CAEE AND MANAGEMENT OF ANIMALS 779 



once be blanketed up. If blankets are not worn the 

 animals must be walked up and down until cool, and 

 when put in the stables they must be well dried ; it is 

 desirable for an hour or so to keep the doors and windows 

 closed on the windward side, in order to avoid a stream of 

 cold air playing on their bodies. 



Horses that return from work exhausted are best dealt 

 with by means of gruel and a good warm bed. There is 

 nothing warmer than straw, and a well made bed will 

 induce rest, after which the appetite frequently returns, 

 though sometimes not for a day or two. 



Working horses on a full stomach, especially of bulky 

 food like hay, is a prolific source of trouble. With all 

 horses the pressure against the diaphragm may lead to 

 rupture, while rupture of the stomach itself is only too 

 common. 



The means of preventing these troubles have been fully 

 gone into in the chapter on Pood (p. 139), all that is 

 necessary here is to emphasize these points. A fall in 

 draught, or even a bad stumble, may on a full stomach 

 lead to rupture of the diaphragm, while a rupture of the 

 stomach is produced by some disturbance of digestion, 

 frequently associated with overdistension and aggravated 

 by work. 



We are not prepared to define the relationship existing 

 between work and colic. The fact, as pointed out by us 

 some years ago, exists.* Horses that are not worked do 

 not suffer from colic ; bowel and stomach trouble is largely 

 though not entirely due to work. Quite apart from such 

 obvious causes as irregularity in feeding and watering, 

 and hard and prolonged exertion, there are other 

 more subtile causes, which we cannot define, connecting 

 colic with work. It may be through the nervous system, 

 and this is supported by the fact that twists, displacements, 

 and invagination of the bowels are probably wholly nervous 

 in origin. 



* 'Influence of the Time of Day in the Production of Colic': 

 Veterinarij Becord, vol. v., p. 616, 1892. 



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