52 THE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



same reason the use of steeped barley or wheat is not to 

 be advised, while wheat or barley in the unsteeped form 

 may be looked upon as a poison. 



This same complaint, though not in an acute form, 

 may be occasioned by the vicious habit of crib-biting ; 

 the stomach and abdomen become visibly distended, colic 

 pains following closely after. 



Greedy feeding and imperfect mastication of food may 

 also be put down as a cause. In Mr. Broad's case he 

 distinctly states that it was the hasty swallowing of oats 

 in an unmasticated state which produced indigestion, 

 this giving rise to tympanites of the stomach and intes- 

 tines. Mr. Broad also relates another case in which the 

 most serious tympanites resulted from the eating of 

 'cinquefoil.' 



Other and rarer causes may occasionally be found in 

 some diseased state of the stomach, giving rise, in the 

 first place, to indigestion, and, secondly, to fermentation 

 of its contents — e.g., the ulcerative condition occasioned 

 by the presence of large numbers of bots, gastric calculi, 

 etc. 



Veterinary-Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, in dealing with 

 this disorder, quotes from the pen of Mr. Gillespie to 

 illustrate the dangers of mouldy food.^ I cannot do 

 better than repeat it here. 



' On a certain morning I was called to see some horses 

 of the 5th Punjaub Cavalry in camp, and on arriving at 

 the lines, about 250 yards off, found several horses dead, 

 and others apparently dying fast, and all extremely 

 tympanitic. Either three or four had died during the 

 night, and five or six more had been attacked, but some 

 so slightly as to be fit to go to the lines after exercise. 



1 Proceedings of the Fifth General Meeting of the National 

 Veterinary Association, p. 79. 



