100 THE DISEASES OF THE HOUSE. 



the coat; it may be in a morbid or perhaps eruptive 

 condition. 



Remedy. — Careful dietary ; avoid long fasts ; vary food ; 

 water at reasonable intervals, or keep it in stable con- 

 stantly. A laxative is almost invariably the first requi- 

 site, conjoined with a cholagogue in bilious cases. (Chol- 

 agogues promote the flow of bile. See ' Purgatives/ page 

 35.) Alkalies, chalk, magnesia before feeding, or with 

 food in debilitated cases. Ball of whiting and piece of rock 

 salt in rack. Alkalies may be conjoined with mix vomica 

 and other bitters. Hydrochloric or other mineral acids, 

 with bitters and iron salts, preferable to alkalies in per- 

 sistent cases. Hard worked horses often benefited by mix- 

 ing an ounce of linseed oil with food daily. Glycerine, 

 especially for young. Ox-bile with gentian or mix vomica 

 in intractable cases. Bismuth and hydrocyanic acid in 

 chronic gastric irritability. Creosote, eucalyptus, pepper- 

 mint oils for undue fermentation. Arsenic with morphine 

 in chronic irritable cases, and where food causes diarrhea. 



For doses, see pages 13 to 29. 



BOTS (Afterward Gad-Flies), 



Are little grub-like creatures, voided with the dung. 

 As a rule they are not injurious. In some cases, how- 

 ever, when present in large numbers, they are injurious, 

 and may cause, or at least aid in causing, death. It is 

 said that no known medicine will destroy the bot while 

 in the stomach. 



Tlie gad-fly or bot undergoes about as many transfor- 

 mations as the butter-fly. The egg is deposited on the 

 hair in autumn, is conveyed to the tongue by licking, 

 hatched by the heat and moisture almost instantly, and 

 is then conveyed, with the food, to the stomach, where 

 it remains during the winter, its dark-brown hooks being 

 securely fixed in the cuticular coat, a part that is said to 

 be as insensible to pain as are the hoofs. In the spring 



