82 THE VETERINARY DOCTOR. 
mess; casy sweats; dung black and hard, or offensive and soft; urine thick, 
white, or high-colored; most of the grain is passed whole; frequently a 
short, hacking and irritating cough. | 
When there is a capricious or vile appetite, with hard, dry cough, there 
is derangement of the nerves of the lungs and stomach (pneumogastric 
nerve). The capricious or ravenous appetite, with the dung passed in hard, 
small, black or clay-colored balls, being slimy and offensive, the mucous 
membranes being of a yellow tinge, indicates gastric derangement; in which 
case slight pains in the abdomen are felt, skin variable in temperature, ex- 
tremities cold and hot alternately, urine generally scanty and high-colored, 
though it may be paler than usual. If the horse becomes “ pot-bellied ” or 
dropsical, or loses flesh rapidly, or has dropsical swellings on different parts, 
the bowels being alternately loose and constipated, the symptoms show de- 
rangement and enlargement of the glands in the folds of the intestines. 
Imperfect mastication is followed by hay rejected from the mouth partially 
chewed, grain passing whole, the animal being in a low condition and 
hide-bound, and these symptoms demand an examination of the teeth with 
a balling-iron. 
TREATMENT.—Nux vomica is especially demanded by capricious or 
depraved appetite, and is preferable to mercurial preparations when this 
appetite results from disease of the liver. Nux vomica is also needed when 
food passes undigested, or when the dung is hard, lumpy, or glazed with 
mucus; tongue slimy and furred; three to five drops of the tincture three 
or four times a day being suitable doses. Arsenicum is required in cases 
of long standing, with much weakness and Joss of flesh, little appetite, fre- 
quent coughing after eating and drinking, dung soft, purging during work, 
skin scurfy and hide-bound. This drug in the form of iodide of arsenic is 
particularly valuable in cases induced by enlargement of the intestinal 
glands, with dropsical swellings of the chest, belly or legs. Antimonium 
crudum is superior for windy stomach, with pains, rough coat, thirst, and 
offensive dung, or when dreggy lumps are passed, and also for aversion to 
food. Ipecac is useful for nearly all forms of indigestion. Phosphorus or 
phosphoric acid is very useful for narrow-chested horses with consumptive 
tendency, and what is improperly called a “ stomach cough”? (really caused 
by irritation of the pneumogastric nerve), as it removes the cough and 
checks the diarrheea. A few doses of cinchona, followed by one or two 
.of nux vomica, are desirable for horses weakened by shedding the coat, 
which has induced indigestion and capricious appetite. Mercurius is desir- 
able when both liver and stomach are deranged, the skin and eyes being 
yellowish. In chronic cases of indigestion marked by the general symp- 
toms which indicate nux vomica, a dose of sulphur may be profitably given 
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