496 DISEASES OF THE HOKSB. 



dry and covered with a brownish, bad-smelling deposit. The excre- 

 tion from the liver and intestinal glands is diminished and produces 

 an inactivity of the digestive organs which causes a constipation. 

 If this is not remedied at an early period, the undigested material 

 acts as an irritant, and later we may have it followed by an inflamma- 

 tory process, producing a severe diarrhea. 



The excretion from the kidneys is sometimes at first entirely sup- 

 pressed. It is always considerably diminished, and what urine is 

 passed is dark in color, undergoes ammoniacal change rapidly, and 

 deposits quantities of salts. At a later period the diminished excre- 

 tion may be replaced by an excessive excretion, which aids in carrying 

 off waste products and usually indicates an amelioration of the fever. 



While the. ears, cannons, and hoofs of a horse suffering from fever 

 are usually found hot, they may frequently alternate from hot to cold, 

 or be much cooler than they normally are. This latter condition 

 usually indicates great weakness on the part of the circulatory system. 



It is of the greatest importance, as an aid in diagnosing the gravity 

 of an attack of fever and as an indication in the selection of its mode 

 of treatment, to recognize the exact cause of a febrile condition in the 

 horse. In certain cases, in very nervous animals, in which fever is 

 the result of nerve influence, a simple anodyne, or even only quiet 

 with continued care and nursing, will sometimes be sufficient to dimin- 

 ish it. When fever is the result of local injury, the cure of the cause 

 produces a cessation in the constitutional symptoms. When fever is 

 the result of a pneumonia or other severe parenchymatous inflamma- 

 tion, it usually lasts for a definite time, and subsides with the first 

 improvement of the local trouble, but in these cases we constantly have 

 exacerbations of fever due to secondary inflammatory processes, such 

 as the formation of small abscesses, the development of secondary 

 bronchitis, or the death of a limited amount of tissue (gangrene) . 



In specific cases, such as influenza, strangles, and septicemia, there 

 is a definite poison contained in the blood-vessel system, and carried 

 to the heart and to the nervous system, which produces a peculiar 

 irritation, usually lasting for a specific period, during which the tem- 

 perature can be but slightly diminished by any remedy. 



In cases attended with complications, the diagnosis becomes at times 

 still more difficult, as at the end of a case of influenza which becomes 

 complicated with pneumonia. The high temperature of the simple 

 inflammatory disease may be grafted on that of the specific trouble, 

 and the determination of the cause of the fever, as between the two, 

 is therefore frequently a difficult matter but an important one, as upon 

 it depends the mode of treatment. 



Any animal suffering from fever, whatever the cause, is much more 

 susceptible to attacks of local inflammation, which become compli- 

 cations of the original disease, than ar*^ animals in sound health. In 



