THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 231 



A hot, tender, or inflamed mouth, unattended with disease, 

 may be relieved in the same manner. 



APHTHA, OR THRUSH. 



This disease of the mouth is very common among young 

 horses. It consists of small red patches and vesicles on the in- 

 side of the cheeks, also on the tongue. The mouth is hot and 

 feverish, and the animal will frequently allow the food to fall out 

 of it, from inability to masticate. The principal means to be em- 

 ployed are, a paste made of equal parts of honey and powdered 

 bayberry bark or borax ; the parts to be anointed every night. 

 To promote healthy action and purify the blood, give 



Flowers of sulphur, 1 ounce, 



Powdered goldenseal , .... 2 ounces, 

 " sassafras, 1 ounce. 



Mix ; divide into four parts, and give one every night in scalded 

 shorts. This treatment applies to all classes of live stock. 



DENTITION. — {Teething.) 



There is no doubt that a colt sometimes suffers considerable 

 pain from teething, in consequence of the resistance which the 

 teeth encounter from unyielding gums. The pain does not arise, 

 as some suppose, from the point of the tooth pressing upward 

 against the gum, but from the downward pressure, — the roots of 

 the tooth compressing the dental nerve, — consisting in local irri- 

 tation, which, if not relieved, deranges a part or the whole of the 

 nervous system. The remedy is a sharp gum lancet. Make an 

 incision right down to the point of the tusk, or tooth, and the 

 animal generally experiences relief. If he labor under sympa- 

 thetic fever, appears irritable and nervous, give him a drachm of 

 assafoetida in thin gruel, keep the bowels soluble, and let the diet 

 be light. 



SHARP AND PROJECTING TEETH. 



Owing to the unequal wear of some horses' teeth, their edges 

 project and become sharp ; they are then apt to irritate and 



