DISEASES OF HORSES 45 



local bleeding and the use of hot or cold water, as the condition of 

 the animal will permit, are most useful, but in the majority of cases 

 the stupefied animal is unable to be moved satisfactorily or to have 

 one foot lifted for local treatment, and the only treatment consists 

 in local bleeding above the coronary bands and the application of 

 poultices. 



During convalescence small doses of alkalines may be kept up 

 for some little time, but the greatest care must be used, while furnish- 

 ing the animal with plenty of nutritious, easily digestible food, not 

 to overload the intestinal tract, causing constipation and consequent 

 diarrhea. Special care must be taken for some weeks not to expose 

 the animal to cold. (Spl. Rpt. Horse Dept. Ag. 1911.) 



ANASARCA, OR PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA. 



A previous attack of influenza is a common predisposing cause of 

 this disease, which appears most frequently a few weeks after conva- 

 lescence is established. It occurs more frequently in those animals 

 which have made a rapid convalescence and are apparently perfectly 

 well than it does in those which have made a slower recovery. An- 

 asarca commences by symptoms which are excessively variable. The 

 local lesions may be confined to a small portion of the animal's body 

 and the constitutional phenomena be nil. The appearance and grav- 

 ity of the local lesions may be so unlike, from difference of location, 

 that they seem to belong to a separate disease, and complications may 

 completely mask the original trouble. 



In the simplest form the first symptom noticed is a swelling, or 

 several swellings, occurring on the surface of the body on the fore- 

 arm, the leg, the under surface of the belly, or the side of the head. 

 The tumefaction is at first the size of a hen's egg ; not hot, little sensi- 

 tive, and distinctly circumscribed by a marked line from the sur- 

 rounding healthy tissue. These tumors gradually extend until they 

 coalesce, and in a few hours we have swelling up of the legs, legs and 

 belly, or the head, to an enormous size ; they have always the charac- 

 teristic constricted border, which looks as if it had been tied with a 

 cord. In the nostrils are found small reddish spots, which gradually 

 assume a brownish and frequently a black color. Examination of 

 the mouth will frequently reveal similar lesions on the surface of the 

 tongue, along the lingual gutter, and on the franum. If the external 

 swelling has been on the head, the petechiaB of the mucous mem- 

 branes are apt to be more numerous and to coalesce into patches of 

 larger size than when the dropsy is confined to the legs. The animal 

 may be rendered stiff by the swelling of the legs, or be annoyed by 

 the awkward swollen head, which at times may be so enormous as to 

 resemble that of a hippopotamus rather than that of a horse. During 

 this period the temperature remains normal ; the pulse, if altered at 

 all, is only a little weaker; the respiration is only hurried if the swell- 

 ing of the head infringes on the caliber of the nostrils. The appetite 

 remains normal. The animal is attentive to all that is going on, 

 and, except for the swelling, apparently in perfect health. 



In from two to four days, in severe cases, the tissues can no longer 

 resist the pressure of the exuded fluid. Over the surface of the skin 



