WARM CLOTHING A NECESSITY. 



33 



Warm clothing, two rugs if necessary, and even a hood and 

 flannel bandages, should be used. The latter should be re- 

 moved twice a day, and, before being replaced, the animal's 

 legs should be well hand-rubbed all round. The stable should 

 be kept cool, and the patient fed on nourishing diet ; on bran, 

 corn, and linseed mashes, hay, carrots, and above all, grass, if 

 it is to be obtained, though only a little. Malt mashes and 

 barley steeped in boiling water, both form very good changes, 

 and should be given in small quantities. On returning 

 strength, dry food may again be used, though the mashes 

 should not be entirely discontinued until the recovery is 

 complete. 



A little exercise may be given in fine weather if only for 

 ten minutes a day, increasing the time with the strength of 

 the patient; a matter seldom attended to sufficiently early. 

 The state of the bowels should be rather relaxed than 

 constipated. The opportunity should be taken whilst the 

 animal is out to open all air-holes and windows, and have 

 the stable thoroughly cleansed and fumigated. I have before 

 commended Sir William Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid as a 

 preventive. In sickness it should be used more liberally : 

 even wetting the sides of the stalls and boxes, and suspend- 

 ing pieces of cloth saturated with it — both often extremely 

 beneficial. 



The old horses are not so liable to illness as the younger 

 ones. Still, if after galloping in cold easterly winds they are 

 not soon after cantered or trotted to keep them warm and 

 comfortable, they will cough ; and a cold once caught is, like 

 disease in any other form, not easily got rid of; and if at- 

 tended with much fever would be infectious, and go through 

 the whole of the stable with greater or less severity. It should 

 therefore be guarded against ; prevention being better than 



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