HORSE— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



85 



•compressible. Nostrils and eyes of a nat- 

 ural color, and the former are not dilated. 

 The countenance is anxious, and the legs 

 are rather drawn together than extended, 

 as in bronchitis and pneumonia, and they 

 are not colder than usual. There is a short 

 hurried cough, with great restlessness, 

 and the sides are always painful on pres- 

 sure; but this symptom by itself is not to 

 be relied on, as it is present in pleurody- 

 nia, which will be presently described. 



The treatment should consist of copi- 

 ous bleeding, followed by a mild purga- 

 tive, and the same ball as recommended 

 for pneumonia, with the addition of half 

 a drachm of calomel. Blisters are not 

 desirable to be applied to the sides of the 

 thorax, as there is so little space between 

 the two surfaces of the pleura and the 

 skin that they are apt to do harm by im- 

 mediately irritating the former, rather than 

 to act beneficially by counter-irritation of 

 the skin. A large rowel may, however, 

 be placed in the breast with advantage. 



Hydrothorax, or water in the cavity of 

 the chest, is one of the sequels of chronic 

 pleurisy, the serum thrown out being the 

 means by which a serous membrane re- 

 lieves itself. It can be detected by the 

 entire absence of respiratory murmur, 

 and by the dullness on percussion. No 

 treatment is of any avail but tapping, 

 which may be readily and safely per- 

 formed (if the diagnosis is correct) by 

 passing a trocar between the eighth and 

 ninth ribs, near their cartilages. If, how- 

 ever, an error has been committed the 

 lung is wounded, and death will most 

 probably ensue. 



HORSE, Pleurodynia in. — Between 

 this disease and pleurisy there is some 

 similarity in the symptoms ; but in trieir 

 nature, and in the treatment required, 

 they are widely separated. It is, there- 

 fore, necessary that they should not be 

 confounded, for in the one case blood- 

 letting and other active measures may be 

 unnecessarily adopted, and in the other a 

 fatal result will most probably occur for 

 want of them. In pleuritis there is a 

 quick pulse, with general constitutional 

 disturbance, which will serve to distin- 

 guish it from pleurodynia, besides which, 

 it is rarely that we meet with the former 

 without some other affection of the lungs 

 co-existing. When, therefore, a horse is 

 evidently suffering from acute pain in the 



walls of the thorax, unaccompanied by 

 cough, hurried breathing, quick'pulse, or 

 fever, it may safely be diagnosed that the 

 nature of the attack is a rheumatism of 

 the intercostal muscles (pleurodynia), and 

 not pleurisy. In treating it bleeding and 

 tartar emetic must be carefully avoided, 

 and hot mustard and vinegar rubbed into 

 the sides will be the most likely remedy 

 to afford relief. 



HORSE, Pythisis in.— When a horse 

 has long been subject to a chronic cough, 

 and, without losing appetite, wastes away 

 rapidly, it may be assumed that he is a 

 victim to pythisis, and especially if he is 

 narrow-chested and has long shown signs 

 of short wind. On examining the chest 

 by the ear, it will be found to give out 

 sounds of various kinds, depending upon 

 the exact state of the lungs ; but in most 

 cases there will be great dullness on per- 

 cussion, owing to the deposit of tuber- 

 cles, in which the disease consists. In a 

 confirmed case no treatment will avail, 

 and the poor animal had better be de- 

 stroyed. When the attack is slight, the 

 progress of the disease may be stayed by 

 counteracting inflammation in the ordi- 

 nary way, avoiding loss of blood when 

 possible. Hemorrhage, from the break- 

 ing down of the substance of the lung, 

 by which a large blood vsesel is opened, 

 is a common result of pythisis, and will 

 be alluded to under the head of the dis- 

 eases OF THE VESSELS OF THE LUNGS, 

 which sse. 



HORSE, Broken- wind. — A broken- 

 winded horse can be detected at once by 

 any horseman possessed of experience, 

 from the peculiar and forcible double ex- 

 piration. Inspiration is performed as 

 usual, then comes a rapid but not violent 

 act of expiration, followed by a forcible 

 repetition of the same, in which all the 

 muscles of respiration, auxiliary and or- 

 dinary, are called into play. This is, of 

 course, most marked when the horse has 

 been galloped, or even when he is at 

 rest the double expiration is manifest at 

 almost any ordinary distance from the 

 observer. The disease almost (if not 

 quite) invariably consists in emphysema, 

 or entrance of the air into unnatural 

 cells, which is retained there, as the urine 

 is in the bladder, from the valvular na- 

 ture of the openings, and cannot be en- 

 tirely expelled, nor in the slightest degree, 



