On Mismanafjement of Farm-Horses. 



537 



4. Neglect of Incipient Disease. — There unfortunately prevails 

 amonijst farmers a disposition to overlook or think hghtly of the 

 premonitory or incipient symptoms of disease. Even after an 

 animal is discovered to be ill, — and this, from carelessness or want 

 of observation, is not alvi^ays so early as it ought to be, — much 

 valuable time is often lost in supinely waiting to see if the case 

 will spontaneously improve, or in the employment of useless or 

 injudicious measures. In many diseases of the horse such pro- 

 crastination is productive of very serious injury, often inducing 

 permanent unsoundness and even death, and always prolonging 

 the duration of the malady, and increasing the difficulty of treat- 

 ment. 



Certain indications or signs, or, as they are technically termed, 

 symptoms, always precede and accompany disease. These serve 

 the important purpose of attracting attention to disease, and are 

 therefore safeguards against its extension or increase. The 

 symptoms which in the horse indicate the approach of internal 

 disease are generally of a febrile character. The animal is dull 

 and lisdess, or restless and uneasy ; the surface heat unequal, the 

 ears and extremities cold and the mouth hot; the digestive func- 

 tions deranged and the appetite impaired or capricious ; the pulse 

 slightly accelerated and the respirations hurried. When an 

 animal shows several of these symptoms, and, still more, all of 

 them, he should be narrowly watched ; if in plethoric condition 

 blood may with advantage be abstracted, and a laxative adminis- 

 tered ; and on the earliest manifestation of the localization of the 

 disease other appropriate remedies should be promptly used. 

 The symptoms manifesting incipient disease of the extremities are 

 more or less pain when the parts are put in motion, unwillingness 

 to use the affected parts ; in short, lameness and tenderness. 

 These symptoms, although easily observed, and often as easily 

 traceable to their causes, are frequently neglected. The horse, 

 instead of getting a few days' rest and a little attention, is still 

 kept at work, until perhaps he can go on no longer. The nature 

 of the case is then for the first time examined, and its treatment 

 commenced ; but, from the previous procrastination and neglect, 

 several weeks of rest and of proper medical treatment are often 

 required to render him fit for work. 



In the ordinary affairs of life " there is a tide which, taken at 

 its flow, leads on to fortune ;" so also, in the treatment of disease, 

 there is a time when remedies are most likely to be attended with 

 success, and that time is undoubtedly the early stage of disease. 

 All diseases at their outset are more manageable than thev are 

 after a time. Thus, in the case even of the more serious local 

 inflammations, the symptoms are at first few and simple, and 

 perhaps not very intense ; the powers of nature are strong and 



