Diseases of the Organs of Digestion. 205 



effect. The signs are conspicuous : Faulty condition, 

 inability for exertion, tight and dirty skin, irregular bowels, 

 repeated diarrhoea, slimy foetid mouth, all of which finally 

 culminate in disease of the kidneys, farcy, or glanders. 



Treatment. — Pay attention to the teeth, and institute a 

 proper system of feeding ; regulate the bowels by mode- 

 rate doses of medicine, as aperient No. 3 ; restore the 

 balance of action in diarrhoea by linseed-oil, in half the 

 usual doses, combined with half a dose of opium. When 

 a proper action of the bowels is established, commence a 

 course of vegetable tonics, give gentle exercise, and im- 

 pose suitable work gradually as the condition and ability 

 will admit. 



Acute Indigestion, or Impaction of the Stomach. — 

 The stomach of the horse is comparatively small, and 

 liable to be gorged with food under various circumstances, 

 sometimes by inordinate manger supply, especially when 

 some change has been made in the variety, and when 

 horses gain access to heaps of corn by accident. Such 

 states are known by the violent agony, rolling, kicking, 

 and plunging of the sufferer, while the constitutional dis- 

 turbance is extreme, the skin being bathed in perspiration. 

 The excitement may pass into frenzy, or degenerate into 

 coma, insensibility, and death. In other cases the 

 stomach is ruptured, also ending fatally. 



Treatment. — The practitioner will first assure himself 

 that hernia is not present. Jn the first stages, administer 

 a strong aperient, No. 3, which should be dissolved in a 

 pint of warm water, with which 2 oz. of nitrous ether is 

 to be mixed. Throw up enemas constantly. Subcutaneous 

 Injections, No. 1 . If there is much distension of the bowels 

 by gas, give hyposulphite of soda in cold water, with a 

 dose of aromatic spirits of ammonia. Put the animal 

 into a roomy barn or shed, and litter down a thick layer 

 of straw. 



Constipation of the bowels arises from natural tor- 

 pidity, debility from previous disease, and paralysis. A 

 bran-mash or enema will remove simple forms, and the 

 use of roots, linseed, &c.,may suffice to preserve a proper 

 action. When debility is the cause, vegetable tonics 



