103 



An animal that is a roarer should not be used for breeding purposes, 

 no matter bow valuable the stock. The taint is transmissible in many 

 instances, and tbere is not the least doubt in tbe minds of those who 

 know best that the offspring whose sire or dam is a roarer is born with 

 an hereditary predisposition to the affection. 



Grunting. — A common test used by veterinarians when examining 

 "the wind" of a horse is to see if he is a "grunter." This is a sound 

 emitted during expiration when the animal is suddenly moved, or start- 

 led, or struck at. If he grunts he is further tested for roaring. Grunters 

 are not always roarers, but as it is a common thing for a roarer to grunt 

 such an animal must be looked upon with suspicion until he is thor- 

 oughly tried by pulling a load or galloped up a hill. The test should 

 be a severe one. Horses suffering with pleurisy, pleurodynia, or rheu- 

 matism, and other affections accompanied with much pain, will grunt 

 when moved, or when the pain is aggravated, but grunting under these 

 circumstances does not justify the term of "grunter" being applied to 

 the horse, as the grunting ceases when the animal recovers from tlie 

 disease that causes the pain. 



High blowing. — This term is applied to a noisy breathing made by 

 some horses. It is distinctly a nasal sound, and must not be con- 

 founded with "roaring." The sound is produced by the action of the 

 nostrils. It is a habit and not an unsoundness. Contrary to roaring, 

 when the animal is put to severe exertion the sound ceases. An animal 

 that emits this sound is called a " high-blower." Some horses have, 

 naturally, very narrow nasal openings, and they may emit sounds 

 louder than usual in their breathing when exercised. 



Whistling is only one of the variations of the sound emitted by a 

 horse called a " roarer," and therefore needs no further notice, except 

 to remiuel the reader that a whistling sound may be produced during 

 an attack of severe sore throat or inflammation of the larynx, which 

 passes away with the disease that causes it. 



Tliiclc iBind. — This is another superfluous term applied to a symptom. 

 The great majority of horses called " thick-winded " belong either in the 

 class called " roarers," or are affected with " heaves," and therefore no 

 separate classification is needed. Mares heavy with foal, horses exces- 

 sively fat, and those that have not been exercised for so long that the 

 muscular system has become unfit for work 5 horses with large bellies, 

 and, especially, when the stomach is loaded with coarse, fibrous, or 

 bulky food, emit a louder sound than natural in their breathing, and 

 are called "thick-winded." The treatment in such cases is obvious: 

 " Kemove the cause and the effect will cease." While it must be ad- 

 mitted that " thickening of the mucous membrane of the finer bronchial 

 tubes and air cells may cause the breathing called thick-winded," it 

 must at the same time be admitted that there is no symptom by which 

 the condition can be distinguished from what will hereafter be described 

 as " heaves," by the general reader, at least. 



