Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/222

Rh 202 VETERINARY SCIENCE Poultices. Poultices are used for allaying pain, promoting suppuration, softening horn or other tissues, and bringing on a healthy action iu wounds. To be beneficial, they should be large and always kept moist. For applying poultices to the feet, a poultice-shoe, constructed as follows, may be used with advantage. Take a cir cular piece of hard wood, a little longer and broader than a horse shoe, and about one and a half inches thick. Get one surface of it rounded in a lathe, so that there may be a rise of about three- quarters of an inch in the centre, while the other surface remains flat. Round the circumference of the board nail leather, so as to form a convenient boot for retaining the poultice, similar to the one in ordinary use, except that the part which comes on the ground is rounded. The fact of its being round will enable the horse to whose foot it is applied to ease the affected spot by throwing his weight on the toe, the heel, or on either quarter, as he chooses. 1 oultices are usually made with bran, though this has the disad vantage of drying very quickly, to remedy which it may be mixed with linseed meal or a little linseed oil. Boiled carrots or turnips mashed make a good poultice, as does linseed meal, when mixed with boiling water (with a little olive oil added) by stirring. A charcoal poultice is sometimes used when there is a bad smell to be got rid of. It is made by mixing linseed meal with boiling water and stirring until a soft mass is produced ; with this some wood charcoal in powder is mixed, and when ready to be applied some more powder is sprinkled on the surface. It may be noted that, in lieu of these materials for poultices, what is known as spongio- piline can be usefully employed. A piece of sufficient size is steeped in hot water, applied to the part, covered with a large piece of oiled silk or waterproof stuff, and secured there. Even an ordinary sponge, steeped in hot water and covered with any waterproof material, makes a good poulticing medium ; it is well adapted for the throat, near the head, as well as for the space between the branches of the lower jaw. Enemata Enema ta or clysters are given in fevers, inflammation, constipa- or tion, &c. , to empty the posterior part of the bowels. They are clysters, administered by a large syringe capable of containing a quart or more of water, with a nozzle about twelve inches in length, with an ox s bladder tied to a pipe, or a large funnel with a long nozzle at a right angle ; but the syringe is best. Water alone is usually applied for enemata ; it should be about the temperature of the body, not less, but perhaps a degree or two more. To administer an enema, one of the horse s fore-feet should be held up, while the operator pushes the end of the nozzle, smeared with a little lard or oil, very gently and steadily for a few inches into the intestine, and then presses out the water. The amount injected will depend upon the size of the animal ; two or three quarts would suffice for an ordinary-sized horse. Epizootic and Contagious Diseases.- The epizootic diseases affect ing the horse are not numerous, and may generally be considered as specific, or infectious and contagious, in their nature, circum stances of a favourable kind leading to their extension by propaga tion of the agent upon which their existence depends. This agent, in some of the maladies, has been proved to be a micro-organism, and there can be little doubt that it is so for all of them. Glanders. Glanders is one of the most serious diseases affecting horses, not only because it is incurable, but because it is very contagious. It is known in nearly every part of the world, except in Australasia. The virulent principle of glanders establishes itself most easily among horses kept in foul, badly-ventilated stables, or among such as are overworked, badly fed, or debilitated in any way. Glanders, however, has this in common with other contagious diseases, that it is never spontaneously developed, in the absence of the virulent agent. Carnivorous animals as lions, tigers, dogs, and cats have become infected through eating the flesh of glandered horses ; and goats, sheep, swine, and rabbits have been successfully inoculated with the virus. Men who attend on diseased horses are liable to be infected, especially if they have any sores on the exposed parts of their bodies (see GLANDERS). Though infection through wounds is the readiest way of receiving the disease, the germ or bacillus may also obtain access through the lungs, stomach, and thin mucous membranes, such as that of the eyes, nose, and lips. Glanders is presented in two forms, one affecting the mucous membranes of the body, more particularly those of the air-passages (glanders proper), and the other attacking the skin and the superficial lymphatic vessels (farcy). Both forms are due to the same virus, and both may be acute or chronic. The acute form is the more contagious and virulent, and either destroys life quickly or becomes chronic. Acute The symptoms of acute glanders are marked by fever and its form. accompaniments loss of appetite, hurried pulse and respiration, languor, and disinclination to move. Sometimes the legs or joints are swollen ; but the characteristic symptoms, the classical signs, are a yellow adhesive discharge from one or both nostrils ; there is also a peculiar enlarged nodulated condition of one or .both lymphatic glands between the branches of the lower jaw, which, though they may be painful, very rarely suppurate ; and on the mucous mem brane covering the septum of the nose are little yellow pimples or pustules, running into deep ragged-edged nlcers. The discharge from the nostril adheres to its margin, because of its glutinous nature, and straw and other matters also stick to it, while the obstruction to the respiration causes the animal to snort frequently a cause of danger to men and animals, as this nasal discharge is virulent. In addition, the lymphatic vessels of the face are often involved and appear as corded lines passing up the cheeks ; they are painful on pressure. In some cases there is a cough. As the disease progresses, the ulcers iu the nostrils extend in size and depth and increase in number, often completely perforating the septum, and being sometimes covered with black crusts ; the nasal discharge becomes more abundant and tenacious, streaked with blood, and foul smelling, and causes the animal the greatest diffi culty in breathing, so that it appears to be on the point of suffoca tion. Death is due either to this cause or to exhaustion. Chronic glanders generally presents the same symptoms ; but the Chronic animal is not so seriously ill, and may indeed appear to be in good form, health and be able to perform a certain amount of work. In some cases the ulceration may not be perceptible, and only the peculiar knotty enlarged gland and slight discharge from one nostril be evident. There may be uncertainty in such cases as to whether the disease is glanders, owing to the absence of ulceration ; and, to prove whether it is that disease, recourse has to be had to inocula tion of another animal, generally a worthless horse or ass, the latter being the best, as it develops the characteristic symptoms more rapidly and certainly. In farcy, instead of the symptoms being manifested in the interior Farcy, of the body or head, they show themselves on the skin, where the lymphatic vessels become inflamed and ulcerate. These vessels appear as prominent lines or &quot;cords,&quot; hard and painful on manipu lation, and along their course arise little tumours (the so-called &quot; farcy buds &quot;). These tumours ulcerate, forming sores, from which is discharged a thin glutinous pus. &quot;VYhen the skin of the limbs is affected, these are much swollen and the animal moves with pain and difficulty. Rarely large abscesses containing thin pus form on the body. Farcy may appear during glanders or precede it, but it generally terminates in it, though the limbs and body may be covered with ulcers before this occurs. Medical treatment of glanders, chronic and acute, and of acute Treat- farcy should not be attempted, as the malady is incurable, while ment, the danger of infection being transmitted to other animals or men &c. is always real and imminent. Horses which present suspicious symptoms, or those which have been in contact or have stood in the same stable with diseased horses, should be kept apart from others, and their harness, clothing, &c., left with them. Animals which are found to be affected should be immediately destroyed and buried with proper precautions, their harness, clothing, and the utensils employed with them being either destroyed also or thoroughly cleansed, while stables and places which they have fre quented should be completely disinfected. Forage and litter used by glaudered horses ought to be burned or buried. The venereal or coitus disease is a malady which occurs in Arabia Coitus and continental Europe, and has recently been carried from France disease. to the United States of America (Montana and Illinois). In some of its features it resembles human syphilis, and it is propagated in the same manner. From one to ten days after coitus, or in the stallion not uiifrequently after some weeks, there is irritation, swelling, and a livid redness of the external organs of generation (in stallions the penis may shrink), followed by unhealthy ulcers, which appear in successive crops, often at considerable intervals. In mares these are near the clitoris, which is frequently erected, and the animals rub and switch the tail about, betraying uneasiness. In horses the eruption is on the penis and sheath. In the milder forms there is little constitutional disturbance, and the patients may recover in a period varying from two weeks to two months. In the severe forms the local swelling increases by intermittent steps. In the mare the vulva is the seat of a deep violet congestion and extensive ulceration ; pustules appear on the perin?eum, tail, and between the thighs ; the lips of the vulva are parted, exposing the irregular, nodular, puckered, ulcerated, and lardaceous-looldng mucous membrane. If the mare happens to be pregnant, abortion occurs. In all cases emaciation sets in ; lameness of one or more limbs occurs ; great debility is manifested, and this runs on to paralysis, when death ensues after a miserable existence of from four or five months to two years. In horses swelling of the sheath may be the only symptom for a long time, even for a year. Then there may follow dark patches of extravasated blood on or swellings of the penis ; the testicles may become tumefied ; a dropsical en gorgement extends forward beneath the abdomen and chest ; the lymphatic glands iu different parts of the body may be enlarged ; pustules and ulcers appear on the skin ; there is a discharge from the eyes and nose ; emaciation becomes extreme ; a weak and vacillat ing movement of the posterior limbs gradually increases, as in the mare, to paralysis ; and after from three months to three years death puts an end to loathsomeness and great suffering. This malady appears to be spread only by the act of coition. It is a purely con tagious disorder, and cannot be generated by any known agency or