FOAL BEARING. 163 



Diarrhoea is a very serious disease in foals, and should be 

 guarded against by keeping them and their dams in healthy 

 places and comfortable. When it appears it must be checked 

 immediately by the exhibition of a dose of castor-oil, given in 

 a little milk or gruel, and afterwards small doses of alkaline 

 medicine such as bicarbonate or biborate of soda, with a few 

 drops of tincture of iron, and if there is straining or evidence 

 of pain, a similar quantity of laudanum. Boiled rice or starch- 

 gruel should be used as the vehicle of these medicines, as well 

 as food in small doses at intervals. The body should be en- 

 veloped in a soft warm blanket, and the dwelling kept clean 

 and comfortable. As the mare's milk may be the cause, the 

 foal should be kept from her except at short intervals, and her 

 diet ought to be changed, while tonics as iron and alkaline 

 medicines, may be beneficially given to her. 



If the foal, because of the death of the dam or other reason, 

 has to be reared artificially, cow's milk, diluted with water and 

 a little sugar added, will suffice in some cases; in others the foal 

 will not thrive upon it, and in lieu of a portion of it bean-milk 

 has been used most successfully. This is prepared by boiling 

 beans almost to a pulp, taking away their shells, and pressing 

 them through a fine hair sieve. A very little salt may be 

 added to the cream-like fluid or paste, which may be made 

 thinner when about to be given by the addition of the diluted 

 cow's milk. 



Foals soon begin to masticate, and when a month or two 

 old, if necessary and convenient, a small quantity of scalded 

 oats made into a mash with bran (a little salt being added), 

 when given every day will stimulate growth. Some breeders 

 even add boiled beans or peas to the mash, and Reynolds says, 

 speaking of draught-foals, that a half-pint of beans gradually 

 increased to a quart per day, is of greater benefit than twice 

 the quantity allowed at two or three years old. 



When weaned, the same care should be exercised in giving 

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