272 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



former, we recognize functional and organic disease of the stomach, bowels, 

 and liver; while in respect of the latter, we notice it to result from sudden 

 changes of environment, excessive labour, want of exercise, irregular feeding 

 and watering, hard water, bad food, imperfect mastication either from 

 greediness or defective teeth, excessive numbers of parasites, the habitual 

 use of artificial foods, and the abuse of drugs. 



Symptoms. — Loss of condition is in constant evidence in this disease. 

 manifested in leanness, an unthrifty coat, hidebound, and dry skin. The 

 appetite is variable, at one time ravenous and at another indifferent or 

 altogether absent. Licking the walls of the stable, grinding the teeth, 

 an occasional cough, crib-biting or wind-sucking also mark the presence 

 of chronic indigestion. When of long standing, it has been observed that 

 the hoofs become brittle and shelly in consequence of the well-recognized 

 sympathy that exists between the mucous membranes of the digestive 

 canal and the horn-secreting structures of the feet. The excrement emits 

 an unpleasant odour. Constipation is a more frequent symptom than 

 diarrhoea, but a looseness of the bowels is a common accompaniment of the 

 disorder with horses of that particular conformation known as " washy ". 

 A distended abdomen, and the occurrence of brief attacks of abdominal 

 pain, are symptoms that sometimes attract the owner's attention, though 

 he may have failed to attach special importance to them. 



Treatment. — Before attempting remedial measures, a searching inquiry 

 should be instituted into every detail of the animal's feeding, watering, 

 exercise, and management; the food being examined and the water sub- 

 jected to the ordinary inspection, and, if need be, analysis. The mouth 

 and teeth should receive special attention, as the whole difficulty may 

 arise out of some disease or disorder in them which renders mastication 

 imperfect. The character of the faeces and urine should be noted, not 

 once or twice, but daily. The former may contain parasites; it may be 

 abnormally pale, indicating impairment of the liver, or it may be coated 

 with mucous, indicating derangement of the bowels. Although after the 

 most exhaustive examination and inquiry the cause may not be discovered, 

 yet the symptoms may be ameliorated by a careful regimen, and assistance 

 afforded by the administration of some of those digestive tonics which 

 experience has proved to be so valuable. 



Though the food hitherto supplied to a subject of chronic indigestion 

 may be sound, and in every way suitable to another horse, change to some 

 other forage may be followed by early and marked improvement. In the 

 case of town -kept horses, long strangers to grass, the cause is often an 

 inactive liver, and a turn out at pasture is found to be the best remedy; 

 but a compromise may be effected in most large towns by the employment 



