44 



repeat the former dose; however, if the symptoms do not 

 abate give another. A blister of strong liquor ammonia with 

 six times its bulk of water put on a cloth and held up to the 

 animal's belly has sometimes done good, but great care is need- 

 ed lest blistering and dissolving the skin should follow ; also, 

 enemas of turpentine one pint, put into one quart of soap 

 water, has done good service. However, I would recom- 

 mend no treatment except the first-mentioned, for they are 

 nearly infallible remedies. 



FLATULENT COLIC, WINDY COLIC, TYMPANITES. 



Cause. — Impaired digestion, especially in old debilitated 

 horses, loss of tonicity of the stomach, loss of nervous in- 

 fluence, overwork, gorging on new grass, sudden and great 

 changes in the heat of the weather, any and each of these 

 have produced tympanites. A large feed after a long fast, 

 in fact, anything that arrests or impairs the digestive 

 powers. Animals in their wild state are not subject to this 

 derangement of the system. I have often watched bison 

 and buffaloes filling themselves with new grass until they 

 could not stand ; the respiration was so hurried that every 

 moment I expected to see them expire, but it seemed to do 

 them no harm. Retention of provender in the stomach a 

 longer time than nature has assigned leads to most un- 

 pleasant conditions ; fermentation begins, and there is a 

 constant formation of gas, some say of hydrogen, and thus 

 tympanites is the result. 



Symptoms. — Before the swelling is noticeable, the ani- 

 mal behaves in a very fidgety manner, hangs his head, and 

 generally walks in a circuitous way in his stall. At inter- 

 vals he stands motionless, except that the foot paws the 

 ground, the pulse is feeble but high. There is a very sleepy 

 look about him. After some time enlargement of the abdo- 

 men is observed. Here it may be well to state that in 

 windy colic there is not that violence of action that we ex- 

 pect to find in spasmodic colic, the animal does not sud- 



