94: VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



In due time, as strength returns, the absorbents and blood-yessels 

 will take up the effusion. 



DIARRHCEA. 



Synonym. — Scouring. 



Definition. — A condition in which there is a number of loose, partly 

 faecal or watery discharges in twenty-four hours, commonly without pain. 

 It is often a natural effort to expel some irritating substance, and in such 

 cases will disappear with the removal of the cause. It may be a symp- 

 tom of enteritis. 



Etiology. — Change of food from dry hay and grain to grass or any 

 soft feed; raw potatoes; improper food; an excessive dose of medicine; con- 

 stitutional tendency. 



Symptoms. — Purging; the dung being more or less thin and fluid, 

 dirty brown in color, and with little odor; or clay-colored and foetid. 

 The horse loses flesh, sometimes rapidly, if the disorder is unchecked. 



Treatment. — When diarrhoea arises from irritating substances in the 

 intestines, a mild cathartic will be useful: 



Castor oil § x. 



or 



Linseed oil 1 pint. 



Change the diet which may have been the cause of the trouble. If there 

 is apparently considerable abdominal pain, the following ball may be 

 given : 



Powdered opium 3 i. 



Powdered catechu 3 ij. 



Prepared chalk 3 iv. 



Molasses enough to hold together. 



Robinson recommends for pain in diarrhoea a draught of 



Spirits of nitrous ether § U- to 3 iv. 



Powdered camphor 3 i. 



Laudanum § ij. 



