270 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 



least, stimulating food, unless the horse is in low general condition. 

 Ordinarily, pasturing will be best, when the season admits of it. If it 

 does not, he should have light, moist diet ; and his stable should be 

 clean, dry, roomy, and so supplied with litter as to induce him to lie 

 down as much as possible. 



VI. Surfeit. 



Causes. — This disease, sometimes known as prurigo, has for its pre- 

 disposing cause a thick and impure state of the blood, with deranged 

 condition of the digestive organs. When the animal is in such case, any 

 sudden exposure to chill, especially when he has been heated, will pro- 

 duce surfeit-pimples ; and unless the general condition be attended to, 

 a contirmed case of skin disease may be the result. 



It generally appears in the Spring, at the time of shedding, when the 

 skin is more exposed than at any other time of year, and the horse is 

 still exposed to sudden spells of cold and w^et weather. The skin, thus 

 bare, is easily affected ; and if the chill is severe or too frequently 

 repeated, inflammation sets in, and the cuticle or outer skin becomes 

 hard and dry because the pores are so closed as to retain the oily secre- 

 tions necessary to moisten the surface. 



Some poisonous herbs produce this, or a similar, eruption of the skin, 

 and musty hay has been known to have a like effect. 



Quick surfeit, or that Avhich arises suddenly, even in animals in good 

 general condition, upon being overheated and suddenly cooled by chill 

 air or an over-draught of water, may disappear upon his being brought 

 to a sweat by exercise ; but that which is contracted while the horse is in 

 general ill condition is apt to become confirmed, and, unless timely atten- 

 tion is bestowed, may settle on the lungs and cause serious trouble. 



How to know it. — No symptoms precede an attack of surfeit by which 

 its approach may be known. The pimples or lumps, in quick surfeit, 

 suddenly appear, and almost as quickly subside. When a case of con- 

 firnicd surfeit has sot in, the skin is hard, dry, and feverish ; and pimples 

 appear, sometimes confined to the neck, ])ut more frequently spread over 

 the sides, back, loins, and quarters. Occasionally, these are attended 

 with great itching, while again they seem to cause no annoyance. When 

 they have remained a few days, they discharge, in small quantities, a thin, 

 whitish, oily matter. Small, scabby excrescences, formed by the dis- 

 charging sores, cover the parts. These come off, taking the hair with 

 them, and leaving a small scaly spot^ — sometimes, though rarely, a sore. 



Surfeit is sometimes mistaken for button-farcy ; but it may be distin- 

 guished from this by the shape of the pimples : in surfeit these are 



