90 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



examination failed to detect any disease other than general 

 emaciation. On making inquiries concerning the food, the owner 

 replied, " The colt has been fed on good sweet hay and cornstalks 

 ever since it was weaned." This was capital food for the poor 

 thing, provided, however, its stomach had a grist mill within it ; 

 otherwise, it was hard fare, and must derange the digestive func- 

 tion, and ere the colt has attained maturity, dyspepsia, in either 

 a mild or aggravated form, has secured a victim. 



The reader will perceive that there is a great difference between 

 a young animal enjoying the privileges of a natural life, partaking 

 of nutrimental agents adapted to its condition and welfare, and 

 another that shall be shut up in a dark, filthy prison house, — 

 perhaps, however, he may be permitted the range of the barn 

 yard, which is as bad, if not a worse place, than the barn itself, 

 — and while living in this artificial condition, partaking of food ill 

 adapted to its constitution. 



Knowing, then, as we do, that in the difference between a 

 natural and artificial life exist the chief causes of disease, in its 

 diversified forms, then we certainly have just grounds to believe 

 that many young colts reared and fed at a distance have many 

 diseases which the residents of large cities know nothing of, 

 neither as regards the disease nor the means used to get rid of it. 

 They may have had strangles, yet the owner assures his friends 

 it was only " horse ail " — something w r hich horse dealers sup- 

 pose every animal is attacked with at some period of life. Under 

 the above abuses, colts are as liable to strangles as a full-grown 

 horse. 



The disease is set down by authorities as wow-contagious — not 

 "catching." We have no desire to discuss this question, but 

 leave it for those who, from more extensive experience, are better 

 qualified to judge of the matter. "We always take the precaution 

 to separate the patient from healthy animals, and would recom- 

 mend this as a general rule in all catarrhal affections. We now 

 come to the symptoms and treatment of strangles, which the fol- 

 lowing case will illustrate : — 



The subject was a gray gelding, aged seven years, the property 

 of Mr. B., of Boston, which was suffering with an attack of (so 

 called) horse ail. The animal had been off its feed for two or 



