362 VETERINARY HYGIENE 



cause for the skin irritability, the animal should be treated as a 

 suspect and isolated accordingly. While positive evidence is 

 positive, negative evidence is not necessarily conclusive. So far 

 as is possible strange horses should not be allowed to put up even 

 for a short time in the stable. 



If compelled to stable one's horse in a common livery stable 

 in a town it is a wise precaution to carry a halter if it is at all 

 possible to do so. Under no circumstances should the grooming 

 tools in common use at a livery stable be used, as these are very 

 seldom cleaned, and are passed from one horse to another without 

 discrimination. If it can be avoided, harness should not be loaned; 

 inquiry into the source of origin of an outbreak of mange has often 

 shown that the owner of the infected animals lent a set of harness 

 to a friend who wished to try an intended purchase in harness and 

 had not a set himself that would fit. Once mange has been found 

 in a stud, the greatest care requires to be taken to prevent its spread 

 from one animal to another. If the stable management is good 

 and the horses are carefully attended to, mange should be detected 

 very soon after its introduction, but it is astonishingly true that 

 in a great many instances the disease has obtained a good hold 

 before the stable foreman thinks fit to take any action. 



As soon as the presence of either sarcoptic or psoroptic mange 

 is suspected, the police constable of the district must be 

 notified, the animal or animals isolated, and every precaution 

 taken to prevent its spread. Suspected animals may not be taken 

 outside the premises without the written consent of the veterinary 

 inspector. All the harness and grooming kit must be carefully dis- 

 infected (see pages 218 and 225), the bedding must be kept separate 

 from that of non-infected animals, and the animals themselves 

 should, if conditions permit, be isolated in a stable apart from the 

 rest of the stud. If there is only one stable, then the infected 

 should be segregated and kept as far apart from the rest as pos- 

 sible. The stalls from time to time must be well cleaned and dis- 

 infected, and receive a final disinfection when the horses are con- 

 sidered cured. If all the stalls in the stable are occupied, there 

 may be considerable difficulty in getting them cleaned and disin~ 

 fected so that there are clean stalls in which to put the horses as 

 the disease becomes progressively less infective. It is obviously 

 of little use to attempt to cure a horse of mange while leaving him 

 in a stall that harbours the parasites. Where there is more than 

 one horse affected a man should be set aside to give his whole time 

 to them, thus not only is the disease overcome with greater celerity, 

 but there is less chance of the clean animals becoming infected. 



