ACUTE INDIGESTION. 
761 
common in this country, especially in the spring and fall, 
from the continuous hard work and necessarily liberal feeding. 
It is usually induced by over-feeding, that is, eating too much at 
a time, more especially when the animal has been tired and 
hungry. It sometimes occurs from his breaking loose in the 
night and gorging himself at the corn-bin. Another frequent 
cause is overloading the stomach with clover or green feed when 
wet ; this often induces violent and fatal indigestion. 
Symptoms .—Digestion may be arrested either by the food 
undergoing no change, forming a dangerous load, or running 
rapidly to fruitful fermentation. In the former case the animal 
is dull and stupid, the pulse is slow and the breathing oppressed. 
If he have access to water it speedily sets up fermentation ; gas 
being rapidly evolved the stomach is greatly distended, the belly 
swollen, colicy pains set in, he rolls about in great agony, look¬ 
ing first to one side then to the other, kicking his belly with his 
feet, he gets up and down and tosses about in despair. The 
bowels remain unmoved. The sweat rolls off him in streams, 
and in many cases death puts an end to his suffering in from 
eight to ten hours, caused by rupture of the stomach or bowels 
or inflammation of the intestines. 
■ Treatment .—It is more easily prevented than cured, by 
simply attending to the following rules : Never let a horse get 
too hungry; never give him too much at a time; never put him 
to work on a full stomach and never let him drink too freely 
after feeding, and we wdll seldom see this fatal disease. Treat¬ 
ment must be prompt to be effectual. There are various rem¬ 
edies recommended by different practitioners. If there is dis¬ 
tension of the abdomen, with gas, puncture without delay, and 
after the gas has been drawn off inject hypodermically two 
tablets of No. 631, composed of eserine sulphate, % grain; philo- 
carpine mur., x / 2 grain; strychnine sulph., % grain, followed by 
a cathartic; also stimulants, with judicious counter-irritations, 
or blankets wrung out of hot water, placed over the abdomen 
and covered up with a dry one to retain the heat. If there is 
much pain give belladonna, as it is preferable in most cases. 
