Treatment.—Forbear all work; clothe warmly; house in a large, well-littered, loose box. Gruel for drink; green-meat, with three feeds of bruised and scalded oats, also beans, daily. If the bowels are obstinate, administer a drink composed of solution of aloes, four ounces; essence of anise seed, half an ounce; water, one pint. Should the throat not amend, dissolve half an ounce of extract of belladonna in a gallon of water; hold up the head: pour half a pint of this preparation into the mouth, and in thirty seconds let the head down; do this six or eight times daily. No improvement being observed, try permanganate of potash, half a pint; water, one gallon: to be used as directed in the previous recipe. Still no change being remarked, prepare chloride of zinc, three drachms; extract of belladonna, half an ounce; tincture of capsicums, two drachms; water, one gallon.
All being useless, give two pots of stout daily, and blister the throat.
No alteration ensuing, cast the horse, and mop out the fauces with a sponge which is wet with nitrate of silver, five grains; water, one ounce. Give a ball daily composed of oak-bark and treacle.
If none of these measures succeed, the throat must be complicated with some other disease.
SPASM OF THE DIAPHRAGM.
Cause.—Imprudently riding too far and too fast.
Symptom.—Distress, and a strange noise heard from the center of the horse.
Treatment.—Pull up; cover the horse's body; lead to the nearest stable. Give as soon as possible a drink composed of sulphuric ether, two ounces; laudanum, one ounce; tincture of camphor, half an ounce; cold water or gruel, one pint. Give four drinks, one every quarter of an hour; then another four, one every half hour, and then at longer intervals as the animal recovers. When first brought in, procure five steady and quiet men; give a bandage each to four of them, and order them silently to bandage the legs; give a basin and sponge to the other, and bid him sponge the openings to the body. This done, and sweat and dirt removed, clothe perfectly after the skin is quite dry.
SPASM OF THE URETHRA.
Cause.—Acridity in the food or water.