NA.TURE OF DISEA.se 



METHODS OF TREATMENT. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE STOMACH. 



Cause. — Improper food, and poisons which irritate the vascular 

 coat of the stomach ; the disease often runs into the gastro-enteritis, 

 which signifies inflammation of the stomach and bowels. 



Symptoms. — The animal is very restless and ungovernable, and 

 appears to be in excessive pain, the pulse is wiiy, and the patient 

 refuses both food and water, knowing, probably, that if anything 

 be taken into the stomach it will only add to the torment. 



Treatment. — Give the animal, every four hours, one pint of lin- 

 seed tea, into which stir one drachm of nitrate of potass. Should 

 it be discovered that the animal has been poisoned, give half a pint 

 of linseed oil, and the same quantity of lime-water ; mix, and give 

 as a drench every four hours, until the animal is better, or the 

 bowels respond to the medicine. The patient should be lightly fed, 

 and during convalescence should have a few doses of an infusion of 

 chamomiles. 



ABDOMINAL DROPSY. 



Cause. — Effusion of serum into the abdominal cavity. It often 

 is the result of an acute disease of the peritoneum. 



Symptoms. — Dropsical swellings in the sheath and limbs ; the 

 abdomen is enlarged ; the appetite is not good, and the animal is 

 thirsty. Let one person strike the walls of the abdomen with his 

 hand, while another rests his hand on the opposite side ; at the mo- 

 ment of striking, the person on the opposite side will feel a fluctu- 

 ating movement, demonstrating the presence of water within the 

 abdomen. The external symptoms show unthriftiness and debility. 



Treatment. — The disease being of a prostrating character, the 

 patient's strength must be sustained ; give one drachm of ginger, 

 and the same quantity of golden seal, and twenty grains of iodide 

 of potass, night and morning, in a few oats or shorts, and rub the 

 external swellings once, daily, with oil of cedar. 



