78 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



Treatment. As this is a disease unattended by alterations of 

 the blood itself, although a specific fever, active remedies are admis- 

 sible and indicated. The horse should be placed on a low diet 

 (little or no oats) bran mashes, a moderate quantity of good, 

 sound hay, a few carrots or apples, which will act as laxatives, and 

 slop feed. Barley flour is more cooling for mashes than bran or 

 oatmeal. Water may be given as the animal desires it, but it should 

 not be cold ; if a half bucketful of water is kept in the manger, the 

 horse will take but a few swallows at a time. One-dram doses of 

 nitrate of potash or 1-ounce doses of sweet spirits pf niter are use- 

 ful in the drinking water. If the fever is high, the antipyretics are 

 indicated: Sulphate of quinine in 1-dram doses; iodide of potash 

 in 1-dram doses ; infusion of pine tops, of juniper leaves, of the aro- 

 matic herbs, or of English breakfast tea are useful in the later stages. 

 If complications of the air passages or lungs are threatened, a large 

 mustard poultice should be applied to the belly and sides of the 

 chest. Oxide of zinc ointment should be used on confluent erup- 

 tions, and if the ulceration is excessive it may have to be touched 

 with caustic. 



Great care must be taken to keep the animal protected from 

 cold drafts of air or other exposure. Blankets or sheets should be 

 used on the body^ and bandages on the legs. After convalescence is 

 established, nutritious food of easy digestion and walking exercise 

 ore all that is needed, except perhaps a little Glauber's salts to pre- 

 vent constipation. 



Prophylactic Treatment. When horsepox breaks out among a 

 large number of horses, especially on a farm where there are a num- 

 ber of colts, it may be assumed that the greater majority will con- 

 tract the disease, and it is more economical that they should have it 

 and be through with it at once. If the weather is moderate, all the 

 animals which have not been affected can be inoculated, which 

 will produce the disease in a mild form, with the eruption at a 

 point of election and render the danger of complication a mini- 

 mum one. For inoculation the discharge from the pustules of a 

 mild case should be selected and inoculated by scarification on the 

 belly or the under surface of the neck. (Spl. Rpt. Horse, Dept. 

 Agr., 1911.; Y. B. 1899.) 



ERYSIPELAS. 



This is a specific contagious disease, characterized by spreading 

 dropsical inflammation of the skin and subcutaneous tissues, at- 

 tended by general fever. It differs from most specific diseases in the 

 absence of a definite period of incubation, a regular course and dura- 

 tion, and a conferring of immunity on the subject after recovery. 

 On the contrary, one attack of erysipelas predisposes to another, 

 partly, doubtless, by the loss of tone and vitality in the affected tis- 

 sues, but also, perhaps, because of the survival of the infecting germ. 



Cause. It is no longer to be doubted that the microbes found 

 in the inflammatory product are the true cause of erysipelas, as the 

 disease can be successfully transferred from man to animals and 

 from one animal to another by their means. This transition may 



