DYSPEPSIA. 99 



DYSPEPSIA (CHRONIC INDIGESTION), 



Is a fault} 7 conversion of food into its natural elements. 

 In the horse, owing to the food continuing in the stomach 

 but a comparatively short time, much of the digestive 

 process is performed in the intestines. Indigestion there- 

 fore is not altogether the fault of the stomach. 



The seat of indigestion seems to be the hair-like or 

 velvet-like lining of the stomach or intestinal canal. These 

 membranes furnish secretions indispensably necessary to 

 the due conversion of food into nourishing and feculent 

 matter, and one or both of them may be functionally 

 faulty, causing irritation, inflammation, &c. But there 

 may be other causes, namely — imperfect mastication and 

 salivary secretion ; torpid liver ; the bile may be defective 

 in quality or quantity ; also the pancreatic juice ; or there 

 may be derangement in the worm-like movements of the 

 intestines, by means of which their contents are propelled. 



The disorder is peculiar to young horses, especially such 

 as are reared in low, marshy, cold, poor pastures. The 

 coarse, rank, sour grass seems to lay the foundation of 

 disease of the bowels. 



Symptoms. — The symptoms are plain, but it is usu- 

 ally difficult to name the part or organ that is affected. 

 The horse is dull and spiritless, though the appetite may 

 be even voracious: but it may be intermittent — £ood at 

 one time, bad at another ; sometimes it is depraved, horse 

 eating dirt, plaster, brick, wood, stones, &c; coat pen- 

 feathered, dry, and perhaps scurfy, nor is it shed at the 

 usual season ; hide-bound ; dung either darker or lighter 

 than natural, with offensive odor, and coated with mucus ; 

 when broken, crumbles to pieces, appearing to consist of 

 loosely compacted chopped hay, mingled with many entire 

 or imperfectly dissolved oats; colicky pains in severe or 

 advanced cases ; inclined to be costive when in stable, but 

 exercise causes purging; skin sympathizes, as shown by 



