302 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



and it may disappear with equal rapidity or persist for six or eight 

 days. 



Treatment. This consists in clearing out the bowels by 5 

 drams Barbados aloes, or 1 pound Glauber's salts, and follow the 

 operation of these by daily doses of one-half ounce powdered gen- 

 tian and 1 ounce Glauber's salts. A weak solution of alum may be 

 applied to the swellings. 



SCALY SKIN DISEASE, OR PITYRIASIS. 



This affection is characterized by an excessive production and 

 detachment of dry scales from the surface of the skin. It is usually 

 dependent on some fault in digestion and an imperfect secretion 

 from the sebaceous glands, and is most common in old horses with 

 spare habit of body. The horse may be given a laxative followed 

 by dram doses of carbonate of potash, and the affected parts may 

 be bathed with soft tepid water and smeared with an ointment made 

 with vaseline and sulphur. In obstinate cases sulphur may be 

 given daily in the food. 



NERVOUS IRRITATION OF THE SKIN, OR PRURITUS. 



This is seen in horses fed to excess on grain and hay, kept in 

 close stables, and worked irregularly. Though most common in 

 summer, it is often severe in hot, close stables in winter. Pimples, 

 vesicles, and abrasions may result, but as the itching is quite as 

 severe on other parts of the skin, these may be the result of scratch- 

 ing merely. It is especially common and inveterate about the roots 

 of the mane and tail. 



Treatment. Give a purgative (Glauber's salts, 1 pound), a 

 restricted, laxative diet, and a . wash of water slightly soured with 

 oil of vitriol and rendered sweet by carbolic acid. If obstinate, give 

 daily 1 ounce of sulphur and 20 grains nux vomica. If the acid 

 lotion fails, 2 drams of carbonate of potash and 2 grains of cyanide 

 of potassium in a quart of water will sometimes benefit. If due to 

 pinworms in the rectum, the itching of the tail may be remedied 

 by an occasional injection of a quart of water in which chips of 

 quassia wood have been steeped for twelve hours. 



HERPES. 



This name has been applied to a disease in which there is an 

 eruption of minute vesicles in circular groups or clusters, with little 

 tendency to burst, but rather to dry up into fine scabs. If the ves- 

 icles break they exude a slight gummy discharge which concretes 

 into a small, hard scab. It is apparently noncontagious and not 

 appreciably -connected with any disorder of internal organs. It 

 sometimes accompanies or follows specific fevers, and is, on the 

 whole, most frequent at the seasons of changing the coat spring 

 and autumn. It is seen on the lips and pastern, but may appear on 

 any part of the body. The duration of the eruption is two weeks 

 or even more, the tendency being to spontaneous recovery. The af- 

 fected part is very irritable, causing a sensitiveness and a disposi- 

 tion to rub out of proportion to the extent of the eruption. 



Treatment. It may be treated by oxide of zinc ointment, and 

 to relieve the irritation a solution of opium or belladonna in water, 



