52 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



FEVER. 



Symptoms. — Fever commences with a cold and 

 shivering fit ; the animal manifests great dullness, 

 with a desire to be inactive ; his hair stands erect, 

 or stares, and his legs and feet are cold ; the pulse 

 is quick, hard, and unequal, the temperature abnor- 

 mal, ranging from 102° to 107*, or higher ; his mouth 

 is hot, with a total loss of appetite, shivering, and a 

 dejected appearance. This is followed by general 

 warmth of the body ; an unequal distribution of heat 

 to the limbs, sometimes one being hot while the other 

 is cold. He becomes very costive, with turbid urine ; 

 affected sometimes with colic pains ; but there is no 

 cough, pawing, or looking back at the loins. If these 

 symptoms are allowed to proceed unchecked, the 

 membrane that lines the eyelid becomes unnaturally 

 red ; the inflammation may then be considered as 

 settled in some internal organ, and pure or sympto- 

 matic fever will have ensued. While this pure fever 

 continues, the shivering fit returns daily, at nearly 

 the same hour, and is followed by a warm one, and 

 sometimes by a cold clammy sweat. This state con- 

 tinues for several days, and local inflammation ensues ; 

 or the fever gradually becomes abated. 



Some veterinary surgeons have absurdly denied 

 the possibility of fever in the horse ; but those who 

 have advanced such an opinion must have paid but 

 little attention to the state of his pulse, and have 

 never used a thermometer. 



Causes. — General increased action in the heart 

 and arteries is the cause of fever, produced by the 

 sympathy of the system, induced by local inflamma- 

 tion ; or it may exist without any perceptible local 

 affection. It is too frequently induced by bad stable 



