Part 2
A number of opinions have been advanced in relation to the origin and seat of this disease. Some think that it is confined entirely to the head, while others say that the lungs are also affected; that it originates in the stomach, from which it is removed by the action of the lymphatic vessels, and being thrown into the circulation is diffused throughout the entire system, and carried by the arteries into the lungs, through which all the blood in a horse’s body passes many times during an hour, where it undergoes a change, thus depositing a portion of the poisonous matter that had been received into the stomach in the lungs. It is common to horses of all ages and conditions, and is a very rare case where it does not prove fatal.
SYMPTOMS.
The symptoms in this disease are feebleness, drowsiness, loss of appetite, a constant hanging of the head, with inflamed eyes, nearly closed; he kicks, rears and plunges, seemingly unconscious of what he is doing; it is dangerous for any one to approach him in this state; the ears and forehead hot, accompanied by a burning fever.
TREATMENT--REMEDY.
The first step to be taken in this disease is to relieve the overloaded organs of the brain, which should be done by opening the neck or jugular vein with a large lancet, that the blood may flow freely. No definite quantity of blood need be taken, but let it run until the horse begins to falter and blow; or, perhaps, with more assurance of success, until he falls. Immediately after inject freely with warm water, and give as a drench ½ ounce of aloes, ½ ounce of ginger, and ½ pint of warm water; feed on bran mash and green meal.
RABIES OR MADNESS.
If a horse be bitten by a dog or horse that is affected with rabies or madness, the wound should be well burned out with caustic, (nitrate of silver,) and on the third day after remove the scab and repeat the operation. The caustic should reach every part of the wound.
The following remedy has often been administered, and found effectual in nine cases out of every ten. Take
2 ounces of fresh leaves of tree-box, 2 “ “ of rue, ½ “ sage,
Chop these very fine and boil in a pint of water down to half a pint; strain carefully, and press out the liquor, put back the ingredients into a pint of milk, and boil again to half a pint; strain as before, mix both liquors, which forms three doses for a human subject. Double this quantity for a horse or cow. Two-thirds of the quantity is sufficient for a large dog, half for a middling sized, and one-third for a small dog. Three doses are sufficient each subsequent morning fasting, giving the quantity directed, being that which forms these three doses.
INJURY OF THE EYE.
The eye itself of the horse is rarely injured by blows and bruises carelessly inflicted by passionate persons, but the substance that surrounds it may be seriously wounded, and considerable inflammation ensue--this may be abated by the application of poultices, bleeding and physicing. Sometimes the eye-lids become inflamed from the same cause--fomentations of warm water will be serviceable in this case. The horse occasionally has a scaly eruption on the edges of the eye-lids, attended with much itching, in the effort to allay which the eye is often blemished by being rubbed against some hard substance--the nitriated ointment of quicksilver, mixed with an equal quantity of lard may be slightly rubbed on the edges of the lids, with good effect. Warts are sometimes attached to the edges of the lids, and are a source of great irritation--they should be removed with a pair of sharp scissors, and their roots touched with lunar caustic. In common inflammation of the eye, free bleeding, cooling applications, physic and mash diet will usually allay the evil; the tincture of opium is a good lotion.
LAMPASS.
The lampass is a swelling of the gums on the inner side of the upper jaw, to which young horses are mostly subject, and sometimes suffer considerably before it is discovered.
In some cases the swelling will subside without further medical treatment than administering a few alteratives, and feeding on bran mashes, but should this fail it will have to be cured by cutting across the bars with a lancet or pen-knife. If, however, it returns in three or four months after this operation, which it sometimes does, take a sharp, flat piece of iron, a little crooked at one end, heat it and burn out the disease a little below the level of the teeth, being very careful not to let the iron rest or bear against the teeth. After this operation give the horse a little meal, mixed with a small quantity of salt, and feed on mashes.
THE PROCESS OF TEETHING.
At 1½ years of age the mark in the central nippers will be much shorter and fainter; that in the other pairs will have undergone an evident change, and all the nippers become flat.
At 2 years this will be more manifest, and about this period a fifth will appear. Now, likewise, another process is commencing: the first teeth are adapted to the size and wants of the young animal, and are sufficiently large to fill the colt’s jaws.
At 3 years old the horse should have the central permanent nippers growing, the other two pairs wasting away; six grinders in each jaw above and below, the first and fifth level with the others, and the sixth protruding; the sharp edge of the incisors, which will be very evident when compared to the neighboring teeth.
At 4 years the central nippers will be fully developed, with the edge somewhat worn off, and the mark in them shorter, wider and fainter; the next pair will have made their appearance with the mark deep, and extending entirely across them. The corner nippers will be larger than the inside ones, yet smaller than they were and flat, with the mark nearly effaced. The sixth grinder will have become level with the others, and the tushes beginning to make their appearance.
At 5 years the horse’s mouth is almost perfect. The corner nippers are quite up with the long, deep mark, irregular on the inside, and the other nippers bearing evident tokens of increasing wearing. The tush is much grown, the grooves have almost or quite disappeared, and the outer surface is regularly convex.
At 6 years the mark on the central nippers is worn out, though there is still a difference in the color of the centre of the teeth. The cement filling the hole, made by the dipping in of enamel, will present a browner hue than the other part of the teeth.
At 7 years the mark in the manner which we have described it, has worn out in the four central nippers, and is fast disappearing in the corner teeth; the tush also is beginning to alter--it is rounding at the point, the edges, and without, and beginning to get round inside.
At 8 years old the tush is rounded in every way, the mark has disappeared from all the bottom nippers, and it may almost be said to be out of the mouth. There is nothing remaining in the bottom nippers afterward that can clearly show the age of the horse.
CHEST FOUNDER.
I believe this disease to be nothing more than the rheumatism, produced by suffering the horse to remain too long tied up and exposed to the cold, or riding him against a very bleak wind.
SYMPTOMS.
The horse has considerable stiffness in moving, evidently not arising from the feet; there is a tenderness about the muscles of the breast and occasional swelling; it is sometimes accompanied with a considerable degree of fever.
TREATMENT--REMEDY.
Bleeding, physic, and a rowel in the chest, warm stabling and warm clothing, with occasional doses of antimonial powder, will soon subdue the complaint.
INFLAMMATION.
Inflammation consists of an increased flow of the blood to and through the parts. The proper mode of abating which is to lessen the quantity of blood--if we take away the fuel, the fire will go out--all other means are comparatively unimportant contrasted with bleeding. Blood is generally extracted from the jugular vein, so that the general quantity may be lessened, but if it can be taken from the neighborhood of the diseased part, it will be productive of tenfold benefit: one quart of blood extracted from the foot in acute founder, will do more good than five quarts taken from the general circulation; an ounce of blood obtained by scarifying the swollen vessels of the inflamed eye, will give as much relief to that organ as a copious bleeding from the jugular. This is a principle in the animal’s nature which should never be lost sight of; hence the necessity for bleeding early and largely in inflammation of the lungs, or of the bowels, or of the brain, or of any important organ. Many horses are lost for want of, or insufficiency in bleeding, but we never knew of one being materially injured by the most copious extraction of blood.
It is very difficult to decide when a cold or hot application is to be used, and no general rule can be laid down, except that in cases of inflammation in the early stages, cold will be preferable, but when the inflammation is deeper seated or fully established, warm fomentations will be found most serviceable. Stimulating applications are frequently used in local inflammation. When the disease is deeply seated, a stimulating application to the skin will cause some irritation and inflammation there, and lessen or remove the malady; hence the use of rowels and blisters in inflammation of the chest. If we excite it in one, we shall abate it in the other,--and also, by the discharge which we establish from the one, we shall lessen the determination of the other. Stimulating and blistering applications should never be applied to a part that is already inflamed. A fire will not go out by heaping more fuel upon it; hence the mischief which is often done by rubbing those abominable oils on a recent sprain, hot and tender. Many a horse has been ruined by this absurd treatment, when the heat and tenderness have disappeared by the use of cold lotions or fomentations. When the leg or sprained part remains enlarged long or matter threatens to be deposited, it may be right to excite inflammation of the skin by a blister, in order to rouse the deeper seated absorbants to action and enable them to take up this deposit; but, except to hasten the natural process and effects of inflammation, a blister or stimulating application should never be applied to a part already inflamed.
INFLAMMATION OF THE LARYNX.
He who is desirous of ascertaining whether there is any disease in the larynx of a horse, should apply his ear to the lower part of the windpipe. If he finds that the air passes in and out without interruption, there is no disease of any consequence, either in the windpipe or the chest, for it would be immediately detected by the loudness or the interruption of the murmur. Then let him gradually proceed up the neck with his ear still upon the windpipe; perhaps he soon begins to recognize a little gurgling sound. He can have no surer proof that there is the seat of the disease.
TREATMENT--REMEDY.
The treatment here is very plain: Blood must be copiously extracted from the jugular vein, which must be done quickly, letting it run until the pulse begins to flutter, then administer the fever medicine:
1 drachm digitalis, 1½ “ emetic tartar, 3 “ nitre, ½ ounce aloes,
Which must be repeated twice or thrice in the day. Aloes may be safely given at this stage of the disease, because the chest is not yet implicated. To this must be added immediately a blister, and a sharp one.
EPIDEMICS.
In epidemics all offensive matter should be immediately and carefully cleared away, and no small portion of the chloride of lime used in washing the stables, troughs, &c., and particularly his ulcers, &c.
CHRONIC COUGH.
If a harsh hollow cough is accompanied by a staring coat; it proceeds from irritability of the air passages, which will be discovered by the horse coughing after drinking, or when he first goes out of the stable in the morning, or by occasionally snorting out thick mucus from the nose, medicine may be given with advantage to diminish the irritation; generally small doses of digitalis, emetic tartar and nitre administered at night. Take
Digitalis ½ drachm, Emetic tartar 1 drachm, Nitre 1 drachm.
This should be mixed into a ball with tar and given every night regularly for a considerable length of time. A blister extending from the root of one ear to that of the other, taking in the whole of the channel and reaching six or eight inches down the windpipe has been tried with good effect. Feeding has much influence on this complaint: too much dry meat, and especially chaff increases it; carrots afford decided relief.
THICK OR BROKEN WIND.
There is no remedy for the cure of this but it may be improved. The horse should have full proportions of solid food, but very little hay, and no chaff; he should not be worked immediately after a heavy meal; water should be given in moderate quantities, but the horse should not be suffered to drink as much as he likes until the day’s work is over; green meat will always be serviceable, and carrots are particularly useful.
PHYSICING.
A horse should be carefully prepared for the action of physic. Two or three bran mashes given on that or the preceding day, which should be continued until the dung becomes softened, as a less quantity of physic will then suffice. On the day which the physic is given, the horse should have walking exercise, or may be gently trotted for a quarter of an hour twice in the day; but after the physic begins to work, he should not be moved from his stall. A little hay may be put in the rack, and as much mash given as the horse will eat, and as much water as he will drink with the coldness off. Aloes is the best purgative, for there is no other that is at once so sure and safe--the dose is from ½ to 1 ounce, if the horse is properly prepared. The only other purgative on which dependence can be placed is the croton; the dose varies from 1 scruple to ½ a drachm. Linseed oil is an uncertain but safe purgative, in doses from a pint to a pint and a half. Epsom salts are an inefficacious remedy except in the immense dose of a pound and a half, and then they are not always safe.
SPRAINS OF THE BACK SINEWS.
Should there remain the slightest lameness or enlargement, the leg must be blistered; and it would seldom be a bad practice to blister after every case of severe sprain. The inflammation may lay deep, and the part once sprained may long remain weak, and subject to renewed injury, not from unusual but ordinary exertion. The horse should be afterwards turned out for one or two months.
We must here again repeat that a blister should never be used while any heat remains.
ENLARGEMENT OF THE HOCK.
A horse with an enlarged hock must always be regarded with suspicion: in truth he is unsound. The animal may discharge his usual work during a long period, without return of lameness, but when all his energies are required, the weakened part will fail. The treatment is plain enough: fomentations, blistering, &c. may remedy the evil.
SPRAIN OF THE COFFIN JOINT.
The proof of this is when the lameness is sudden, and the heat and tenderness are principally felt around the cornet. Bleeding at the toe, physic, fomentations and blisters are the usual means adopted. This lameness is not easily removed even by a blister, and if removed like sprains of the fetlock and of the back sinews, it is apt to return again. Sprains of the coffin joint sometimes become a very serious affair; not being attended by any swelling, and being detected only by heat around the coronet. First reduce the heat by fomentations: say bathe the foot with water as warm as the hand will bear, fomentate with this for 15 or 20 minutes--the long continuance of fomentations has been found very efficacious in reducing inflammation; next apply a clay poultice made with vinegar, and when getting dry moisten by pouring vinegar on the foot and clay. After the heat has left the parts, then blister. The horse should not be used for a month or two.
GREASE.
Grease consists of swollen legs, although swelled legs occur frequently, yet there is no grease. Friction and bandaging will generally remove this. Grease is a specific inflammation of the skin of the heels, sometimes of the forefeet, but oftener of the hinder ones. It is not a contagious disease, as some have asserted although when it once appears in a stable, it frequently attacks almost every horse in it.--Bad stable management is the true cause of it. The first appearance of grease is usually a dry and scurfy state of the skin of the heel, with redness, heat and itching. The heel should be well but gently washed with soap and water, and as much of the scurf detached as is easily removed. If the cracks are deep, with an ichorous discharge and considerable lameness, it will be necessary to poultice. A poultice made of carrots boiled soft and mashed will answer the purpose. The efficacy of a carrot poultice is seldom sufficiently appreciated in cases like this. The poultice just referred to should be diligently applied at night, to insure success, and when the heat and tenderness and stiffness of motion have diminished, astringent lotions should be applied. Either the alum lotion or a strong decoction of oak bark--perhaps the alum dissolved in whiskey will do better than water, or the alum dissolved in a decoction of bark will answer better than either. This disease requires perseverance--the decoctions should be made very strong. After washing several times should there be watery matter on the heels or leg, wash it off with wafer and soap. Moderate physicing, bran mashes, &c. will be found very beneficial. The above decoctions will never fail to cure the scratches.
INFLAMMATION OF THE FEET, ACUTE FOUNDER.
This is a disease that was less understood than any other until very recently. It often arises by allowing a horse that is very much heated to stand in the snow or cold water for any length of time, or where he is apt to become chilled, which produces a general stiffness throughout the entire system; but it will soon be observed that the seat of the disease is in the feet, by the disinclination of the horse to remain upon them.
SYMPTOMS.
The earliest symptoms of fever in the feet are restiveness, frequent shifting of the fore legs, but no pawing. The pulse is quickened, the flanks heaving, the nostrils red and his moaning indicating great pain. He looks about his litter, as if preparing to lie down; he continues to shift his weight from foot to foot; he is afraid to draw his feet sufficiently under him for the purpose of lying down, but at length he drops. His lying down will distinguish inflammation of the feet from that of the lungs, in which the horse obstinately persists in standing until he drops. His quietness when down will distinguish it from colic or inflammation of the bowels. He will point out the seat of the disease by looking at the part; his muzzle will often rest on the feet or affected foot.
TREATMENT--REMEDY NO. 1.
The treatment in this disease resembles that of other inflammations. Bleeding is indispensable and that to its fullest extent. Four quarts of blood should be taken from the toe of the foot, which may be put into warm water to quicken the flow of blood. Poultices of linseed meal, made very soft, should cover the whole of the foot and pastern, and be frequently renewed. This will relieve its painful pressure on the swelled and tender parts beneath. The shoe should be removed, the sole pared as thin as possible, the crust and quarters well washed--all this should be done gently. Sedatives and cooling medicines should be diligently administered, consisting of digitalis, nitre and tartar emetic, 1 drachm digitalis, 2 drachms tartar emetic, 3 drachm saltpetre. If no amendment is apparent after this, blood should again be extracted on the following day. In extreme cases, a third bleeding may be justifiable, and instead of the poultice, cloths kept wet with water in which nitre has been dissolved, in the proportion of an ounce of nitre to a pint of water. The cloths should be wrapped around the feet.
TREATMENT--REMEDY NO. 2.
Take 1 quart sweet milk, 1 quart molasses, ½ oz. pulverized saltpetre, mix and dissolve all together, give in 2 drenches about 5 minutes apart: this is highly recommended by those who have tried it.
RESTIVENESS, OR TAMING HORSES.
Mr. Catlin has published an account, the veracity of which is unimpeached, of his travels among the North American Indians. “He coils his lasso on his arm and gallops fearlessly into the herd of wild horses. He soon gets it over the neck of one of the number, when he instantly dismounts, leaving his own horse, letting the lasso pass out gradually and carefully through his hands until the horse falls for want of breath. The Indian advances, keeping the lasso tight upon his neck until he fastens a pair of hobbles on the animals two fore feet,--then passing a noose round the under jaw by which he obtains great power over the affrighted animal, that is rearing and plunging when it gets breath. By this means he gradually advances until he is able to place his hand on the animal nose and over its eyes, and at length to breathe into its nostrils, when it soon becomes docile and conquered; so that he has little else to do than remove the hobbles from its feet, and lead or ride it to the camp.”
Mr. A. B. Moss happened to read this account, and he felt a natural desire to ascertain how far this mode of horse training might be employed among the American horses. He soon had an opportunity of putting the veracity of the story to the test. A man on a neighboring farm was attempting to break a very restive colt, which had foiled him in every possible way. After several attempts, he succeeded in breathing into one of the horse’s nostrils, and from that moment all became easy. The horse was completely subdued. He suffered himself to be led quietly away with a loose halter, and was perfectly at command.
BROOD MARES.
Great care and attention should be paid to brood mares, particularly three or four weeks before foaling. She should be worked up to the day of foaling, being very careful not to overwork or exert her too much; light and moderate work is an advantage to the animal with foal. She should be fed on a little flax seed meal, or the whole seed if the meal cannot be obtained, twice a week at least six or eight weeks before foaling, and should never fail to turn out to grass of a night for several weeks previous to foaling. Should be fed on bran mash through the winter, and up to the time of foaling, which will be found very advantageous to both mare and colt. There is nothing so refreshing as a bran mash with a little salt in it, adding a reasonable quantity of corn and oats. If this course and caution is taken you will not lose one mare out of a hundred, and perhaps not one out of a thousand.
WARTS.
Warts are found on the eye-lids, the muzzel, the ears, the belly, the neck, the penis, and the prepuce. There are some caustics available, but frequently they must be removed by an operation.
If the root is very small it may be snapped asunder close to the skin with a pair of scissors, and touched with lunar caustic.
If the pedicle or stem is somewhat larger, a ligature of waxed silk should be passed firmly round it and tightened every day. The source of nutriment being thus removed the tumor will in a short time die and drop off.
If the warts are large or in considerable clusters, it will be necessary to cast the horse in order to cut them off close to the skin. The root should then be seared with a red hot iron; unless these precautions are used the warts will speedily sprout out again.
A COMPLETE LIST OF Receipts Belonging to the Horse. AND THEIR USES.
CELEBRATED HORSE POWDERS.
FOR THE CURE OF YELLOW WATER, HIDE BOUND, GRUB WORMS, BOTS, &C.