430 DlSEAtSES OF DIGESTION. 



TREATMENT. — With sucking foals, attention should be at once 

 piiid to the mare, and if there is anything wrong with her, it is 

 well, if practicable, to take the patient away from her and put 

 him to a healthy fostei--mother. The first great point in the 

 medicinal treatment of this disease is to remove the cause, by dis- 

 infecting the stomach and intestines, by giving, for instance, from 

 45 to 75 grains (according to the age of the foal) of tannoform 

 (p. 625) four times a day in linseed tea, or mixed in honey or 

 treacle. Bass, Hermann and Wulff speak very highly of the good 

 effects of tannoform in this disease. With respect to other anti- 

 septics for internal use Avith foals, we might give, in the same way, 

 1 drachm of salol (a preparation of carbolic acid and salicylic acid) ; 

 ^ drachm of creolin in ^ pint of water; or 2 drachms of oil of 

 turpentine in 2 oz. of linseed oil once or twice a day. Cagny 

 advises the administration of a drachm of rhubarb a few times 

 a day. The animal's strength may be kept up by giving daily four 

 or five raw eg-rys. 



Mr. Samuel Wharam, M.R.C.V.S., who has had great experience 

 in this disease, tells me that malt extract has an excellent effect in 

 checking the diarrhoea and in maintaining the animal's strength. 

 A teaspoonful to a dessertspoonful of the dry powder is given every 

 six or eight hours in the dam's milk. 



PREVENTION consists in avoiding the predisposing causes, and 

 in isolating the infected animals. 



Chronic Indigestion {Dyspepsia). 



The usual causes of this complaint are : improper food j an im- 

 proper system of feeding and watering; imperfect chewing of the 

 food by the animal, owing to bad teeth, or to the forage being 

 given in such a form that he bolts it ; constitutional tendency ; and 

 injudicious use of medicines. According to Williams, it is generally 

 caused in young animals by drinking cold milk; by removal 

 from the dam at too early an age ; by sucking at too long intervals, 

 or when the dam is heated by work. 



SYMPTOMS. — The animal loses condition. The appetite is, 

 generally, capricious and depraved. There is often acidity of the 

 stomach, as is evinced by his grinding his teeth, and by his par- 

 tiality for licking whitewashed walls. He may crib-bite, or wind- 

 suck. The mouth has a sour smell. Cough often accompanies 

 indigestion. The coat is out of order, being " hide-bound," dry, 

 lacking its natural gloss, and being filled with dandruff, and fre- 

 quently, the horn of the hoofs become shelly and brittle; these 



