THICK OR BROKEN WIND.
There is no remedy for the cure of this but it may be improved. The horse should have full proportions of solid food, but very little hay, and no chaff; he should not be worked immediately after a heavy meal; water should be given in moderate quantities, but the horse should not be suffered to drink as much as he likes until the day’s work is over; green meat will always be serviceable, and carrots are particularly useful.
PHYSICING.
A horse should be carefully prepared for the action of physic. Two or three bran mashes given on that or the preceding day, which should be continued until the dung becomes softened, as a less quantity of physic will then suffice. On the day which the physic is given, the horse should have walking exercise, or may be gently trotted for a quarter of an hour twice in the day; but after the physic begins to work, he should not be moved from his stall. A little hay may be put in the rack, and as much mash given as the horse will eat, and as much water as he will drink with the coldness off. Aloes is the best purgative, for there is no other that is at once so sure and safe—the dose is from ½ to 1 ounce, if the horse is properly prepared. The only other purgative on which dependence can be placed is the croton; the dose varies from 1 scruple to ½ a drachm. Linseed oil is an uncertain but safe purgative, in doses from a pint to a pint and a half. Epsom salts are an inefficacious remedy except in the immense dose of a pound and a half, and then they are not always safe.
SPRAINS OF THE BACK SINEWS.
Should there remain the slightest lameness or enlargement, the leg must be blistered; and it would seldom be a bad practice to blister after every case of severe sprain. The inflammation may lay deep, and the part once sprained may long remain weak, and subject to renewed injury, not from unusual but ordinary exertion. The horse should be afterwards turned out for one or two months.
We must here again repeat that a blister should never be used while any heat remains.