137 



The predisposing causes of laminitis are: — working animals when out of 

 condition, fast trotting on hard roads, and inherited tendency. Allowing 

 horses to drink cold water when heated, and keeping them in a standing 

 posture for a long time on board ship or in slings,are also causes of this painful 

 disease. Mares in foal are often afflicted with a mild subacute attack of 

 laminitis. An overdose of aloes has been known to cause laminitis ; and this 

 disease, according to Percivall, may in some seasons become epidemic. We 

 have, however, never known of its becoming epidemic. Finally, we may add 

 that barley, wheat, and Indian corn often cause acute inflammation of the feet. 



Removing animals suddenly from grass, and then overfeeding them in 

 the stable, is a common cause of the acute form, more especially when the 

 i\nimal is suddenly called upon to perform work. A good instance of this 

 we met with a short time ago. A horse belonging to a carter escaped in the 

 Slight, and made his way to a bin of powdered Indian corn, of which he 

 (devoured over two stones. The owner next morning drove him from Louth 

 to Grimsby and back, a distance of about twenty-eight miles. The 

 following day the horse was struck down with acute laminitis. We were 

 called in when the horse had already been ill about fourteen days, and 

 found the coffin bones in a state of osseous mortification, or necrosis. The 

 animal was accordingly ordered to be shot. 



There are few diseases of which such erroneous views are generally 

 held, and contrary to the general impression, there are few which are so 

 amenable to early, judicious, and careful treatment, as is laminitis. If 

 treated properly in the early stages, cases of inflammation of the feet will 

 very often completely recover. It may be stated most emphatically, that the 

 earlier they are attended to, the better is the chance of ultimate cure. 



A short time ago I was requested by a large land-owner to examine a 

 valuable cart-horse which was being treated for ringbones. The animal was 

 trotted once down the yard. "Your horse," I observed, "is suffering from 

 chronic laminitis, and must be treated accordingly." Here was a valuable 

 animal, worth ninety pounds or more, well nigh wrecked, and now scarcely 

 worth fifteen pounds, simply because the owner had been misled as to the 

 nature of the disease. Such a case was one which would have been 

 pre-eminently curable in the early stages. In the later ones, when the 

 malady had become chronic, the disease proved much more refractory. 

 This animal made a good recovery eventually, but at a far greater amount 

 of trouble and expense, than would have been necessary, if the case had been 

 attended to properly in the first instance. 



In treating acute laminitis, it is our practice to administer three or four 

 drachms of aloes in the first instance, or one pint of linseed oil. We do not, 

 of course, administer any purgative if the bowels are already too freely 

 opened. The diet should be laxative, consisting of bran mashes and linseed 

 cake gruel. The shoes should be removed, but it is not desirable to pare 

 away any of the horn. Internally a drench, composed of five drops of 

 Fleming's tincture of aconite, one ounce of bicarbonate of potassium, and four 

 ounces of liquor ammonii acetatis, may be given every four hours for four 



