WARM CLOTHING A NECESSITY. 33 
little digestive ointment on a pledget of tow be applied after 
being washed clean with warm water three times a day. 
Warm clothing, two rugs if necessary, and even a hood and 
flannel bandages, should. be used. The latter should be re- 
moved twice a day, and, before being replaced, the animal’s 
legs should be well hand-rubbed all round. The stable should 
be kept cool, and the patient fed on nourishing diet ; on bran, 
corn, and linseed mashes, hay, carrots, and above all, grass, if 
it is to be obtained, though only a little. Malt mashes and 
barley steeped in boiling water, both form very good changes, 
and should be given in small quantities. On returning strength, 
dry food may again be used, though the mashes should not 
be entirely discontinued until the recovery is complete. 
A little exercise may be given in fine weather if only for 
ten minutes a day, increasing the time with the strength of 
the patient; a matter seldom attended to sufficiently early. 
The state of the bowels should be rather relaxed than con- 
stipated. The opportunity should be taken whilst the animal 
is out to open all air-holes and windows, and have the stable 
thoroughly cleansed and fumigated. I have before com- 
mended Sir William Burnett's Disinfecting Fluid as a pre- 
ventive. In sickness it should be used liberally : even wetting 
the sides of the stalls and boxes, and suspending pieces of 
cloth saturated with it—both often extremely beneficial. 
The old horses are not so liable to illness as the younger 
ones. Still, if after galloping in cold easterly winds they are 
not soon after cantered or trotted to keep them warm and 
comfortable, they will cough; and a cold once caught is, like 
disease in any other form, not easily got rid of; and if at- 
tended with much fever would be infectious, and go through 
the whole of the stable with greater or less severity. It should 
therefore be guarded against ; prevention being better than 
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