432 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



connected with it, the fluids accumulate in the extremities, 

 the vessels not having sufficient power to return them. 

 The heart is thus acting upon an additional quantity of 

 fluid ; while, by the want of exercise, the limbs are 

 deprived of that power by which the fluids are returned. 

 Here "physic," a little soft food, exercise, and a mild 

 diuretic are indicated, with active hand-rubbing. 



Horses taken in from grass are often seized with swelling 

 in the legs. This is occasioned by the diflerence of food, 

 owing to its containing a greater proportion of nutriment, 

 which increases the quantity of the blood, and the want of 

 muscular and respiratory exertion necessary to carry it off 

 by the skin. Exercise and a little opening medicine will 

 eflfect a cure. 



Treatment. — This, of course, must vary as the cause of 

 the complaint varies. If from fatness of condition, bleed 

 moderately ; you will find the upper surface of the blood at 

 first colourless, and a thick coat of buff afterwards. If the 

 cause is debility, and the horse has had too much moisture 

 in his food, bleeding is improper; and if a diuretic is given, 

 follow it by a tonic. White recommends, if the swelling 

 extend much above the hock, that we make some punctures 

 with a lancet, which will produce great relief, particularly 

 if the leg be afterwards fomented with warm water. Care, 

 however, must be taken to rub the leg dry afterwards. 



Place the animal in a good roomy box ; give no hay. 

 Sprinkle a handful of ground oak bark on each feed of oats, 

 which should be damped to prevent the powder being lost. 

 Walking exercise should be given twice or three times a 

 day. It will be necessary to repeat the diuretic medicine 

 every alternate day ; and if the animal is debilitated, give 

 in addition the following tonic : 



Powdered ginger .... 2 drachms. 

 Sulphate of iron . ... 3 drachms. 



Either as a powder or in a ball. 



If in the course of two days the leg is not so materially 

 reduced in size as to lead us to infer its speedy restoration 

 to a normal state, we may insert a rowel or seton in the 

 thigh. If abscesses should form in the thigh or leg, we 

 must take care to distinguish the case from farcy, to which 

 it then bears some resemblance ; but in the latter disease 



