INFLUENZA OR CATARRHAL FEVER IN HORSES. 281 



Prognosis. — This will altogether depend upon the stage 

 at which we are called in, and the measures w'e intend to 

 pursue. If before the nasal discharge appears, and w'e 

 mean to adopt mild remedies, our opinion may be favour- 

 able. Even if the discharge has appeared, and the horse 

 has not been tampered with, we may promise a desirable 

 issue. But if the animal has a forlorn aspect, a quick and 

 feeble pulse, and numerous swellings about the body, at 

 once declare an adverse judgment ; or if you mean to use 

 energetic measures, you may safely prognosticate the horse 

 will die, no matter at what stage your services may be 

 required. 



Treatment of the Influenza or Catarrhal Fever. — This 

 complaint was formerly very destructive, as all the accounts 

 left us by old practitioners sufficiently testify. It has, 

 however, under modern treatment, been stripped of very 

 much of its terrors. The chief thing to be remembered by 

 the veterinary surgeon is, that influenza is a simulating 

 disease, and that the animal labouring under it w^ould be 

 killed by one half of the means lawfully pursued to eradi- 

 cate other disorders. Old writers mention a mahgnant 

 catarrhal fever, in which the body was edematous, the 

 breath foetid, and all secretions and excretions offensive ; 

 but it may be doubted whether the malignant catarrh they 

 speak of w^as not simple influenza, made to assume a 

 typhoid or putrid type, by the bleedings, purgings, blister- 

 ings, sweatings, diuretics, nauseants, &c. &c. in which they 

 indulged. 



If the pulse be quick and feeble, the membrane of the 

 nose deeper than usual, the mouth clammy, and the lining 

 of the eye of a yellow tint, the practitioner must be cau- 

 tious. The other symptoms may declare pneumonia, lami- 

 nitis, laryngitis, bronchitis, enteritis, or any other form of 

 disease, but he must entirely disregard them. He must 

 run every risk, upon the hazard that influenza may be 

 lurking beneath the obvious symptoms. Let him give the 

 drink composed of sulphuric ether, laudanum, and cold 

 water, and leave the horse for an hour : at the expiration 

 of the period he will return, and if the disease be influenza 

 the horse may be a little better, or at all events no worse. 

 He will then retire, leaving another drink of the same kind, 



