THEIR PATIIOLOGY, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT. 75 



not cause lameness or interfere with the action of a tendon the wisest plan 

 is to leave them alone, as the only hopeful treatment is by setting up local 

 inflammation, which is not always ea^y of control. When the splent inter- 

 feres with the action of a tendon it should be dealt with by a practical 

 veterinary surgeon. If any attempt is made to reduce the eplent, one of 

 the preparations of iodine will be the most reliable ; the red iodide of mercury 

 referred to in treating of spavin is the most active, or the iodide of lead, 

 a dense powder of a yellow colour, much milder in its action, may be tried ; 

 it is used in form of ointment of the strength one part of iodide to seven 

 parts of lard or simple ointment. 



Stomach, Inflammation of.— See Gastritis. 



Staggers— Stomach. Staggers -Sleepy Staggers -Mad Staggers. 

 —The two last terms refer to and are descriptive of two forms and stages of 

 the same disease. This always arises from over gorging, and is especially 

 apt to be produced if the horse has been kept long without food, the system 

 temporarily exhausted by toil, and then a full meal of corn given, when 

 from overtiredness the digestive organs fail to perform their functions. 

 The symptoms of the sleepy stage are partly expressed in the term, and 

 there is sonorous breathing, the head is dropped helplessly on the manger 

 or pressed against the wall, there is constipation and scanty urine, and if 

 the horse rouses from this state great thirst is evinced. Should water be 

 allowed it swells the corn in the stomach, distending it, and causing 

 inflammation, and the mad stage is quickly developed ; but the sleepy 

 stage may be quitted without this when the eye, hitherto dull, shows 

 an unnatural brightness, the breathing becomes quick and short, and the 

 animal displays great excitement and violence. Both of these forms or 

 stages of the disease show the brain to be implicated. It is generally a 

 fatal disease, against which there is the consolation that in almost if not 

 every ease it is preventible. The first endeavour should be to relieve the 

 overloaded stomach, which is the primary cause of all the symptoms ; for 

 this purpose powerful doses of purgatives are given in solution, together 

 with the administration of clysters, which should be thrown up every ten 

 or fifteen minute3. The former may consist of the following : 



Purge for Staggers. — 4dr. to 6dr. of aloes, dissolved in half a pint of 

 water, and with |oz. of carbonate of soda, and loz. of brandy or other 

 spirit, or of sweet spirit of nitre, or sal volatile it at hand. 



Mayhew objects to the administration of watery purgatives, because 

 they swell the corn in the stomach, and prescribes oil in quart doses, fol- 

 lowed in six hours by a second quart, with 20 drops of croton oil added, 

 and in six hours more, if no improvement has taken place, another quart 

 with 30 drops of croton oil. The best oil to use is raw linseed oil. The 

 clyster may be made as follows : 



Clyster. — Spirit of turpentine 6oz. ; castor oil half a pint ; oatmeal 

 gruel 3 quarts. 



In bad cases of staggers no treatment is of any avail, and in all cases 

 it is much the best plan to place the case in the hands of a qualified 



