426 DISEASES OF DIGESTION. 



" We should be very careful in putting a horse to work soon after 

 giving him a dose of aloes which has failed to move him ; for the 

 longer a purgative is retained in the body, the greater the danger 

 from its superaction " (Williams). 



SYMPTOMS. — Frequent purging. Loss of appetite. Debility. 

 Weak pulse. The dangerous symptoms are : offensive breath ; bad 

 smell from the evacuations ; glassy eyes ; and distension of the 

 belly with cessation of purging, caused by the bowel losing the 

 power to perform its natural movements on becoming inflamed. 

 Laminitis frequently results from superpurgation. 



TREATMENT. — If the symptoms are not very urgent, the action 

 of the physic should not be checked further than by keeping the 

 animal warmly clothed, quiet, and allowing him only small quan- 

 tities of thin gruel made from flour or rice, or boiled milk to drink, 

 care being taken that the milk, if it be used, is not smoked in the 

 slightest; for it would then be distasteful to him. On no account 

 give linseed or roots, as they are laxatives. 



If the horse gets worse, or if symptoms of colic appear, foment the 

 belly with hot water, and give an ounce of chlorodyne, or 3 oz. of 

 laudanum, in a quart of rice or starch water, or in water in which 

 a little flour has been boiled. If this does not afford relief, repeat, 

 after a couple of hours, the chlorodyne, or the laudanum and rice 

 water combined with IJ oz. of sweet spirits of nitre. We should 

 bear in mind that the fluid in which the sweet spirits of nitre or 

 chlorodyne is given should be cold. If the horse be very weak, 

 a bottle of port wine may be given. If neither opium nor lau- 

 danum be at hand, substitute for them camphor in 2-drachm doses. 

 To support the strength, we may give boiled milk with eggs beaten 

 up in it. In superpurgation, a few bruised oats and dry bran with 

 some well-preserved hay may be supplied from time to time ; as they 

 are useful to stop the purging. Bran mashes should not be given ; 

 as bran in that form is a laxative. 



If distension of the abdomen appears, give 2 oz. of turpentine in 

 a pint of gruel. 



During convalescence, the patient should be very carefully and 

 gradually brought on to his ordinary food, and he should be kept 

 quiet and free from excitement; because any ur.expected or un- 

 usual noise or bustle may bring on a fit of purging. 



Diarrhcea. 



Many horses, more particularly slack-loined, slight, "washy" 

 animals, purge if worked or excited, as we may observe among race- 



