THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 37 



A horse, therefore, having once had an attack of staggers, 

 should be fed with great care and regularity ; care must be ex- 

 ercised in regard to the quality as well as the quantity of the food ; 

 for, unfortunately, the course pursued by practitioners — although 

 those of the present day have improved somewhat — leads 

 to prostration and debility ; and in order to place the animal in 

 a condition to sustain the living principle and ward off future 

 attacks, we must furnish him nutritious food, from which albu- 

 men may be extracted with as little expenditure as possible of 

 the chemico-vital forces of digestion. 



A horse fed on hay and grain that is deficient in nutriment — 

 of inferior quality — is liable also to be the subject of staggers; 

 so that the disease does not always arise from the same exciting 

 cause. It is well known that much of the pasture land in this 

 country abounds in rank weeds and poisonous herbs, which, if 

 partaken of by a horse already enfeebled by disease, are sure to 

 operate unfavorably on some portion of the digestive apparatus. 

 Therefore it need not seem strange if some horses, even at grass, 

 should have an attack of staggers. 



Symptoms. — The dull, sleepy appearance and staggering gait 

 of the animal are symptoms not to be mistaken, and as almost 

 every horseman prides himself on his ability to detect a case of 

 this character, we shall now, therefore, come to the treatment. 



Treatment of Stomach Staggers. — If the patient is known, or 

 even supposed, to labor under distention of the stomach, the 

 most rational course to pursue, instead of bleeding and jmrging, 

 is to excite the digestive organs — to secrete the fluid destined for 

 the solution of its contents. Yet, in cases where the stomach is 

 gorged — packed full — and distended beyond its healthy capaci- 

 ty, and there is reason to suppose that, in consequence of the 

 over-distention, some of its muscular fibres are lacerated, or a 

 loss of continuity has taken place, the treatment then will be of 

 no avail. We excite the stomach, therefore, in simple disten- 

 tion, to pour out its gastric fluids for the solution of the albumi- 

 nous and gelatinous constituents of its contents, so that by the 

 withdrawal of these we afford more room for the reduction to a 

 state of fine division that portion of the food which remains. 

 We want room in the stomach for the reason that the solvent 

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