STALING
—is the evacuation of urine by either horse or mare, which is at some times partially obstructed, and at others totally suppressed. The secretion of urine may be retarded from a variety of causes; such as injuries sustained in the spine, particularly in the LOINS, near which the kidnies are seated; and these, from their irritability, are also easily susceptible of disease, by which the discharge may be affected. The urine, with a horse or mare in a healthy state, should flow in a moderate stream, of a transparent colour, midway between a brown and red; not inclining to a milky, foul consistence, or tending to a tinge of blood. The evacuation should take place with ease, perfectly free from laborious groanings, and equally so from partial dribblings, or periodical trifling stoppings, which always denote a something imperfect in the secretion, or some obstruction in the urinary passages.
Staling, when the urine is strongly impregnated with appearance of blood, should be early attended to, as it is mostly occasioned by some serious injury to the kidnies, or elsewhere. It is very frequently brought on by hard, long and immoderate riding, or drawing; and may be the effect of a rupture of some blood-vessel, the seat of which it may be impossible to ascertain: if it should be a discharge of nearly pure blood, and that in any considerable quantity, great danger may be apprehended. Bleeding (to constitute revulsion) is a preliminary step to every degree of hope, followed by small quantities of nitre in powder, blended with equal parts of gum Arabic in the same state. Gelatinous fluids, as oatmeal gruel, or malt sweet-wort, with nursing, rest, and small doses of LIQUID LAUDANUM, are the only means to be pursued.