DISEASES OF HORSES 65 



ated into threatening violence; the approach of an attendant or 

 another animal, especially a dog, is interpreted as an assault and the 

 horse will strike and bite. The violence on the part of the rabid 

 horse is not for a moment to be confounded with the fury of the 

 same animal suffering from meningitis or any other trouble of the 

 brain. But in rabies there is a volition, a premeditated method, 

 in the attacks which the animal will make, which is not found in 

 the other diseases. Between the attacks of fury the animal may 

 become calm for a variable period. In the period of fury the horse 

 will bite at the reopened original wound; it will rear and attempt to 

 break its halter and fastenings ; it will bite at the woodwork and sur- 

 rounding objects in the stable. If the animal lives long enough it 

 shows paralytic symptoms and falls to the ground, unable to use 

 two or more of its extremities, but in the majority of cases, in its 

 excesses of violence, it does physical injury to itself. It breaks its 

 jaws in biting at the manger or fractures other bones in throwing 

 itself on the ground and dies of hemorrhage or internal injuries. 

 At times throughout the course of the disease there is an excessive 

 sensibility of the skin which, if irritated by the touch, will bring 

 on attacks of violence. The animal may have appetite and desire 

 water throughout the course of the disease, but on attempting to 

 swallow has a spasm of the throat, which renders the act impossible. 

 This latter condition, which is common in all rabid animals, has 

 given the disease the name of hydrophobia (fear of water). 



Diagnosis. The diagnosis of rabies in the horse is to be made 

 from the various brain troubles to which the animal is subject; first 

 by the history of a previous bite of a rabid animal or inoculation 

 by other means; second, by the evident volition and consciousness 

 on the part of the animal in its attacks, offensive and defensive, on 

 persons, animals, or other disturbing surroundings. The irritation 

 and reopening of the original wound or point of inoculation is a 

 valuable factor in diagnosis. Recovery from rabies may be con- 

 sidered as a question of the correctness of the original diagnosis. 

 Rabies is always fatal. 



Treatment. No remedial treatment has ever been successful. 

 All of the anodynes and anesthetics, opium, belladonna, bromide of 

 potash, ether, chloroform, etc., have been used without avail. The 

 prophylactic treatment of successive inoculations is being used on 

 human beings, and has experimentally proved efficacious in dogs, 

 but would be impracticable in the horse unless the conditions were 

 quite exceptional. 



Prevention. When a horse is known to have been bitten bv a 

 rabid animal, immediate cauterization of the wound with a red-hot 

 iron may possibly destroy the virus before absorption of it takes 

 place. (Spl. Rpt, Horse, Dep. Ag., 1911; Colo. E. S. B. 162.) 



ANTHRAX. 



(SYNONYMS: Charbon, carbuncle, splenic fever, splenic apoplexy.) 

 Anthrax is a severe and usually fatal contagious disease, char- 

 acterized by chills, great depression and stupor of the animal, and a 

 profound alteration of the blood. It is caused by the entrance into 



