DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 65 



ounces of laudanum. The vegetable or mineral astringents are also to 

 be given. Starch injections containing laudanum often afford great 

 relief. The strength must be kept up by milk punches, eggs, beef tea, 

 oatmeal gruel, etc. In spite of the best care and treatment, however, 

 dysentery is likel}" to prove fatal. In the case of nurslings, the dam 

 should be placed in a healthy condition or, failing in this, milk should 

 be had from another mare or from a cow. 



Gastro-enteritis. — This condition consists in an inflammation of 

 the stomach and intestines. Instead of being confined to the mucous, 

 or lining, membrane, as in gastro-intestinal catarrh, the inflammatory 

 process extends deeper and may even involve the entire thickness of 

 the wall of the organ. 



This disease may be caused by irritant food, hot drinks, sudden 

 chilling, mold}^ or deca3^ed foods, foul water, parasites, or by chemical 

 poisons. It ma}^ also complicate some general diseases, especiall}' 

 infectious diseases, as anthrax, influenza, rabies, or petechial fever. 

 Long-continued obstruction of the bowels or displacement resulting 

 in death are preceded by enteritis. 



The sijmptoms ^\Qqy somewhat with the cause and depend also, to some 

 extent, upon the chief location of the inflammation. In general the 

 animal stops eating or eats but little; it shows colick}'- pain; fever 

 develops; the pvilsc and respiration become rapid; the mucous mem- 

 brane becomes red; the mouth is hot and dry. Pressure upon the 

 abdomen may cause pain. Intestinal sounds can not be heard at the 

 flank. There is constipation in the earlier stages that is followed later 

 by diarrhea. The extremities become cold. Sometimes the feces are 

 coated with or contain shreds of fibrin, looking like scraps of dead 

 membrane, and they have an evil, putrid odor. If the disease is caused 

 by moldy or damaged food there may be great muscular weakness 

 with partial paralysis of the throat, as shown by inability to swallow. 

 If chemical poisons are the cause, this fact may be shown by the sudden 

 onset of the disease, the histor}^ of the administration of a poison or the 

 entire absence of known cause, the rapid development of threatening- 

 symptoms, the involvement of a series of animals in the absence of a 

 contagious disease, and the special symptoms and alterations known to 

 be produced by certain poisons. To make this chain of evidence com- 

 plete, the poison may be discovered in the organs of the horse by 

 chemical anal3'sis. In nearl}^ all cases of gastro-enteritis there is nervous 

 depression. 



The poisons that are most irritant to the digestive tract are arsenic, 

 corrosive sublimate, sugar of lead, sulphate of copper, sulphate or 

 chloride of zinc, lye or other strong alkalies, mineral acids, and, 

 among the vegetable poisons, tobacco, lobelia, and water hemlock. 



The treatment will depend upon the cause, but if this can not be 

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