CRIB-BITING. 45 



Symptoms. — The horse will persistently refuse to move 

 the leg from the position in which it is placed. Quiver- 

 ing or excitement of the muscles of the thigh, accompa- 

 nied with irritation and fever. The horse cannot he 

 moved, as he refuses to do so. 



Causes. — Irregularity of the nervous system. 



Treatment. — Move the animal, if it be possible, and 

 the cramp will give way. Dashing cold water against 

 the thigh will often remove it. The horse will get well, if 

 time be only given him. Thus, if a person leave the sta- 

 ble to tell some one of the matter, he will be surprised, 

 on coming back, to find the horse well. 



Crib-Biting. — This is not a disease, but a vice — a 

 bad habit, which the horse has learned, of sucking wind 

 into the stomach by placing his lips against the manger. 

 The habit has been so strong in some horses, that when 

 they could get no place to press the lips against, they 

 have stooped down and placed the lips against the arm 

 of their own front leg. This vice is sometimes called 

 wind-sucking. 



Causes. — Idleness, indigestion, and learning it from 

 other animals in the same stable. 



Prevention. — Keep horses in loose boxes, or other 

 places where there are no fixtures but the walls ; regular 

 feed and regular work. 



Treatment. — Do not let the horse stand in the stable 

 twenty hours out of the twenty-four. Feed him regu- 

 larly, and work him as regularly. Turn the animal to 

 pasture, and when he is brought home in the fall of the 

 year, have a loose box prepared for him without any fix- 

 tures, as manger trough or rack. Place his hay upon 

 the floor, and his oats or corn in a small trough, and re- 

 move it as soon as the feed is eaten. 



