Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/260

HORSE. are of the same order as for other diseases of the respiratory orftans, some special causes are the inhalation of irritating gas or smoke, and fluids or solids gaining access to the parts. It is also occasionally associated with influenza, or fever, and frequently supervenes a common cold or sore throat. The animal appears dull, the appetite is partially or wholly lost, the head hangs, and the cough, at first light, is succeeded by a high rasping cough. He prefers to stand with his head to a door or window to secure fresh air, and persists in standing. He has more or less thirst, and frequently the mouth will be found full of saliva. The first step in the treatment of the disease is to secure a pure atmosphere and comfortable quarters whenever possible; a well-ventilated box-stall will be found the best. The body should be covered with a blanket according to the season of the year: the legs should be hand-rubbed until they are warm, then flannel bandages applied to the knees and hocks. If the legs cannot be made warm after hand-rubbing, take any liniment used for sore throat and thoroughly rub in, after which the legs should be covered with bandages. It will be well to rub the same liniment over the chest, the elbow, and shoulder-blade; and from the elbow below, to within about six inches of the ridge of the backbone above.  (q.v.), may attack both lungs, but as a rule one lung only is affected.

. It is impossible to over-estimate the value of sound eyes in a horse, for not only does disease or injury depreciate the selling price of the animal, but it is a great source of danger at all times. Some diseases, like recurring inflammation or moon-blindness, as it is called, are congenital. The structure of the eye is that of a spheroidal body, flattened behind. The posterior four-fifths is inclosed by an opaque, strong, fibrous membrane, which has on its inner side a more delicate membrane consisting principally of blood-vessels and pigment-cells, which in its turn is lined by the extremely delicate and sensitive expansion of the retina. The anterior fifth of the globe of the eye bulges forward from what would have been the direct line of the sclerotic, forming a segment of a much smaller sphere than is inclosed by the sclerotic. There are four straight muscles of the eye, and two oblique and one retractor, enabling the eye to turn inward, outward, upward, and downward, and when all act together the eyeball is drawn deeply into its socket. One of the most common diseases is inflammation of the eyelids, which is caused usually by exposure, bites, or stings of insects, pricks with thorns, or by a whip or club, or as a result of infecting inoculations. All the known causes may ordinarily be divided under the following heads: (a) Inflammations due to constitutional causes; (b) those due to direct injury, mechanical or chemical; and (c) those due to inoculation with infecting material. The local treatments ordinarily advised consist of astringent, soothing lotions (sugar of lead, 30 grains; laudanum, 2 teaspoonfuls; rain-water—boiled and cooled—one pint) applied with a soft cloth kept wet with the lotion and hung over the eye by lying it to the headstall of the bridle on the two sides. The horse should be fed from a high manger, so as to help the return of the blood from the head; and his diet should be laxative and non-stimulating. For a stye or boil of

the eyelid, the practice is to apply a poultice of camomile flowers, with the addition of a few drops of carbolic acid. The poultice should be applied in a very thin muslin bag. Wounds such as torn eyelids, caused by the horns of cattle, or perhaps by teeth, or by nails, or the barbs of wire fences, are also frequent. In such cases the edges should be brought together as promptly as possible, so as to secure union without any unsightly distortions. It is an operation that requires experience and skill.

. By this is meant any irregularities or derangements of the functions of locomotion. There are innumerable forms of lameness, the sources of many of which are so obscure as to defy location until the resulting disease has gained sufficient headway to be serious. In veterinary nomenclature each two of the legs, as referred to in pairs, are denominated a biped, the two fore legs being the anterior biped, and the two hinder the posterior; the two on one side are designated the lateral; and either the front or the hind biped, with the opposite leg of the hind or the front biped, forms the diagonal biped. In health, each biped as well as each individual leg has to perform an equal and uniform duty and carry an equal share of the total weight of the body, so that the result ought to be a regular, evenly balanced, and smooth displacement of the body. According to the rapidity of the motion of the animal in different gaits, each single leg is required at certain moments to bear the weight which had the moment before rested on its congener; or again the legs of one biped may be required to carry the weight of its opposite biped. Beginning with diseases of the bones as a common source of lameness, the ‘’ (q.v.) will be found to be of the commonest occurrence. Indeed, a horse which does not possess one or more belongs to a very small minority. The splint is a bony enlargement on the cannon-bone, between the knee or hock and the fetlock joint.  (q.v.) usually result from heavy labor before the animal was of sufficient age, and consequently before the bones were sufficiently ossified; or else from bruises, sprains, or othcT forms of violence.  (q.v.), or exostosis of the hock-joint, is a disease of the most serious kind for many reasons, not the least of which is the slowness of its development and the insidiousness of it growth. Fractures are of less serious consequence in the horse than in man, but nevertheless they are always a matter of grave import and demand at once a most skillful treatment.  (q.v.) is a name given to the dilated bursæ found at the posterior part of the fetlock joint. Sprains are diseases of the muscles and tendons. Ordinarily the cause of a sprain may be attributed to a fall or overstrain, and subsequent soreness, swelling, and suspension of functions. Rest is the prime essential, the treatment consisting of local applications, stimulating liniments, counter-irritation, and occasionally firing. Lameness of the shoulder from sprain is the most frequent, and is popularly described as slip of the shoulder. With draught-horses it frequently is caused by the effort necessary to move off a heavily loaded vehicle. In the great majority of cases a rest is all that is necessary to effect a cure. Under the general classification of diseases of the fetlock, ankle, and foot are to he found many of the most common as well as most fatal (so far as the value