200 EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 



stables are never free from it ; and if, perchance, it does enter one of their largest 

 stables, almost every horse will be affected. Therefore also it is that grooms have so 

 iiiuch dread of a distempered stable, and that the odds are so seriously at!ected if 

 tiistemper has broken out in a racing establishment. 



Does this lead to the conclusion that epidemic catarrh is contagious'? Not neces- 

 .-^arily, but it excites strong suspicion of its being so ; and there are so many facts of 

 the disease following the introduction of a distempered horse into an establishment, 

 that this malady must rank among those that are both contagious and epidemic. 

 There are few well-informed grooms, or extensive owners of horses, and living much 

 among them, or veterinary surgeons of considerable jjraf^tifo, who entertain the least 

 doubt about the matter. Then every necessary precuutiun should be adopted. The 

 horse that exhibits symptoms of epidemic catarrh should be removed as soon as 

 possible. The affected horses should be removed, and not the sound ones, for they, 

 although apparently sound, may have the malady lurking about them, and may more 

 widely propagate the disease. 



With regard to the treatment of epidemic catarrh, there may be, and is at times, 

 considerable difficulty. It is a disease of the mucous membrane, and thus connected 

 with much debility ; but it is also a disease of a febrile character, and the inflamma- 

 tion is occasionally intense. The veterinar}- surgeon, therefore, must judge for 

 himself Is the disease in its earliest stage marked by evident inflammatory action? 

 Is there much redness of the membrane of the nose — much acceleration of the pulse 

 — much heaving of the flanks'! If so, blood must be abstracted. The orifice should 

 be large that the blood may flow quickly, and the circulation be sooner affected ; and 

 the medical attendant should be present at this first venesection, that he may close the 

 orifice as soon as the pulse begins to falter. This attention to the first bleeding is 

 indispensable. It is the carelessness with which it is. performed — the ignorance of 

 the object to be accomplished, and tlie effect actually produced, tliat destroys half the 

 horses that are lost from this malady. The first falter of the pulse is the signal to 

 suspend the bleeding. Every drop lost afterwards may be v.anted. 



If there is no appearance of febrile action, or only a very slight one, small doses of 

 aloes may be given, combined with the fever medicines recommended for catarrh. 

 As soon as the fa;ces are pultaceous, or even before that, the aloes should be omitted 

 and the fever medicine continued. It will rarely be prudent to continue the aloes 

 beyond the third drachm. 



A stricter attention must be paid to diet than the veterinarian usually enforces, or 

 the groom dreams of. No corn must be allowed, but mashes and thin gruel. The 

 water should be entirely taken away, and a bucket of gniel suspended "in the box. 

 This is an excellent plan with regard to every sick horse th-at we do not wish to 

 reduce too much; and when he finds that the morning and evening pass over, and his 

 water is not offered to him, he will readily take to the gruel, and drink as much of it 

 as is good for him. Green meat should be early offered; such as grass, tares (the 

 latter especially), lucerne, and, aliove all, carrots. If these cannot be procured, a 

 little hay may be wetted, and offered morsel after morsel by the hand. Should this 

 be refused, the hay may be damped with water slightly salted, and then the patient 

 will generally seize it with avidity. 



Should the horse refuse to eat during the two or three first days, there is no occa- 

 sion to be in a hurry to drench with cfruel ; it will make the mouth sore, and the throat 

 sore, and tease and disgust: but if he should \on'r continue obstinately to refuse his 

 food, nutriment nmst be forced upon him. Good thick gruel must be horned down, 

 or. what is better, given by means of Read's pump. 



The practitioner will often and anxiously have recourse to auscultatii n. He will 

 listen for the mucous rattle, creepinfr down the windpipe, and enterin<r t!ie bronchial 

 passages. If he cannot detect it b( low the larynx, he will appiv a stroncr blister, 

 reaclnng from ear to ear. and ex'rndin'.r to the second or third rin<r nf the tracliea. 

 If he can trace the rattle in the windpipe, he nmst follow it. — he must blister as far 

 as the disease has spread. This will often have an excellent effect, not only as a 

 counter-irritant, but as rousing the lanouid powers of the constituti( n. A rowel of 

 tolerable size between the fore-leijs cannot do harm. It may act as a derivative, or 

 it may take away a disposition to inflammation in the contiguous port'on of the chest. 



The inflammation which characterizes the early stage of this disease is at first con- 

 fined to the membrane of the mouth and the fauces. Can fomentations be applied'? 



