DISEASES OF THE LIVER, URINARY ORGANS, ETC. 349 



all the operations we have here described may be carried out 

 there. 



DISEASES OF YOUNG COLTS. 



Perhaps we can find no more appropriate connection than 

 this in which to consider certain diseases that sometimes 

 attack the young colt. They were especially prevalent in 

 the stock-raising districts of Tennessee during the same 

 period that colt founder was so common there — from 1850 

 to 1857. In these cases, the colt, sickening in a few days 

 after foaling, was apt to prove but a short-liv6d addition to 

 the farmer's stock. The mule colt shared equally with the 

 horse colt in the mortality. 



These diseases are of two distinct classes : first, those of 

 the bowels, which include both costiveness and looseness ; 

 second, those of the urinary organs, which were suppression, 

 increased flow, and bloody urine. Suppression of the urine 

 is sometimes caused b}^ mechanical obstructions, as will be 

 mentioned when we speak of the treatment; but, with that 

 rare exception, the origin of all these troubles may be traced 

 to the condition of the mother at the time of foaling, and, 

 subsequently; for the quality of the milk which the youngster 

 begins life upon is to him a matter of vital consequence. 



We have before noticed the highly injurious results which 

 follow the use of such feed as the unsound corn and moldy 

 fodder that constitute a great part of the diet of thousands 

 of horses at the South. It is a matter that involves the 

 causes of big head, blind staggers, all manner of digestive 

 and urinary disturbances, and we know not how many evils 

 besides; but the dire category would be singularly incom- 

 plete if these complaints of the young colt were left out 

 of it. 



It is impossible for the mother, fed on such substances, not 

 to impart her unhealthy condition to the colt. It does not 

 always follow, however, that each will have precisely the 

 same disease as the other, and much less in the same degree. 

 The rule can scarcely be carried further than that if the 



