THE MODERN IIORSE DOCTOR. 161 



appearance about the interior of the fundament, or fetid discharge 

 from the anus, which may occasionally happen in warm weather, 

 must be met by antiseptics : diluted acetic acid, pyroligneous 

 acid, solution of chloride of soda, are among the articles best cal- 

 culated to arrest morbid action. 



SCOURS AND CONSTIPATION IN YOUNG COLTS. 



A friend, residing in the Mohawk valley, informs us that many 

 young colts are troubled in that vicinity with scours — diarrhoea — 

 after they become a week old ; and that others, at the same age, 

 die of constipation. As the disease, in all probability, is not pecu- 

 liar to that region, we propose to give the reader our opinion or. 

 that subject. In the treatment of scours, or constipation, occur- 

 ring in animals of tender age, too much attention cannot be paid 

 to the mother; she, having just passed through a trying ordeal, — 

 the period of gestation, — and having brought forth her young, 

 now require's, to say the least, what might be commonly termed 

 a little kind nursing. It is a common element in the nature of 

 mankind to sympathize with those in pain or distress, and our 

 sympathies should at all times extend to domestic animals. At 

 no time has the female greater claims on us than at the very 

 interesting and to them trying period of parturition ; and if that 

 care be bestowed upon them which their condition requires, and 

 which they are entitled to at the hands of their u lord and mas- 

 ter," many maladies which are of daily occurrence, both to them- 

 selves and offspring, might possibly be prevented. In our esti- 

 mation, it is not a feature of good husbandry, to say the least of 

 it, to turn a mare out to grass, or elsewhere, to shift for herself, 

 immediately after foaling, particularly after she has been sub- 

 mitted to all the evils of domestication ; for she may not be able, 

 from the scantiness of the provender, to obtain sufficient nourish- 

 ment for herself and offspring; for the colt must now, and, 

 indeed, until it be able to masticate food, depend altogether on 

 the parent's milk, and the latter cannot furnish it in sufficient 

 quantities unless kept on generous food. It is pretty hard work 

 for a mare that has always been pampered and fed on highly 

 nutritious food to procure enough to supply her own and the 

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