64 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



operating. There is always danger of superpurgation if a physic is 

 given to a horse suffering from diseases of the respiratory organs. 

 Small and often-repeated physics are also to be avoided, as they pro- 

 duce debility and great depression of the system and predispose to 

 this disorder. When a physic is to be given one should rest the horse 

 and give him sloppy food until the medicine begins to operate ; clothe 

 the body with a warm blanket; keep out of drafts; give only w-arm 

 water in small quantities. After a horse has purged from tw^elve to 

 twenty-four hours it can mostly be stopped, or " set," as horsemen 

 say, by feeding on dry oats and hay. Should the purging continue, 

 however, it is best treated by giving demulcent drinks — linseed tea 

 and oatmeal or wheat-flour gruel. After this the astringents spoken 

 of for diarrhea may be given. Besides this the horse is to receive 

 brandy in doses of from 2 to 4 ounces, with milk and eggs, four or 

 live times a day. 



Laminitis " founder " is a frequent sequel of superpurgation and 

 is to be guarded against by removing the shoes and standing the horse 

 on moist sawdust or some similar bedding. 



Dysentery. — This disease, sometimes called ^ bloody flux," is an 

 intestinal disease attended with fever, occasional abdominal pains, 

 and fluid discharges mingled with blood. Discharges in dysentery 

 are coffee colored or bloody, liquid, and very offensive in odor, and 

 passed with much straining. It is rare in the horse, but is sometimes 

 (|uite prevalent among foals. 



Causes. — Probably the most common cause is keeping young horses 

 •in particular for a long time on low^, wet, marshy pastures, without 

 other feed (a diarrhea of long standing sometimes terminates in dys- 

 entery) ; exposure during cold, wet weather; decomposed foods; stag- 

 nant water that contains large quantities of decomposing vegetable 

 matter; low, damp, and dark stables, particularly if crow^ded; the 

 existence of some disease, as tuberculosis of the abdominal form. In 

 suckling foals it may come from feeding the dam on irritant foods or 

 from disease of the udder. In other foals it may be produced by 

 exposure to cold and damp, to irritant food, or to w orms. 



Symptoms. — The initial sjmiptom is a chili, wdiich probably escapes 

 notice in the majority of instances. The discharges are offensive and 

 for the most part liquid, although it is cominon to find lumps of solid 

 fecal matter floating in this liquid portion ; shreds of mucous mem- 

 brane and blood may be passed, or the evacuations may be muco-puru- 

 lent; there is much straining, and, rarely, symptoms of abdominal 

 pain; the subject lies down a great deal; the j^ulse is quickened and 

 the temperature elevated. Thirst is a prominent symptom. In the 

 adult, death rarely follows under tw^o to three weeks, but in foals the 

 disease may end in death after a few days. 



Treatment. — This is most unsatisfactory, and I am inclined to place 



