DIAEEH^A OF FOALS. 427 



continued fasting, which would also have the effect of reducing the 

 suitability of the milk as an article of food. The undigested 

 portion of the milk would act as a foreign body in setting up 

 irritation in the stomach and intestines. 



SYMPTOMS. — At first, the foal is depressed, weak, and remains 

 lying down for a long time. He ceases to gambol about his 

 mother, his coat is dry and staring, and his eyes are sunk in their 

 sockets. The mouth is dry and hot, thick saliva falls from it, and 

 the tongue is soft and flabby. Although he refuses to suck, his 

 thirst is intense, and he eagerly drinks any fluid given to him. 



His flanks are tucked up, the surface of his abdomen is tense 

 and painful to the touch, and the rumbling of the bowels can be 

 heard. He gets severe colicky pains which cause him to stamp. 

 Diarrhcea comes on from six to ten hours after the appearance 

 of the first symptoms. The evacuations are frequent, watery, 

 stinking, mixed with clotted matter, and at first are yellow. They 

 soon become involuntary, frothy, more and more frequent, greyish- 

 white in colour, and mixed with mucus. The patient sometimes 

 discharges glairy or yellow masses which have a disgusting smell. 

 The evacuations soil the thighs and neighbouring surfaces, and 

 irritate the skin, so that a rash is set up, and the hair falls off. 

 The injxuy thus effected is often greatly increased by the foal 

 rolling. 



The mouth and the expired air have a putrid smell. The 

 pulse, which at first was'hard and quick, becomes small and wiry ; 

 the beats of the heart are strong; the lining membrane of the 

 eyes is injected, and sometimes has spots of extravasated blood 

 on it. The internal temperature is high. Weakness increases 

 more and more, and the animal dies of exhaustion, sometimes 

 even in three days. 



TREATMENT.— With sucking foals, attention should be at 

 once paid to the mare, and if there is anything wrong with her, 

 it is well, if practicable, to take the patient away from her and 

 put him to a healthy foster-mother. The first great point in the 

 medicinal treatment of this disease is to remove the cause, by dis- 

 infecting the stomach and intestines, by giving, for instance, from 

 45 to 75 grains (according to the age of the foal) of tannoform 

 (p. 636) four times a day in linseed tea, or mixed in honey or 

 treacle. With respect to other antiseptics for internal use with 

 foals, give, in the same way, 1 drachm of salol (a preparation of 

 carbolic acid and salicylic acid) ; ^ drachm of creolin in J pint of 

 water ; or 2 drachms of oil of turpentine in 2 oz. of linseed oil once 

 or twice a day. A drachm of rhubarb may be administered a few 



