A Cruel Cure for Heaves.
An old horseman once told the writer that he had cured many a horse of heaves by simply amputating a portion of the tongue. “Guess I’ve cut off enough pieces of tongue,” said he, “to fill a half bushel basket;” and he seemed to take pride in a statement which would strike any humanitarian as the climax of barbarity. The same man also strongly advocated the amputation of the tip of a horse’s tail, when for any reason the animal had gone down paralyzed.
It always is well to examine a horse’s tongue before buying, as mutilations are not infrequently met with. Cases are on record where a brute has put a twitch on a horse’s tongue, to make him stand still in the shoeing shop, with the result that a portion of the organ has been torn off during the struggles of the poor beast. Severe biting of a fractious horse, or tearing by a nail or other sharp object, may also injure the tongue more or less severely and perhaps lessen the value of the animal.
When a considerable portion of the tongue has been lost, the horse is unable to drink without plunging his head up to the eyes in the water, and he also has difficulty in grazing.
Stitches are sometimes put in the tongue of a horse to make it sore and so prevent it from cribbing.