493 



cheotomy may be demanded. Here, again, the hot iron should be used, 

 and disinfectant applications should be constantly applied. "With the 

 first evidence of dyspnoea, not duo to closing of the nostrils or glottis, 

 or with the first pawing which gives rise to a suspicion of colic, a 

 mustard plaster should be applied over the whole belly and chest. The 

 sinapism will draw the current of the circulation to the exterior, the 

 metastasis to the lungs or intestines is prevented, and the enfeebled, 

 nervous system is stimulated to renewed vigor by the peripheral irrita- 

 tion. The organs are encouraged by it to renewed functional activity j 

 the local inflammation produced by it favors absorption of the exuda- 

 tion. The objection to the use of blisters is their more severe action 

 and the danger of mortification. Septicaemia, when occurring as a 

 complication, requires the ordinary treatment for the putrid diseases, 

 with little hope of a good result. 



After recovery the animal regains its ordinary health, and in my own 

 experience there has been no predisposition to a return of the disease. 



STRANGLES. 



Synonyms: Distemper, colt-ill, catarrhal fever, one form of ship- 

 ping fever, Febris pyogenwa. 



Definition. — Strangles is an infectious disease of the horse, mule, and 

 ass; seen most frequently in young animals, and usually leaving an 

 animal which has had one attack protected from future trouble of the 

 same kind. It appears as a fever, lasting for a few days, with forma- 

 tion of matter or pus in the air tubes and lungs, and frequently the 

 formation of abscesses in various parts of the body, both near the sur- 

 face and in the internal organs. It usually leaves the animal after con- 

 valescence perfectly healthy and as good as it was before, but some- 

 times leaves it a roarer, or is followed by the development of deep- 

 seated abscesses which may prove fatal. 



Causes. — The cause of strangles is infection by direct contact with 

 an animal suffering from the disease, or indirectly through contact with 

 the discharges from an infected animal, or by means of the atmosphere 

 in which an infected animal has been. There are many predisposing 

 causes which render some animals much more subject to contract the 

 disease than others. Early age, which has given it the popular name 

 of colt-ill, offers many more subjects than the later periods of life do, 

 for the animal can contract the disease but once, and the large majority 

 of adult and old animals have derived an immunity from previous at- 

 tacks. At three, four, or five years of age the colt, which has been at 

 home, safe on a meadow or in a cozy barnyard, far from all intercourse 

 with other animals or sources of contagion, is first put to work and 

 driven to the market town or county fairs to be exposed to an atmos- 

 phere or to stables contaminated by other horses sufiering from disease 

 and serving as infecting agents. If it fails to contract it there, it ia 

 sold and shipped in foul, undisiufected railway oars, to dealers' stables, 



