250 VETERINARY HOMCEOPATHY. 



INDIGESTION. 



Among highly bred blood or trotting stock, which are bred 

 specially for sport or sale, indigestion in the foal is a malady of 

 rare occurrence because the little animal is never away from the 

 mare and therefore takes its food at proper intervals; but in the 

 case of the cart mare, working on the farm, the absence from the 

 foal during the hours of labor necessitates the retention of milk in 

 the udder until it probably becomes altered in constitution or on 

 returning, the foal being ravenously hungry, engorges its stomach 

 with fluid that is not now fit for it; the obvious method to be 

 adopted to avoid this state of things is to allow the foal to suckle 

 at more frequent intervals; indigestion may be due to the im- 

 proper diet given to the mare or to the natural acidity of the 

 secretions of the foal's stomach; if the former accounts for it the 

 diet must be altered; if the latter, a few doses of Chamomilla 3X 

 given to the youngster will generally put matters right; should 

 the indigestion assume the lympanitic form when swelling of the 

 abdomen is a leading symptom and much wind is passed per anus, 

 Carbo vegetabilis ix, gr. x, three times a day will afford relief. 



We have how touched upon the several ailments to w^hich the 

 young foal is subject with the exception of two very common dis- 

 orders, the one being the antithesis of the other, namely, constipa- 

 tion and diarrhoea; but thf^se, as has been already intimated, will 

 _be dealt with under chapters specially devoted to these subjects; 

 we therefore now revert to the mother once more and take up the 

 consideration of that great curse to the breeder, 



ABORTION AND PREMATURE BIRTH. 



By the term abortion we desire to be understood that the foetus 

 is expelled at a period anterior to that in which it could maintain 

 a separate existence from its dam. Authorities on the subject are 

 pretty well agreed that in the mare this period may be included 

 any time before the three hundredth day of gestation, but it occurs 

 more frequently during the first half of the period of pregnancy 

 than the second half Abortions occur under very varying condi- 

 tions; some are due to accidents and take place in various parts of 

 a country; while, yet again, quite a number of cases may arise on 

 one estate, or in one township, or a large country district will be 



