274 MEDICINES FOR COMMON DISEASES 



Purgatives 



Barbadoes aloes, 4 or 5 drachms, is usually 

 sufficient for an ordinary sized horse ; 6 for a big 

 cart horse. 



Linseed oil is also useful instead of a physic 

 ball, say 15 oz. 



EPITOME 



Do not permit hay to be scattered about and 

 trampled upon ; nor allow corn to be mouthed 

 over and thus become sour. 



Feed regularly ; keep bowels open with a weekly 

 bran mash on Saturday night, and occasionally on 

 other nights when the work is fairly light ; next 

 morning give a teacupful of linseed, boiled until 

 it is as fine and free from lumps as fine oatmeal 

 porridge ; mix linseed thus made with crushed 

 oats, bran, and chop ; occasionally give a few 

 carrots. 



If a horse is inclined to eat his bedding, use 

 peat- moss instead of straw, or even sawdust ; but 

 if you bed them down in this manner, be careful 

 that the urine does not saturate the peat-moss or 

 sawdust and remain in the stable. It must be 

 taken out and the floor most carefully brushed 

 and disinfected the first thing in the morning, 

 directly your groom arrives, or you stand an 

 excellent chance of setting up an irritation in the 

 hoof which may terminate in thrush, or some- 

 thing more serious and more difficult to cure. 



Avoid draughts, yet ventilate with windows 

 high above the horse's head, and harbour abso- 



