HEAT EXHAUSTION AND SUNSTROKE.
—The horse that is stricken with heat exhaustion or which falls from heat, apoplexy or “sunstroke,” is sick or out of sorts at the time of attack; otherwise he would withstand heat and work. The middle horse of a three-horse team suffers most and is apt to succumb to the ill-effects of the combined radiation of heat from his mates and direct rays of the sun. Attacks are most apt to happen on the third or fourth day of a spell of intensely hot weather characterized by mugginess, electrical storms and moisture-saturated air. At such times the horse that has indigestion, a heavy, unhealthy coat of hair, a skin or kidney trouble or any affection of the brain or heart is the one that must be most carefully watched and worked.
With the hope of preventing attacks feed light rations, no corn, no mashes, no ground feed other than bran; avoid green grass, unless the horses are on it all of the time; do not feed hay at noon; allow cool, pure drinking water often when horses are at work; keep stables clean, darkened, screened, and ventilated; shade the polls of the horses’ heads during work time and in such a way that air passes freely under the shading device.
In sunstroke the horse falls and soon succumbs. In heat exhaustion he lags, stops sweating, pants, staggers, skin is dry, nostrils dilated, membranes of eyes and nostrils red. High fever is present. Treat by keeping cold, wet packs to the poll of head or letting a stream of cold water run over it. Shower body with cold water from a sprinkling can. Stand horse in shady place under a tree where air passes. Give stimulants freely in water as a drench every hour at first, then less often as symptoms abate. A suitable stimulant is whiskey in half pint doses, or a mixture of one part of aromatic spirits of ammonia and two parts each of alcohol and sweet spirits of niter. Dose is two ounces in half pint water. Do not bleed horse or give aconite. Give half ounce doses of saltpeter in water twice daily as horse recovers. Call the veterinarian in sunstroke cases.