A COMMON SIGHT DURING RECOVERY FROM INFLUENZA, WHEN ACTIVELY TREATED.
Beware of what is termed active treatment; a purgative is death during influenza. It generally will induce the prostration from which the animal never recovers. Formerly it was common to see four strong men propping up a horse during its endeavor to walk. But the lower class are fond of joking one with another. Such was the usual result of their employment on these occasions. In the fun the horse got but partial support, while the noise distressed the diseased sensibilities. Horses have large sympathies, and readily comprehend the attentions dictated by kindness. The disregard which people too often display toward sickness in an animal acutely pains the creature: its effects may be told by the altered character of the pulse. Whereas the voice, when softened by pity, often causes the heavy head to be turned toward the speaker; and the muzzle of a diseased inmate of the stable has frequently reposed long upon the chest of the writer.
ABDOMINAL INJURIES.
These are of various kinds. They differ materially, but they all provoke inflammation of the vast serous membranes lining the abdominal cavity; and their symptoms are therefore too nearly alike to be distinguished from each other. A mere list of such perils must astonish the reader; and his pity will be excited when he learns that such accidents, numerous as they are, generate the most violent agony. These injuries consist of ruptured diaphragm, ruptured stomach, ruptured spleen, ruptured intestines, strangulation, intro-susception, impactment, and calculus.
AN UNNATURAL ATTITUDE, INDICATIVE OF SOME ABDOMINAL INJURY.
Ruptured diaphragm is attended with a soft cough, and symptoms of broken wind—occasioned by the almost sole employment of the abdominal muscles—with sitting on the haunches. Still, Professor Spooner, of the Royal Veterinary College, mentioned in his lectures that an animal belonging to the Zoological Society lived two years with a ruptured diaphragm, through which the bowel protruded into the thorax. In the horse such a lesion is speedily fatal.
A POSITION OFTEN ASSUMED BY THE HORSE SUFFERING FROM ABDOMINAL INJURY.