110 VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



A piece of wet sponge secured on the head and along the forehead, or 

 a shade over the eyes, especially in sunny weather, will sometimes pre- 

 vent attacks. In lieu of a collar for harness work, a breast band should 

 be substituted, and the check rein abolished. 



A megrimcd horse, however, is not to be depended on, certainly not 

 in harness. The attacks may perhaps be warded off by careful attention 

 to diet, regular work, and occasional physic; but sultry weather, hot sun, 

 or hard work may cause a recurrence of the attack. It is an incurable 

 disease. 



APOPLEXY. 



Synonym. — Cerebral Haemorrhage. 



Horses are sometimes struck down by apoplexy as by a blow, and lose 

 all sense and power of motion, and death quickly ends the scene. Post- 

 mortem examination often reveals a congested state of the vessels of the 

 brain and its meninges. In horses, apoplexy is almost always due to 

 rupture of degenerated blood-vessels. There may be some premonitory 

 symptoms, such as staggering and partial paralysis, but generally the 

 animal falls suddenly without warning. After falling it may lie prostrate, 

 in a state of unconsciousness, without the power of voluntary motion, 

 perfectly insensible to surrounding objects, and dead to all ordinary 

 feelings, with its eyes wide open and presenting a ghastly stare, the pu- 

 pils dilated and insensitive to the light — amaurotic. The breathing is 

 stertorous, the pulse small, rapid, and thready, the surface of the body 

 cold, or bedewed with a cold sweat, the limbs flaccid, the mouth open, 

 and filled with frothy saliva, and in some severe cases the sphincters are 

 relaxed. In other instances the animal may still retain the power of 

 muscular movements; but they are irregular, and intermixed with spas- 

 modic contractions. Whilst down, it fights convulsively, presses the back 

 of its head violently against the wall or other solid body. Some degree 

 of opisthotonos is present, the back is arched downward, and the hind 

 legs extended backward. The eyes move about convulsively, or there 

 may be persistent strabismus of one or both of them; the pupils may be 

 dilated or contracted, alternately contracted and dilated, or they may be 

 natural, or one may be contracted, and the other natural or even dilated. 

 The respiratory movements are sometimes spasmodic; now and then 

 there may be a stertorous sound; at other times sighing, and sometimes 



