DISEASES OF HORSES 125 



posure during cold nights, or low, damp stables. Some horses are 

 predisposed to scour and are called washy by horsemen; they are 

 those with long bodies, long legs, and narrow, flat sides. Horses of 

 this build are almost sure to scour if fed or watered immediately be- 

 fore being put to work. Fast or road work, of course, aggravates 

 this trouble. Diarrhea may exist as a complication of other diseases 

 as pneumonia and influenza, for instance, and again during the dis- 

 eases of the liver. The symptoms are the frequent evacuations of 

 liquid stools, with or without pronounced abdominal pain, loss of 

 appetite, emaciation, etc. 



Treatment is at times very simple, but requires the utmost care 

 and judgment. If due to faulty food or water it is sufficient to 

 change these. If it results from some irritant in the intestines, this 

 is best gotten rid of by the administration of a purge, for which 

 nothing is better than castor oil, although raw linseed oil may be 

 used if the case is not severe. The diarrhea often disappears with 

 the cessation of the operation of the medicine. If, however, purging 

 continues, it may be checked by giving wheat flour in watr, starch 

 water, white-oak bark tea, chalk, opium, or half-dram doses of sul- 

 phuric acid in one-half pint of water twice or thrice daily. Good 

 results follow the use of powdered opium 2 drams and subnitrate of 

 bismuth 1 ounce, repeated three times a day. It should be remem- 

 bered in all cases to look to the water and feed the horse is receiving. 

 If either of these is at fault it is at once to be discontinued. We 

 should feed sparingly of good, easily digested foods. With that 

 peculiar build of nervous horses that scour on the road but little can 

 be done, as a rule. They should be watered and fed as long as pos- 

 sible before going on a drive. If there is much flatulency accom- 

 panying diarrhea, baking soda may effect a cure, while if the dis- 

 charges have a very disagreeable odor, this can -be corrected by 1 

 ounce of sulphite of soda or dram doses of creolin in water, repeated 

 twice a day. Be slow to resort to either the vegetable or mineral 

 astringents, since the majority of cases will yield to change of food 

 and water or the administration of oils. Afterwards feed upon 

 wheat-flour gruel or other light foods. The body should be warmly 

 clothed. 



SUPERPURGATION. This is the designation of that diarrhea, or 

 flux from the bowels, that, at times, is induced by and follows the 

 action of a physic. It is accompanied by much irritation or even 

 inflammation of the bowels and is always of a serious character. Al- 

 though in rare instances it follows from a usual dose of physic and 

 where every precaution has been taken, it is most likely to result 

 under the following circumstances: Too large a dose of physic; 

 giving physics to horses suffering from pneumonia, influenza, or 

 other debilitating diseases; riding or driving a horse when purging; 

 exposure or drafts of cold air; or giving large quantities of cold 

 water while the physic is operating. There is always danger of su- 

 perpurgation if a physic is given to a horse suffering from diseases 

 of the respiratory organs. Small and often-repeated physics are also 

 to be avoided, as they produce debility and great depression of the 



