36 



tion may follow ; but beyond this, with the exception already noted, 

 they are harmless. Even were they the cause of trouble, there are no 

 medicines that affect them ; neither acids, nor alkalies, anthelmintics 

 (worm medicines), nor anodynes cause them to become loose and to 

 pass out of the body. To prevent them it is necessary to watch for their 

 eggs on the legs and different parts of the body in the late summer and 

 autumn. These eggs are to be carefully scraped oft" and burned. Horses 

 should not be watered from stagnant ponds, as they frequently swallow 

 the ripening eggs with such water. It is entirely useless to attempt 

 any treatment to rid the horse of bots ; the^^ go at their appointed time, 

 and can not be dislodged before this. We should remember that in 

 following their natural course or stages of existence the bots loosen 

 their hold during May and June mostly. They are then expelled in 

 great numbers, and horse-owners, noticing them in the manure, hasten 

 to us saying "my horse has the bots." If we are honest we tell him 

 that, in the natural course of events, nature is doing for him that which 

 we can not do. We may say in conclusion, then, that bots seldom pro- 

 duce any evil effects whatever ; that not more than once in ten thousand 

 times are they the cause of colicky symptoms, and that they require no 

 medicine to eject them. 



INDIGESTION. 



Indigestion is a term applied to all those conditions where, from any 

 cause, digestion is imperfectly i^erformed. It is not at all uncommon to 

 witness in the horse symptoms similar to those of dyspei)sia in man. 

 The disturbances of digestion included under this head are not so pro- 

 nounced as to produce colic, yet our consideration of diseases of the 

 digestive organs would be incomplete if we failed to mentiou this, the 

 most frequest of all digestive disorders. The seat and causes of indi- 

 gestion are found to vary in different horses, or even in the same horse 

 at different times. Apart from the indigestibilitj" of the food itself 

 there are many causes productive of indigestion. The teeth are often 

 at fault. Where these are sharp, irregular, or decayed the food is im- 

 perfectly masticated and swallowed before there is a prox)er admixture 

 with the saliva. Bolting of the food; the bile— secretion of the liver 

 — may be defective in quality or quantitj^; there may be lack of secre- 

 tion of the pancreatic juice, or there may be simply want of peristaltic 

 movement of the stomach and intestines, thereby causing an interrup- 

 tion of the passage of the ingesta. The principal seat of indigestion, 

 however, is in the stomach or small intestines. Whenever, from any 

 cause, the secretions from these parts are excessive or difiScient, dys- 

 pepsia or indigestion must invariably follow. Indigestion is often due 

 to keeping horses on low, marshy pastures, and particularly during 

 cold weather; wintering on hard, dry hay or corn-stalks, and other 

 bulky and inuutritive food ; irregular feeding or overferdnig (though 

 this latter is more likely to produce engorged stomach, or tympanites 



