100 SPECIAL EQUINE THERAPY 



3. Edematous swellings in the subcutaneous tissues of 

 dependent parts. 



4. Recurrence of the symptoms when the animal re- 

 sumes work, although a cure may have been simulated 

 by their disappearance after the initial sickness. 



Whenever two or more of these features become identi- 

 fied with evidences of a heart lesion the disease may 

 with certainty be classed as organic. The prognosis is 

 then always unfavorable. 



Organic heart disease occurring as a sequel to infec- 

 tious diseases is not nearly so common as formerly ; since 

 the use of biologic therapeutics has been quite gener- 

 ally adopted in the treatment of infectious fevers, and 

 the use of depressants is less popular, the heart is spared. 



Although a few authors have given the consideration 

 of diseases of the heart considerable space, it can be said 

 without fear of contradiction that the average practi- 

 tioner gives such discussions scant attention. This is not 

 so because of lack of appreciation on the part of prac- 

 titioners, but only because diseases of the heart are really 

 of minor importance in the average practice. When a 

 ease does occur the practitioner usually finds little trouble 

 in recognizing it, although in most instances no great 

 effort is made along curative lines. The performance 

 of even the most ordinary work expected of horses is of 

 such a strenuous character that the results following the 

 treatment of organic heart lesions usually fall short of 

 the requirements. In veterinary practice it is oftentimes 

 a case of "service or death;" sentiment plays a very 

 small part in our branch of medicine and, possibly except- 

 ing canine and feline patients, the practitioner's results 

 are nearly always judged on a commercial basis. 



