448 



OVEE-EXHAUSTION. 

 Exhaustion and over-exeitement of the system, although, 

 (strictly speaking) can^ot he considered as forms of disease, 

 yet I shall treat upon them for two or three reasons : — First, 

 because they are states of the organism which very frequently 

 are the forerunners of the most destructive kinds of disease ; 

 secondly, because they are the most prolific sources of disease ; 

 and thirdly, because they have never been treated upon, and, ia 

 fact, scarcely recognised by veterinary writers as anything 

 worthy of their attention, beyond a mere passing remark, A 

 «lose observer, however, of equine disease will' perceive their 

 effects almost hourly. Cab and livery horses are exceedingly 

 liable to suffer in consequence. They especially predispose the 

 organism to both acute and typhoid forms of disease — such a,s 

 Acute Inflammation of the Bowels, of the 'Feet, Kidneys and 

 Heart, Lungs, and also of Typhoid Pneumonia. I have wit- 

 nessed, on several occasions, attacks of Enteritis and of Lami- 

 nitis, of a most frightfully severe character, arising from these 

 causes. A veterinary surgeon having the care of horses 

 belonging to an establishment where the work is of a most 

 jincertain and irregular character, as in livery stables, should 

 always be on the alert as to the existence and consequences of 

 Exhaustion and over-exeitement. 



Symptoms o'S' OvEE-ExHArsTioif. — Over- exhaustion of the 

 ■system deranges, more or less, every function within the 

 organism ; so that, in noting its symptoms, we simply note 

 what relates to a condition of general distiirbance. , 



The temperature of the skin is deranged ; the legs and feet 

 may be of a feverisTi heat, -while the hair upon other parts of 

 the body may be penfeathered. The appetite will be fickle, or 

 the animal may refuse every kind of food, and yet appear 



