276 DISEASES OF THE STOMACH. 



be the ordinary one^ and therefore is that to which my 

 observations in this place are intended to be chiefly confined.^ 



The ORDINARY Subjects of Indigestion are three, four, 

 five year old horses, and especially such as have been reared 

 in low, marshy, cold, poor pastures : the coarse, rank, sour 

 kind of herbage they eat seems to lay the foundation for 

 disorder in their bowels, a tendency thereto being pro- 

 bably created by constant exposure to every severity of 

 weather. The first impression seems to be made upon the 

 skin, the bowels becoming subsequently afi"ected, through 

 sympathy. Commonly, by change of diet, and by being 

 taken proper care of, with some aid from medicine, horses 

 outgrow this innate unheal thiness ; though we meet, now and 

 then, with one to whom it would seem to cling for the remainder 

 of life. But horses may experience indigestion while living in 

 stables. Sometimes, arpong an establishment of horses, one 

 turns out unthriving and looking ill-conditioned : without 

 complaint of his not feeding, or even of not doing his work, 

 the animal is, to appearance, out of health, and yet we are 

 unable to detect any positive disease about him. We in- 

 quire, as far as we are able, into the state of his digestion, 

 and we find reason to believe that his ill looks and un- 

 healthiness may be attributable to the imperfect or disor- 

 dered manner in which that function is carried on. His dung 

 may show evidence of this. Perhaps, the hay he consumes 

 appears impacted in the dung-balls, as though it had been 

 simply. chopped up and made up into balls ; or the oats may 

 appear whole or unmasticated in them ; or the dung may 

 not exhibit its natural colour, appearing lighter than ordi- 

 nary, or clay- coloured, as though there was a deficiency of 

 bilious secretion in it. Sometimes, in the worst cases of 

 this description, the peristaltic action is irregular, causing 

 the horse to purge at times, on those occasions when he is 

 much heated or worked. 



Treatment. — The ordinary mode of dealing with these 

 cases is to administer two or three doses of physic, at in- 

 tervals of a week or so. A preferable procedure to this, is 



' For further information, peruse the observations on Gastro-Enteritis. 



