THK HORSE, SKIN DISEASES, ETC. 



27T 



Onk of the Cad8ks of Hide-bound in Horses. 



quality, and the labor onerous — ^bring on impaired digestion ; the blood 

 becomes thick, dark, and feverish, because the secretive processes are 

 sluggishl}^ performed ; the skin sympathizes with these internal disorders, 

 and the lubricating fluid through the pores is suspended ; and then, 

 instead of remaining soft and pliant, it becomes dry and adheres to the 

 body. A disordered state of the stomach, bowels, and urinary and 

 respirator}^ organs may be considered as having produced it when no 

 specific form of disease can be discovered as existing ; but it is an almost 

 invariable accompaniment, in a greater or less degree of intensity, of big 

 head, glanders, grease, farcy, founder, distemper, bad cases of swinney, 

 big shoulder, lock-jaw, consumption, and chronic d^^sentery. The fever 

 in these dries up the watery secretions and shrinks the hide. 



Formerly it was supposed to be caused by worms in the stomach and 

 alimentary canal ; but this is erroneous. Worms may of course exist 

 while the horse is in this state, but they are rather a consequence than a 

 cause — ^the result of imperfect digestion and excretion. The skin, as 

 has been elsewhere stated, sympathizes readily with the vital internal 

 organs, and in all obscure cases hide-bound should be considered a 

 symptom of disorder in these, and treated accordingly. 



How to know it — The skin is diy and hard, and the hair is rough and 

 rusty. Both are evidently destitute of that oil by which in health they 

 are kept in soft, pliant, and glossy condition. Adhering almost immov- 

 ably to the ribs, legs, neck — almost every part of the body — ^the skin 

 cannot be caught up in folds with the hand. At times it appears scurfy, 

 and the exhalants, (ha^dng the quality of gi^ang out or evaporating), pour 



