DISEASES OF THE MOUTH.
Relative susceptibility to disease of the mouth: Food; irritants; bits; ropes; speculum; sharp metallic bodies; micro-organisms; functional; nervous.
These are met with in all domestic animals, but are above all common in horses, oxen and pigs, partly because of special susceptibilities and of the nature of the food, but largely by reason of the exposure of this part to mechanical injuries, especially in horses and cattle. Hard bits and the harder hands of cruel and ruthless drivers, nooses of rope tied over the lower jaw and tongue, iron stirrup, clevis, or balling iron used without cover to force the jaws apart, a large drenching horn employed as a lever for the same purpose, an extemporized Yankee bridle rudely applied or used in breaking a colt, the method of curing a balking or jibbing horse by tying a rope to his lower jaw and to a bar extending forward from the pole, pins, needles, thorns and other sharp bodies, and irritants in food or medicine are among the causes of such disorders. Then there are the many irritating microörganismal ferments in food, water, mucus, etc., and irritant and hot medicines and food to account for local inflammations.