DIAERHCEA 287 



otherwise of working mares while suckling, we may remind readers un- 

 acquainted with the details of farming, that foals arrive at a time of the 

 year when the majority of agriculturists have much need of the mare's 

 services, and economic considerations demand that notwithstanding her 

 maternal duties she must contribute to the general work of the farm. 

 The practice of hand-milking the dam on return from work while she 

 is allowed to fondle her foal over a gate till their mutual excitement 

 has subsided, would appear to reduce the liability to derangement of 

 the foal to some extent, and no serious objection can be made to it; 

 the foal will get a sufficient supply after the more objectionable portion 

 has been drawn off, and possibly that portion which would have proved 

 deleterious. Diarrhoea may be present in the first few days of the colt's 

 life, the milk apparently disagreeing with him from the first — those 

 sucking a foster-mother are sometimes upset by their first meal, especially 

 if it happens that the orphan has been put to a mare whose foal was 

 born some time prior to the birth of her adopted one. Here the lacteal 

 secretion is altogether devoid of those aperient properties belonging 

 to the milk of a mare which has recently given birth to a foal, and is 

 consequently less suited to it at this early period of its life. 



Symptoms. — Diarrhoea is characterized by frequent fluid evacuations; 

 where these are not actually seen the existence of the malady may be 

 gathered from the dirt and stains on the thighs and lower portions of 

 the limbs. 



In the stabled horse the premonitory rumblings of the bowels and 

 uneasiness usually escape attention, or they may only occur when the 

 horse is called upon to exert himself. Some " washy " horses, whose 

 faeces are pultaceous or normal in the stable, begin to unload the bowel 

 as soon as the harness or saddle is taken down, and more or less diarrhoea 

 is the result of every journey undertaken. This is unmistakably due 

 to nervous excitability acting upon a susceptible digestive system; and 

 a troublesome condition it is to deal with, since too much work may induce 

 exhaustion and loss of condition, while too little will add to the excitement 

 on each occasion of exercise. In all cases of diarrhoea the ejected material 

 should be examined, when the active cause of the disease may be discovered. 

 If it be woody fibre, it will be found in the liquid matter, or occasional 

 agglomerations of hardened faecal masses of irregular shape will be observed. 

 When a diet of potatoes has induced purging, a very offensive odour 

 accompanies the evacuations, and the mouth is sour and saliva tenacious, 

 while a tendency to abdominal pain may be noted in pawing and crouching 

 as in colic, nausea, and an expression of lassitude and dejection, with a 

 weakened pulse and inappetence, following upon the ordinary symptoms. 



