CHAPTER XXIL 

 How to Treat a Horse* 



Veterinary Hints from the Pen of a Man Who Has Used Them 

 in All His Practice for Sixty Years* 



Among the most virulent and fatal diseases indiginous 

 to this climate and also the most obstinate to treat come 

 under the heads of glanders and farcy. 



I speak of these difficulties mainly to enable the trainer 

 or any farmer to detect the symptoms and prevent their 

 spread, as they are extremely contagious for both man and 

 horse. They are incurable. 



To guard against the possibility of danger, when a case 

 is suspected, the only safe way is to at once either isolate or 

 destroy the animal. I depend mainly for the explanation 

 of these diseases upon several old authors. They fully 

 agree with the statements of modern authors that it is prac- 

 tically useless to tamper with the glanders. Farcy, in its 

 early stages, can be controlled without difficulty, but the 

 powerful medicine that it is necessary to use impairs the 

 constitution. In addition, the disease is liable to break out 

 again or develop glanders. Distinctive symptoms which 

 glanders present may be slow in their development, and 

 may continue for years before they are well denned, during 

 which time the horse may feed and work well. But chronic 

 glanders may finally become apparent. 



On the other hand, they may run on for two or three 

 weeks very rapidly and make their positive presence known 

 by well-defined marks. These cases soon come to a fatal 

 termination. 



When it is called acute glanders the coat becomes 

 rough and starring. The animal is usually hide-bound, the 

 belly drawn up, constitutional disturbances exist, pulse 

 easily excited, membrane lining of nostrils of a leaden hue, 

 glands inside lower jaw where pulse is felt enlarged, hard 

 and nodular, like a mass of peas or beans, especially on the 

 side from which the discharge takes place usually the left, 



