SPECIFIC INFECTIVE DISEASES 149 



only treatment necessary is to throw the animal off work 

 and allow a small dose of Epsom salts in the drinking 

 water, night and morning. If applicable, clothe the body 

 and bandage the Hmbs. Unless the weather is too cold, 

 all cases of catarrh should be kept in the open, as experience 

 proves, when horses have this trouble, they get better 

 much more rapidly in the open air, and are seldom 

 troubled with a cough, which is certainly not the case 

 when kept in an overheated sta,ble, m^ore especially if the 

 latter is none too sanitary. Two or three weeks' rest is 

 usually sufficient time for recovery to take place, but 

 exceptions to this laile are not at all uncommon. Benefit 

 does, unquestionably, follov/ fumigation of the nasal 

 passage with medicated steam. A little turpentine added 

 to boiling water and poured over sawdust contained in a 

 close-fitting bag, suspended to the head, will be found 

 beneficial. These inhalations can be repeated night and 

 morning. 



Strangles 



There is a disease affecting the horse which is character- 

 ised by swePiing below and between the jaws, usually 

 accompanied by a nasal discharge. This swelling may be 

 sufficiently extensive to press upon the upper part of the 

 windpipe and impede respiration. The disease is, there- 

 fore, spoken of as strangles. It affects horses of all ages 

 and of any breed, but it is one of those troubles which 

 are more prone to attack the young than the fully matured 

 animal. Some cases of strangles are of an exceedingly 

 mild nature, others quite the reverse, more especially 

 when the disease appears in connection with vital organs, 

 such as the brain, the heart-sac, and structures in con- 

 tiguity to the intestines. Under these circumstances the 

 disease is spoken of as " irregular " or " bastard " 

 strangles, the latter a vulgarism which is well understood. 

 Like catarrh, strangles was extremely prevalent amongst 

 the horses in the British Army, and had it not been for 



