Symptoms.—Pulse hard; head pendulous; food often spoiled; membranes pallid; mouth dry. Pressure to abdomen elicits a groan; turning in the stall calls forth a grunt. Want of spirit; constant lying down; restlessness; thirst; loss of appetite; weakness; thinness; enlarged abdomen; constipation and hide-bound. Small bags depend from the chest and belly; the sheath and one leg sometimes enlarge; the mane breaks off; the tail drops out. Purgation and death.
Treatment.—When the symptoms first appear give, night and morning, strychnia, half a grain, worked up to one grain; iodide of iron, half a drachm, worked up to one drachm and a half; extract of belladonna, one scruple; extract of gentian and powdered quassia, of each a sufficiency; apply small blisters, in rapid succession, upon the abdomen: but if the effusion is confirmed, a cure is hopeless.
ACUTE DYSENTERY.
Cause.—Some acrid substance taken into the stomach.
Symptoms.—Abdominal pain; violent purgation; the feces become discolored, and water fetid; intermittent pulse; haggard countenance; the position characterizes the seat of anguish. Perspiration, tympanitis, and death.
Treatment.—Give sulphuric ether, one ounce; laudanum, three ounces; liquor potassæ, half an ounce; powdered chalk, one ounce; tincture of catechu, one ounce; cold linseed tea, one pint. Repeat every fifteen minutes. Cleanse the quarters; plait the tail; inject cold linseed tea. The whole of the irritating substance must be expelled before improvement can take place.
ACUTE GASTRITIS.
Cause.—Poison; generally given to improve the coat.
Symptoms.—Excessive pain, resembling fury.