DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 1 7.} 



their course. They mil sometimes accumulate in such numbers 

 as actually to block the passage. They even attach themselves 

 to the skin outside the anus, causing the animal to go awk- 

 wardly, to switch his tail and give other signs of extreme 

 discomfort, until the tail is raised and the offender discovered 

 and removed. Alleged perforations of the stomach by bots are 

 usually ruptures, the result of indigestion. 



The irritation caused by their presence is not easily distin- 

 guished from other forms of indigestion and colic. It may be 

 tympanitic or not, accompanied or not with diarrhoea, and of 

 the most variable intensity. If occurring after a period of 

 abstinence, when the worms are presumably hungry, or if in 

 spring or early summer, if the bots are found passing with the 

 dung, if the horse turns up his lip as if nauseated, and if the 

 the margins of the tongue are red and fiery there will be so 

 much more corroborative evidence. 



Treatment. — In cases of irritation following abstinence give 

 potato juice, gruels, etc., to feed and quiet the bots, adding 

 some anodyne (opium, hyoscyamus), or mucilaginous agents 

 (gum Arabic, boiled linseed, mallow, slippery elm), if it appears 

 necessary. 



We cannot certainly kill the bots in the stomach, as they 

 will resist the strongest acids and alkalies, the most irrespirable 

 and poisonous gases, the most potent narcotics and mineral 

 poisons, empyreumatic oils, etc. Oil of turpentine, bryony, 

 ether, and benzine have been relied on by different practitioners, 

 but none of them are quite satisfactory. It seems probable 

 that these like other vermifuges will act best in autumn or 

 early mnter, before the larva has acquired his hard, horny coat 

 of mail, and at this time accordingly they may be given with 

 more confidence. The azedarach (pride of China) grown around 

 stables in the South to protect from bots, probably acts in this 

 way, if at all, being cropped and swallowed by the animals 

 while the bots are still white, soft, and permeable to liquids. 



