LAMINITIS. 365 



When all four feet are affected, the symptoms will consist of 

 a combination of the foregoing, with local heat in all the feet, 

 some degree of throbbing of the plantar arteries, and tenderness 

 upon manipulation, or to the touch of the hammer. 



Treatment. — Gentle purgatives. On no account must violent 

 cathartics be given, since the operation of purgatives tend to 

 laminitis, and they occasionally cause death when the disease 

 itself has been of a tractable or even mild form. If the bowels 

 are loaded, injections of warm water are very serviceable ; but if 

 the constipation is not very urgent, they may be dispensed with. 



In addition to a mild aperient, febrifuges are to be adminis- 

 tered ; and for the fever of laminitis I know of nothing wdiich 

 proves so effectual as the tincture of aconite, in small but re- 

 peated doses. In that form arising from irritation of mucous 

 membrane or indigestion, the bicarbonate of soda may be added 

 to the aconite. If the pain be very severe, I think better 

 results are obtained from opium or morphia than from aconite, 

 which seems to act more by reducing fever than by allaying 

 pain. This method of treatment, with poultices to the feet, and 

 the application of Mr. Broad's shoes, has proved of eminent 

 service in the treatment of laminitis. 



Practitioners differ in opinion as to whether cold or warm 

 poultices or baths should be applied. Some recommend 

 cold, others prefer warm. For my own part I have found 

 that pain and fever are more speedily removed by warm fomen- 

 tations and poultices in the early stages, and the resolution of 

 the inflammation is promoted by cold applications after the 

 veiy urgent symptoms have passed off. There is no necessity 

 to discuss the why and the wherefore of these two methods, 

 suffice it that warmth has a soothing effect upon a part to which 

 it is applied, and that this soothing of pain in laminitis is the 

 first essential step in its treatment. 



Mr. Broad strongly recommends exercise, even in the earliest 

 stage of the disease, and very urgently requests me to do so also, 

 but, much as I respect Mr. Broad, I cannot alter the conclusion 

 I have arrived at from much experience of the disease and its 

 treatment. Mr. Broad assures me that he is always successful 

 with exercise. I can only reiterate what I stated in the first 

 edition of this work, that I am of opinion that Mr. Broad would 

 even be more successful than he is, if he were to abandon this 



