256 THE HORSE BOOK. 



ten or twelve liours or more. Other practition- 

 ers insist that there is little virtue in this rem- 

 edy. Colts running loose may be given free 

 access to a ''lick'' consisting of equal parts of 

 common salt, ground gentian, sulphur and dried 

 sulphate of iron. Wild horses which can not be 

 dosed may be given a tablespoonful of this mix- 

 ture in the feed daily for ten days, then drop it 

 off for a similar period and repeat. This rem- 

 edy should not be administered to pregnant 

 mares. 



At almost any stage of his existence a horse 

 is liable to colic. A sudden change of food, 

 damaged grain, watering immediately after eat- 

 ing and a half-dozen other causes may be as- 

 signed for colic, which is of two kinds— flatu- 

 lent and spasmodic. There is not a whole lot of 

 difference between the two, but in flatulent colic 

 the horse will bloat considerably, owing to the 

 presence of gas inside him and he will be con- 

 tinually in pain. In spasmodic colic the pain is 

 recurrent. In both the horse will look round 

 at his flanks, paw, lie down, get up again and 

 repeat. In his siDclls of ease the horse with 

 spasmodic colic will often appear quite com- 

 fortable. Both are the result of indigestion 

 and complications are frequent. It is said that 

 more horses die with colic than with any other 

 disease in the entire list of those to which they 

 are subject. Hence it is wise always to get the 

 veterinarian whenever possible and as promptly 



