DISEASES OF HORSES 127 



best care and treatment, however, dysentery is likely to prove fatal. 

 In the case of nurslings, the dam should be placed in a healthy con- 

 dition or, failing in this, milk should be had from another mare or 

 from a cow. 



GASTROENTERITIS. This condition consists in an inflamma- 

 tion of the stomach and intestines. Instead of being confined to the 

 mucous, or lining, membrane, as in gastro-intestinal catarrh, the in- 

 flammatory process extends deeper and may even involve the entire 

 thickness of the wall of the organ. This disease may be caused by 

 irritant food, hot drinks, sudden chilling, moldy or decayed foods, 

 foul water, parasites, or by chemical poisons. It may also com- 

 plicate some general diseases, especially infectious diseases, as an- 

 thrax, influenza or rabies. Long-continued obstruction of the 

 bowels or displacement resulting in death are preceded by enteritis. 



The symptoms differ somewhat with the cause and depend also, 

 to some extent, upon the chief location of the inflammation. In 

 general the animal stops eating or eats but little; it shows colicky 

 pain; fever develops; the pulse and respiration become rapid; the 

 mucous membrane becomes red; the mouth is hot and dry. Pres- 

 sure upon the abdomen may cause pain. Intestinal sounds can not 

 be heard at the flank. There is constipation in the earlier stages 

 that is followed later by diarrhea. The extremities become cold. 

 Sometimes the feces are coated with or contain shreds of fibrin, 

 looking like scraps of dead membrane, and they have an evil, putrid 

 odor. If the disease is caused by moldy or damaged food there may 

 be great muscular weakness with partial paralysis of the throat, as 

 shown by inability to swallow. If chemical poisons are the cause, 

 this fact may be shown by the sudden onset of the disease, the his- 

 tory of the administration of a poison or the entire absence of 

 known cause, the rapid development of threatening symptoms, the 

 involvement of a series of animals in the absence of a contagious dis- 

 ease, and the special symptoms and alterations known to be pro- 

 duced by certain poisons. To make this chain of evidence com- 

 plete, the poison may be discovered in the organs of the horse by 

 chemical analysis. In nearly all cases of gastro-enteritis there is 

 nervous depression. 



The poisons that are most irritant to the digestive tract are 

 arsenic, corrosive sublimate, sugar of lead, sulphate of copper, sul- 

 phate or chloride of zinc, lye or other strong alkalies, mineral acids, 

 and, among the vegetable poisons, tobacco, lobelia, and water hem- 

 lock. 



The treatment will depend upon the cause, but if this can not 

 be detected, certain general indications may be observed. In all 

 cases food should be given in small amounts and should be of the 

 most soothing description, as oatmeal gruel, flaxseed tea, hay tea, 

 fresh grass, or rice water. The skin should be well rubbed with 

 wisps of straw and alcohol, to equalize the distribution of the blood ; 

 the legs, after being rubbed until warm, should be bandaged in raw 

 cotton or with woolen bandages. The horse should be warmly 

 blanketed. It is well to apply to the abdomen blankets wrung out 



