APPENDIX C 



Various Forms of Manual Aid 



1077. Balls, Boluses, Pills, are the most convenient forms of administering 

 medicines to horses and dogs. To prepare a ball for a horse the medicinal 

 agents are mixed together with a little linseed meal, and beat up into a 

 paste in a mortar, with the addition of honey, treacle, or soft-soap, and 

 rolled into a cylindrical mass about £ inch in diameter, then cut 

 into lengths about 3 inches each, and either folded into fine paper, 

 secured at each end, or put into a gelatine capsule. Pills for dogs are 

 prepared somewhat similarly, but much less in size. In administering 

 the ball to the horse, the operator stands to the right or off-side and 

 rather to the front, and with the left hand takes hold of the horse's tongue 

 and gently pulls the point of the tongue to the outside of the mouth, and 

 with the ball fixed between the three first fingers of the right hand, 

 passes it quickly along the roof of the mouth to the back of the throat 

 and leaves it, then withdraws the hand from the mouth, releases the 

 tongue, and holds the jaws firm and close together by the aid of the left 

 hand on the nose and the right on the under jaw, and looks for the ball 

 to pass down the gullet on the near or left side. Or the mouth may be 

 kept open with the balling-iron (Plate XXXIII., Fig. 5), the tongue 

 held, and the ball put in as above. A balling-gun (Plate LIV., Fig. 1) 

 is sometimes used instead of the hand to place the ball at the back 

 of the mouth. To give a pill to a dog, place the left hand over the 

 nose, just below the eyes, and press the cheek of the left side against the 

 upper teeth with the fingers, and the cheek of the right side with the 

 thumb, when the dog will himself open his mouth wide enough for the 

 pill to be put into the back part of the throat with the thumb and fore- 

 finger of the right hand. 



1078. Bedding. — It is important that animals should have clean, dry beds. 

 For this purpose straw is mostly used, both in stall and box. When straw 

 is scarce the bedding should be well dried in the fresh air every day. 

 Sawdust is now extensively used in large towns, also moss-litter, and both 

 answer well. For boxes we prefer the moss-litter for horses and cattle ; 

 it keeps down bad smells, absorbs moisture and ground damp. In 

 outlying districts dried bracken and dried rushes are much used for 

 bedding. 



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