THE TREATMENT OF YOUNG, UNBROKEN ANIMALS 225 



injury, and nothing but a careful inquiry into the history 

 will serve to distinguish them from pains proceeding from 

 a more simple cause. 



Intestinal Impaction. — Later in the season, as the 

 foals grow older, and begin to nibble for themselves, 

 uncomplicated cases of subacute intestinal obstruction 

 will be met with, occasioned by impaction with im- 

 properly digested food. A fairly frequent cause of this 

 impaction in foals is the peculiarly dirty habit these 

 animals appear to have, when first they begin to pick for 

 themselves, of nibbling at mounds of decaying litter, 

 dried or rotting vegetation, or even the mare's excreta. 

 This should always be kept in mind, and care taken to 

 prevent it where likely to occur. 



It is now that sedatives may be dismissed from the 

 veterinarian's mind, for his case will progress better 

 under a stimulative treatment. The animal has attained 

 a reasonable size, and his strength will readily allow of 

 more active measures being persisted in. With due 

 allowance for the dose, he may now be treated exactly as 

 the adult — viz., by means of oleaginous purgatives, nux 

 vomica, and stimulants. No matter what the diagnosis, 

 an enema should always be given for the purpose of 

 ascertaining the state of the rectal contents. It is, of 

 course, impossible to insert the whole of the hand, and it 

 is doubtful whether digital exploration gives information 

 enough. 



The necessity for always using the enema syringe was 

 forcibly driven home to me some years ago when treating 

 a four-months-old foal. He was showing ordinary dull 

 pains. I administered the usual medicines, and, more to 

 please the owner than with the idea of doing good, pro- 

 ceeded to give an enema. The rectum was in a state of 

 ^reat impaction. With the injection of each syringefuL 



15 



