308 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 



time should be lost in cleansing the stable where he has been confined^ 

 Washing the trough, rack and walls thoroughly, — saturating them aftet 

 that with a strong solution of chloride of lime, (one pint of chloride to 

 two gallons of water), and then white-washing the walls inside. Curry- 

 comb, blanket — whatever may have the poison adhering to it — hall 

 better be burned. 



m. Distemper 



Causes. — ^This is an epidemic disease, occurring in young horses, gen« 

 erally, and when it once breaks out all the animals in the stable are likely 

 to be infected with it, unless they have already had it. Colts and young 

 horses will take it from older ones more easily than older ones from the 

 young. 



If it is not actually generated by filth and uncleanness in the stables, 

 the disease is certainly aggravated by causes producing miasma and bad 

 air in the stables. Therefore cleanliness is essential not only as a means 

 of preventing the disease, but in rendering it of a mild type when it 

 breaks out 



Horses will contract the disease from others when at a considerable 

 distance. It is supposed to be communicated both by actual contact and 

 also from germs proceeding from the breath. Hence when once it breaks 

 out, at the first symptoms, isolate the sick animal or animals, fumigate 

 the stable thoroughly and daily. 



To do this fill the stable with tobacco smoke, both the stable from 

 whence the sick horses have been taken, and the place where they are 

 confined during treatment. Let the smoke be so thick as to become 

 'luite inconvenient. Make all the animals inhale as much as possible. 

 Wash every part of the stable, and especially the feeding places and hay 

 racks, with a strong decoction of tobacco stems, using for the purpose 

 cheap, rank tobacco. Keep powdered tobacco leaves in the mangers of 

 all the horses. This being early attended to its spread may be generally 

 arrested. 



How to know it. — The disease has three stages. In the early stage of 

 the disease there is a dry, hacking cough, and there will be noticed % 

 discharge from the nose, first of a thin, watery fluid succeeded by % 

 thicker, purulent discharge of a whitish color. 



The next stajre of the disease shows itself in a swelling: of the throat. 

 The salivary glands, which at first were inflamed, are now closed, and pus 

 is being formed. At length an abscess is formed. 



The third stage is the suppurative stage, in which the abscess breaks ; 



