RURAL VETERINARY ^ECRETi^ 115 



mane and tail and there the disease is often so persistent and trouble- 

 some that the horse is rendered virtually useless. 



The bites of insects often produce a papular eruption, but in 

 many cases the swelling extends wider into a button-like elevation, 

 one-half to an inch in diameter. The same remarks apply to the 

 efifects of the poison ivy and poison sumac. 



TREATMENT 



In papular eruptions first remove the cause, then apply the same 

 general remedies as for simple congestion. In the more inveterate 

 cases use a lotion of one-half ounce sulphide of Potassium in two 

 quarts of water to Avhich a little Castile soap has been added ; or 

 wash with one-half ounce oil of tar, 2 ounces Castile soap and 20 

 ounces water. 



INFLAMMATION WITH BLISTERS (or Eczema) 



In this the skin is congested, thickened, warm (white skins are 

 reddened), and shows a thick crop of little blisters formed by ef- 

 fusions of a straw-colored fluid between the true skin and the cuticle. 

 The blisters may be of any size from a millet seed to a pea, and 

 often crack open and allow the escape of the fluid, which concrete 

 as a slightly yellowish scab or crust around the roots of the hairs. 

 This exudation and incrustation are especially common where the 

 hair are long, thick, and numei-ous, as in the region of the pastern 

 of heavy draft horses. The term eczema is now applied very gen- 

 erally to eruptions of all kinds that depend on internal disorders or 

 constitutional conditions, and that tend to recurrences and invet- 

 eracy. Eczema may appear on any part of the body, but in horses 

 it is especially common on the heels and the lower parts of the limbs, 

 and less frequently on the neck, shoulder, and abdomen. Their 

 limbs appear to be especially liable because of their dependent po- 

 sition, all blood having to return from them against the action of 

 gravity, and congestions and swellings being common, because of 

 the abundance of blood vessels in this part of the skin, and be- 

 cause of the frequent contact with the irritant dung and urine and 

 their ammoniacal emanations. The legs further sufifer from con- 

 tact with wet and mud when at work, from snow and ice, from 

 drafts of cold air on the wet limbs, from washing with caustic soaps. 



