428 DISEASES OF DIGESTION. 



times a day. The animal's strength may be kept up by giving 

 daily four or five raw eggs. 



Malt extract has an excellent effect in checking the diarrhoea 

 and in maintaining the animal's strength. A teaspoonful to a 

 dessertspoonful of the dry powder is given every six or eight hours 

 in the dam's milk. 



PREVENTION consists in avoiding the predisposing causes, 

 and in isolating the infected animals. 



Chronic Indigestion {Dyspepsia). 



The usual causes of this complaint are : improper food ; an im- 

 proper system of feeding and watering ; imperfect chewing of the 

 food by the animal, owing to bad teeth, or to the forage being 

 given in such' a form that he bolts it ; constitutional tendency ; and 

 injudicious use of medicines. It is generally caused in young 

 animals by drinking cold milk ; by removal from the dam at too 

 early an age ; by sucking at too long intervals, or when the dam is 

 heated by work. 



SYMPTOMS. — The animal loses condition. The appetite is, 

 generally, capricious and depraved. There is often acidity of the 

 stomach, as is evinced by his grinding his teeth, and by his par- 

 tiality for licking whitewashed walls. He may crib-bite, or wind- 

 suck. The mouth has a sour smell. Cough often accompanies 

 indigestion. The coat is out of order, being " hide-bound," dry, 

 lacking its natural gloss, and being filled with dandruff, and fre- 

 quently, the horn of the hoofs becomes shelly and brittle ; these 

 conditions being due to the sympathy which exists between the 

 skin, the sensitive laminae of the feet, and the mucous membrane 

 which lines the alimentary canal. The dung owing to the absence 

 of a proper supply of bile, which is a powerful deodorizer, has a 

 foul smell, and is composed of imperfectly digested materials, the 

 hay and corn being passed in a more or less unaltered condition. 

 Hence, the dung loses its natural healthy colour and appearance. 

 In the stable, the horse is mostly inclined to be costive ; but 

 when taken to work or exercise is soon excited to purge. He 

 is often subject to colicky pains, especially soon after being fed. 

 The abdomen is frequently distended with gas, owing to the 

 digestive organs being unable to take up what they require of 

 the nutritive part of the food, and to expel the remainder before 

 it decomposes. 



TREATMENT. — ^Beyond advising the reader to avoid the causes 

 of indigestion, I have little to say regarding its cure, which is 



