Treatment.—The first thing is to draw off the fluid. A spot between the eighth and ninth ribs is chosen, and the skin is pulled back; a small slit through the skin is made; into that opening an armed trocar is driven. When there is no resistance felt, the thorax has been entered; the stilet is withdrawn and the water flows forth. Use a fine trocar; take all the fluid you can obtain. Should the horse appear faint, withdraw the canula, and in two hours again puncture the chest. Afterward the food must be prepared, and a ball administered night and morning, consisting of iodide of iron, one drachm; strychnia, half a grain; sulphate of zinc, half a drachm; extract of gentian and powdered quassia, a sufficiency.
IMPEDIMENT IN THE LACHRYMAL DUCT.
Cause.—A hay-seed or other substance getting into and becoming swollen within the duct.
Symptom.—Swollen lid and copious tears.
Treatment.—Inject, forcibly, a stream of water up the duct.
INFLUENZA.
Cause.—Unknown but suspected to be generated by close stables. It is also episotic.
Symptoms.—Weakness and stupidity; local swellings; heat and pain in the limbs. Loss of appetite; rapid wasting; every part of the body is diseased. Youth most exposed, but no age exempt. Spring-time the general season, but an attack may ensue at any period of the year. The following symptoms are somewhat uncertain: Pendulous head; short breath; inflamed membranes; swollen lips; dry mouth; enlarged eyelids; copious tears; sore throat; tucked-up flanks; compressed tail; filled legs; big joints; lameness and hot feet. Auscultation may detect a grating sound at the chest, or a noise like brickbats falling down stairs, within the windpipe. When the last is audible, there is always a copious discharge. Sometimes one foot is painful; purgation has been seen; but constipation is generally present, and the horse usually stands throughout the disease. Always suspect influenza when it is in the neighborhood, and the membranes are yellow or inflamed.
Treatment.—Move to a well-littered, warm, loose box. Suspend a pail of gruel from the wall; change the gruel thrice daily; sprinkle on the tongue, night and morning, calomel, one scruple; wash this down with sulphuric ether, one ounce; laudanum, one ounce; water, half a pint. If weakness increases, double the quantity of ether and of laudanum. When the pulse loses all wiry feeling, and the discharge becomes copious, give from the hand some bread, on which there is a little salt; when the cough appears, give a pot of stout daily. Beware of purgatives or active treatment.