259 
TREATMENT OE LAMINITIS.—PREVALENCE OF 
CATARRHAL AND GLANDULAR AFFECTIONS 
IN NEW ZEALAND, AND THE STATE OF 
YETERINARY PRACTICE THERE. 
By G. J. Austin, M.R.C.Y.S., Auckland, New Zealand. 
Located as above, I feel desirous to furnish from time to 
time, in the fulfilment of a promise long since made, some 
cases for publication in The Veterinarian. 
The mode of treatment I have for some years past 
adopted for “ laminitis,” and which, if carefully resorted to 
before suppurative action commences, will be found invariably 
successful, is as follows. Were it necessary, I could send 
you a list of familiar names in London whose horses, affected 
with this disease, have been under my treatment. 
I first take off the horse’s shoes, frequently when lying down 
and unable to stand; then pare the sole moderately thin, 
and if necessary reduce the crust or hoof at the toe and 
quarters ; next, immerse the feet in hot bran poultices in 
canvas bags, and have the feet, without removing the bags, 
dipped in a pail of hot water five or six times during the 
day. I then add 5j of tincture of Aconite to ^xij of dis¬ 
tilled water, and of this I give one fourth part every three 
hours. This I continue until the horse has recovered. I need 
hardly say, it will be found necessary to change the bran 
poultices about every alternate day. 
Since being in New Zealand, I have had three cases of this 
disease, which I have treated in the above way, and they 
have perfectly recovered. In a fourth, that suppurated, there 
were left the usual indications, viz., convex soles and a 
hollow and ringy wall, 'principally from neglect. 
Horses, I think, suffer from catarrhal and glandular affec¬ 
tions in this part of the globe even to a greater extent than 
they do in England ; but, fortunately, bronchial and pul¬ 
monary diseases are much less frequent than at home. (We 
still use the latter word for old England.) 
A little general information respecting this country may 
not prove uninteresting to your readers, although it be not 
strictly professional. 
It is now the middle of our summer, and we have had a 
very fine year, except that too little rain having fallen the 
country is suffering from drought, which is unusual here. 
Our summers are not so oppressively hot as in England. 
