39 



powers of digestion. This is best doue by giving tbe vegetable tonics. 

 One-hair ounce of Peruvian bark, gentian, ginger, quassia, etc., is to 

 be given twice a day in the feed or as a drench. Unless some such 

 medicines and good food and pure water are given to tone up the di- 

 gestive organs the worms will rapidly accumulate again, even though 

 they may have all been expelled by the worm medicines proper. 



DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 



Spasmodic or cramp colic. — This is the name given to that form of colic 

 produced by contraction, or spasm, of a portion of the small intestines. 

 It is produced by indigestible food ; foreign bodies, as nails and stones 

 in the bowels ; large drinks of cold water when the animal is warm ; 

 driving a heated horse through deep streams, cold rains, draughts of 

 cold air, etc. Unequal distribution of or interference with the nervous 

 supply here produces cramp of the bowels, the same as external cramps 

 are produced. Spasmodic colic is much more frequently met with in 

 high-bred, round-barreled nervous horses than in coarse, lymphatic 

 ones. 



Symptoms.— These should be carefully studied in order to diagnose 

 this from other forms of colic requiring quite different treatment. Spas- 

 modic colic always begins suddenly. If feeding, the horse is seen to 

 stop abruptly, stamp impatiently, and probably look backwards. He 

 soon evinces more acute pain, and this is shown by pawing, suddenly 

 lying down, rolling, and getting up. There is then an interval of ease; 

 he will resume feeding, and appear to be entirely well. In a little while, 

 however, the pains return and are increased in severity, only to again 

 pass off for a time. As the attack progresses these intervals of ease 

 become shorter and shorter, and pain may be continuous, though even 

 now there are exacerbations of pain. Animals suffering from this form 

 of colic evince the most intense pain ; they throw themselves down, roll 

 over and over, jump up, whirl about, drop down again, paw, or strike, 

 rather, with the front feet, steam and sweat, make frequent attempts to 

 pass their urine, and the penis is partially erected. Only a small 

 amount of water is passed at a time, and this is due to the bladder be- 

 ing so frequently emptied, i. e., there is but little water to pass. These 

 attempts to urinate are almost always regarded as sure symptoms of 

 trouble of the kidneys or bladder. In reality they are only one of the 

 many ways in which the horse expresses the presence of pain. Allow 

 me to digress slightly, and to assure the reader that diseases of the 

 bladder or kidneys of the horse are exceedingly rare. The stomach and 

 bowels are affected in a thousand instances where the kidneys or blad- 

 der are once. Attempts to pass water and failure to do so are not 

 enough to warrant us in pronouncing the case one of " trouble with his 

 water," nor should we, if a horse yields or sinks when pinched over the 

 loins, declare that kidney disease exists. Try this pressure on any 



