630 BROKEN WIND. 



seven days ; but that they got a bushel and a half of corn 

 (about 60 Ibs.) each, besides; and that a broken- winded 

 horse was scarcely heard of among them. " I have taken 

 some pains," said ' Nimrod,' " to ascertain this fact by my 

 own personal inquiries. One proprietor, who has nearly 

 fifty horses at work many of which are in as fast coaches 

 as any that travel on the road assured me lately that he 

 had not a broken-winded horse in his yard; whereas, before 

 he stinted them in their hay, he generally had one in five in 

 that state." Percivall said, in 1853 : " I believe that broken 

 wind is a much less frequently met with disease than for- 

 merly. I can avouch that it prevails little among military 

 horses; its occurrence is not anything comparable to that of 

 roaring, and it seems to be less prevalent among high than low 

 bred horses. . . . For the most part, broken wind affects aged 

 horses ; rarely do we see it in young ones. D' Arborne says, he 

 never met with a case prior to the sixth year of age, and 

 believes that mares are more disposed to it than horses/' 



We have seen a case of broken wind at five years of age, 

 and the subject of it was a bay gelding, about fifteen hands, 

 narrow and leg^y, in which the disorder appeared very sud- 

 denly and became very severe. 



Symptoms, In the earliest stage, a horse is observed not 

 to thrive as well as he should; has a short, continuous 

 cough. The broken- winded cough is spasmodic, occurring by 

 paroxysms, and very troublesome on the first appearance of 

 the disorder; it becomes feeble, short, and single as the 

 malady developes itself. In examining horses for soundness, 

 the cough produced by pressure on the larynx is often quite 

 sufficient to indicate that the animal is broken- winded. The 

 animal cannot relieve itself by an active action of the chest 

 and lungs, and the suppressed cough induced is extremely 

 characteristic. 



