390 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 



the fevor can be cured by scraping the tongue, and yet this is fully a» 

 sensible as to suppose fever to be the disease itself when it is an effect of 

 disease. 



In the horse fevers often manifest themselves through inflammation ot 

 the mucous or serous membranes, producing catarrh or influenza. Whea 

 it affects the mucous surface of the stomach and bowels it produces 

 extreme languor and debility. In pleurisy there is inflammation of the 

 serous membranes within the thorax. The fever is the manifestation of » 

 the disease. In typhoid fever there is inflammation of the brain and 

 viscera and especially of the stomach, intestines and peyers gland. The 

 fever is the attendant simply upon the cause of the inflammation. 



Fever in horses has been described by the author of Hippopathology 

 to be 1st. Common fever — a general diffuse inflammation. 2d. Idiopathic— » 

 arising without any apparent local injury. 3d. Symptomatic — arising 

 from some local cause or irritation. The late Dr. Dadd, V.S., very truly 

 says: 



"A rational system of veterinary medicine contemplates, in the treat- 

 ment of febrile symptoms, nothing more than a kind of expectancy. W 

 the patient be in the cold stage, administer warm diffusible stimulantii 

 and diaphoretics, aided by warmth and moisture externally ; friction on 

 the extremities, and, if necessary, stimulating applications to the chest and 

 the extremities. In the hot stage, and when the superficial heat of tha 

 body is great, cooling drinks are indicated : water acidulated with cream 

 of tartar, makes a good febrifuge. The patient may be occasional!}' 

 sponged with weak saleratus water. The alkali has a beneficial effect on 

 the cutaneous vessels, while the water lessens the temperature of tho 

 body. No treatment, however, can be of any rational use, unless it 

 contemplates a restoration of the healthy equilibrium of the whole system. 

 Let the doctor treat the disease, and a good, attentive groom can manage 

 the fever." 



In treating general fever or inflammation, therefore, we must first find 

 the cause, and treat, giving such agents as have been indicated throughout 

 this work, for the febrile symptoms as they occur. As a rule we do not 

 advocate bleeding, but in the horse in the early stages of acute inflamma- 

 tion, especially of the brain, and all that class of diseases which involve 

 the general system, and when the blood is thick and dark, sometimes 

 almost brown, bleeding may be practiced with success. It is never well 

 however to bleed blindly. In apoplexy and that class of diseases, bleed. 

 It is a case of life or death. For fevers in general there can be no 

 specific. In diseases of the blood, accompanied by fever, alteratives will 

 be indicated both as a preventive and corrective of the diseased functions. 

 Sometimes the condition of the absorbents are so inactive that alterative* 



