DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 



Diseases of the liver are somewhat rare in horses. The 

 probable cause is simplicity of diet. Hot climates, as in 

 man, seem to be conducive of equine liver disease. Liver 

 diseases are often insidious. They are sometimes mistaken 

 for lung diseases. Next to the lungs the liver seems to be 

 the most frequent seat of tubercles. Sometimes it is soft 

 or rotten and clay colored ; sometimes hard and tough, the 

 color, however, being natural. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER (HEPATITIS), 



Seems to be of three kinds or degrees — the cover or 

 membrane, the substance of the liver, or both. Percivall 

 and Williams give the following 



Symptoms. — Dull ; head heavy; eyes drooping and lus- 

 terless ; occasional cough ; no appetite ; apparent inward 

 pain, but not acute ; stands up ; very feverish ; in two 

 or three days the fever or diffused bile causes the mouth 

 and eyes to become yellow, the blood golden-hued and 

 specked with yellow, floating particles; dung balls im- 

 bued with bile and sometimes coated with viscid, bilious, 

 mucous-like, reddish-brown matter, leaving an opium-like 

 stain when rubbed on white paper; urine scanty and 

 thick, with bilious tinge and copious sediment; may lie 

 on left side, but soon rises; right side tender, if not 

 somewhat swollen ; when standing, points (rests) the off 

 (right) fore limb ; pulse quick, strong, bounding ; breath- 

 ing sometimes disturbed, sometimes not; stupid; dizzy; 

 staggers; danger of apoplexy or bursting of liver. 



