292 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



the later stages only do we see the worn and anxious countenance 

 associated with acute intestinal affections. 



Treatment. — More reliance is to be placed upon good nursing and 

 hygienic conditions than actual medicines, a suitable dietary being the 

 chief consideration. Given a warm, dry, well-ventilated stable, we have 

 next to consider the most suitable food, which must be free from irritating 

 properties, easy of digestion, nutritious, and soft. In eggs and milk, gruel 

 and meal, we have these desiderata, and they may be supplemented with 

 port-wine, while some would add beef-tea. 



When there is much evidence of pain, opium may be given in small 

 and repeated doses. When the evacuations produce a foul atmosphere 

 and the season compels closed doors, it may be corrected to an extent 

 by the internal administration of carbolic acid, as well as the use of 

 disinfectants and deodorizers in the building. If carbolic acid is chosen 

 as an internal agent, it should be dissolved in glycerine, or rubbed up 

 with soft soap and freely diluted in water, or given in gruel. Chlorodyne 

 is extremely valuable in some instances, and bismuth, in powder as 

 trisnitrate, or subcarbonate, is recommended as a means of forming a 

 coating over the broken surface of the membrane. Maintenance of sur- 

 face warmth should not be neglected; the legs should be bandaged with 

 woollen, and the body clothed with warm wraps. Increased circulation 

 in the skin and extremities is a favourable symptom. Despite the most 

 assiduous care many cases terminate fatally, but the proportion of 

 recoveries should be an inducement to strenuous efforts and unremitting 

 care. 



ENTERITIS 



Enteritis, or inflammation of the bowels, is one of the most frequently 

 fatal diseases of the horse with which we have to contend. It may affect the 

 large bowel, the small one, or both. It is the former in which the disease 

 most frequently appears. As to the exact seat of the inflammation, there is 

 no doubt that it commences in the lining membrane, and, with the continu- 

 ance of the disease, extends outward, involving the substance of the bowel. 



Causes. — We are very much in the dark sometimes as to its causation. 

 It may be a sequel to colic and impaction of the bowel, over-fatigue and 

 exposure to vicissitudes of weather, wading through streams when heated 

 by the chase, chemical irritants, vegetable poisons, strangulation, &c. 

 None of these causes, however, are sufficient to account for all the cases 

 of which the experienced veterinarian can speak; more often does he find, 

 on the most careful inquiry and investigation, no clue whatever to the 

 sudden appearance of the disease. 



