436 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



ration should not be given at once on return from hard work, when 

 the general system and stomach are unable to cope with it; the animal 

 should not be given more than a swallow or two of cold water when 

 perspiring and fatigued; nor should he be allowed a full supply of 

 water just after his grain ration; he should not be overheated or 

 exhausted bj^ work, nor should dried sweat and dust be allowed to 

 accumulate on the skin or on the harness pressing on it. The expo- 

 sure of the affected heels to damp, mud, and snow, and, above all, to 

 melting snow, should be guarded against; light, smooth, well-litting 

 harness must be secured, and where the saddle or collar irritates an 

 incision shoukl be made in them above and below the part that chafes, 

 and, the padding between having been removed, the lining should be 

 beaten so as to make a hollow. A zinc shield in the upper angle of 

 the collar will often prevent chafing in front of the withers. 



Treatment. — Wash the chafed skin and apply salt water (one-half 

 ounce to the quart), extract of witchhazel, a weak solution of oak bark, 

 or camphorated spirit. If the surface is raw use bland powders, such 

 as oxide of zinc, lycopodium, starch, or smear the surface with vase- 

 line, or with 1 ounce vaseline intimately mixed with one-half dram 

 each of sugar of lead and opium. In cases of chafing rest must be 

 strictly enjoined. Where there is constitutional disorder or acrid 

 sweat, 1 ounce cream of tartar or a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda 

 may be given twice daih^ 



CONGESTION, W^ITH SMALL PIMPLES, OR PAltJLES. 



In this affection there is the general blush, heat, etc., of erythema, 

 together with a crop of elevations from the size of a poppy seed to a 

 coffee bean, visible when the hair is reversed or to be felt with the 

 finger where the hair is scanty. In white skins thc}^ var}' from the 

 palest to the darkest red. All do not retain the papular type, but 

 some go on to form blisters (eczema, bullie), or pustules, or dry up 

 into scales, or break out into open sores, or extend into larger swellings 

 (tubercles). The majority, however, remaining as pimples, charac- 

 terize the disease. When very itch}'- the rubbing breaks them open, 

 and the resulting sores and scales hide the true nature of the eruption. 



The general and local causes may be the same as for erythema, and 

 in the same subject one portion of the skin may have simple conges- 

 tion and another adjacent papules. As the inflammator}^ action is 

 more pronounced, so the irritation and itching are usuall}^ greater, 

 the animal rubbing and biting himself severely. This itching is espe- 

 cially severe in the forms which attack the roots of the mane and. tail, 

 and there the disease is often so persistent and troublesome that the 

 horse is rendered virtually useless. 



The bites of insects often produce a papular eruption, but in many 

 such cases the swelling extends wider into a button-like elevation, 



