disp:ases of tiik skin, 463 



it; the animal should not be gi\en more than a swallow or two of cold 

 water when perspiring and fatigued, nor shouKl he be allowed a full 

 supply of water just after his grain ration; he should not be over- 

 heateil or exhausted by work, nor should dried sweat and dust be 

 allowed to accumulate on the skin or on the harness pressing on it. 

 The exposure of the atfected heels to damp, nuid, and snow, and, 

 above all, to melting snow, should be guanled against; light, smooth, 

 well-fitting harness must be obtained, and where the saddle or collar 

 irritates an incision should be made in them above and below the 

 part that chafes, and, the padding between having been removed, the 

 lining should be beaten so as to make a hollow. A zinc shield in the 

 ui>per angle of the collar will often prevent chafing in front of the 

 withers. 



Treatment. — Wash the chafed skin and a|)ply salt water (one-half 

 ounce to the quart), extiact of witch-hazel, a weak solution of oak 

 bark, or camphorated spirit. If the surface is raw use bland powders, 

 such as oxid of zinc, lycopodium, starch, or smear the surface with 

 vaseline, or with 1 omice of vaseline intimately mixed with one-half 

 dram each of oi)ium and sugar of lead. In cases of chafing rest must 

 l)e strictly enjoined. If there is constitutional disorder or acrid 

 sweat, 1 ounce cream of taitar or a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda 

 may be given twice daily. 



CONGESTION, WITH SMALL PIMPLES, OR PAPULES. 



In this afl'ection there is the general blush, heat, etc., of erythema, 

 together with a crop of elevations from the size of a pop]>y seed to a 

 coffee bean, risible when the hair is reversed or to be felt with the 

 finger where the hair is scanty. In white skins they vary from the 

 palest to the darkest red. All do not retain the pa])ular type, but 

 some go on to form blisters (eczema, bulhe) or pusttdes, or dry up 

 into scales, or break out into open sores, or extend into larger swell- 

 ings (tubercles). The majority, however, remaining as pimples, 

 characterize the disease. When very itchy the rubbing breaks them 

 open, and the resulting sores and scales hide the true nature of the 

 eruption. 



The general and local causes may be the same as foi- erythema, and 

 in the same subject one portion of the skin may have simple conges- 

 tion and anothei- adjacent i)apules. As the inflammatory action is 

 more pronounced, so the irritation and itching are usually greater, 

 the animal rubbing and biting himself .severely. This itching is espe- 

 cially severe in the forms which attack the roots of the mane and tail, 

 and there the disease is often so j)ersist»'iit and ti'oublesome that the 

 hoi*se is rendered virtually useless. 



