A HORSE AFFECTED WITH SURFEIT.
Should the horse be young, and have been neglected throughout the winter, a surfeit sometimes appears which is of a different character. The lumps do not disappear; but an exudation escapes from the center of each. The constitution is involved in this form of disease, and the malady, if unattended to, is apt to settle upon the lungs.
Should the attack assume the last appearance, on no account take the animal out, not even for exercise. Attend to the perfect cleanliness of the bed, and keep every door and window in the stable open during the day. Feed as directed for the previous form of surfeit, and allow two or three bran mashes whenever the bowels appear constipated; but do not give mashes after the constipation is removed. The desire is not to weaken the system by purgation, but simply to relieve the body; administer the drink recommended above only, giving one night and morning, but, should the appetite suffer, reduce the quantity, or withhold all medicine.
Clothe warmly; bandage the legs, and remove from the stall to a loose box; if the pulse suddenly sink, two pots of stout may be given at different times during the day. If the appetite is bad, good gruel instead of water must be constantly in the manger; cut carrots, if presented a few at a time, will generally be accepted. However, with all such care, a very speedy termination is not to be expected; nature is casting forth something imbibed during a winter of neglect, and no art can quicken the process. The shortest cases of this kind mostly last a fortnight, during which time the treatment, and the entire treatment, merely consists in good nursing and in liberally supporting the body.
HIDE-BOUND.
Strictly speaking, the condition signified by the above term is not so much a disease as the consequence of exposure, of poor provender, and of neglect. Thrust a horse which has been accustomed to wholesome food and a warm stable, thrust such an animal into a straw yard and leave it there through the long and severe winter of this climate. Let the creature which has been used to have its wants attended to and its desires watched—let it for months exist upon a stinted quantity of such hay as the farmer cannot sell—let it go for days without liquid, and at night be driven by the horns of bullocks to lie among the snow or to shiver in the rain—let an animal so nurtured be forced to brave such vicissitudes, and in the spring the belly will be down, and the harsh, unyielding skin will everywhere adhere close to the substance which it covers.
ONE OF THE CAUSES OF HIDE-BOUND IN HORSES.