammation of the bowels, 

 but is that more likely to do it than for the 

 horse to be rolling and tumbling itself about? 

 He had known great mischief resulting from 

 the latter cause, and had seen three cases 

 where the intestinal mesentery had been 

 twisted completely round, and in such case 

 there is very little hope of recovery. Other 

 bad results also come from the horses roll- 

 ing and tumbling about. If colic is not 

 treated, and the bowels are allowed to re- 

 main in a spasmodic state for some period, 

 inflammatory action sets in, and in nine 

 hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a 

 thousand the result is fatal. If colic be not 

 properly and early treated_, there is risk of a 

 condition of bowel taking place which sel- 

 dom, if in any cases, becomes righted — one 

 portion of the intestines slips inside another 

 portion, and that state of things is called 

 intersusception, from which a horse seldom 

 recovers, although the same thing in men is 

 sometimes righted. 



TREATMENT OF THE DISEASE. 



Having now described the diseases, he 

 was willing to tell them what he could as to 

 the best mode of treating them, but he warned 

 them that unless they were perfectly satisfied . 



that they knew what the disease was, they 

 had better not attempt to follow out his treat- 

 ment, as under such circumstances it might 

 do more harm than good. Now supposing 

 they were satisfied a horse was suffering from 

 colic or gripes, they would be justified in ad- 

 ministering diffusible stimulants combined 

 with opiates. He would give from i to 

 T-Yz ounces of sweet spirits of nitre, 

 combined with i ounce of tincture of 

 opium. He would give the first with the 

 view of bringing about a diffusion of nervous 

 force, of which they had too much heaped 

 up in the bowels, and would give the latter 

 with a view of alleviating pain, both on the 

 ground of charity and prudence. Supposing 

 they were satisfied they had a case of spas- 

 modic action of the bowels, and were certain 

 it arose from indigestible food, he would 

 advise that the same medicines should be 

 given combined with a bold purgative — he 

 should say aloes. Some would choose oil, but 

 in his mind the safest purgative for a horse 

 was aloes ; and, as aloes were often adul- 

 terated, care should be taken to get the best 

 Barbadoes aloes. If it was for a cart horse, 

 he would give 6 drachms of aloes in a state 

 of solution, or combined with powder of 

 opium. The dose might seem large, but 

 experience shewed him it was quickly carried 

 off by the kidneys, and that the dose might 

 be repeated in twenty-four hours. He re- 

 membered a case in which he gave 36 

 drachms of aloes in thirty - six hours, 

 and the horse recovered. The aloes 

 was consumed by the kidneys, but in 

 the case of oil it must remain in the 

 intestines till it came out at the anus. 

 Further, the horse should be quietly walked 

 about, as he had already advised. Then 

 supposing, after the administration of the 

 antispasmodic draught in an ordinary case of 

 colic, there was no sign of relief in one or 

 one-and-a-half hour, he should not hesitate 

 to repeat the dose, and if, after three hours, 

 there was still no relief, and no symptoms of 

 inflammation setting in, then he should not 

 hesitate to give a dose of purgative medicine. 

 All the while they were treating a case of 

 that kind, they must be on the look-out for 



