Nervous symptoms will exceptionally demand the application of cold water or even ice or snow to the head, with counterirritants to the sides of the neck or chest, and the internal use of bromides, iodides, chloral or other nerve sedative.
Other complications must be treated according to their indications.
As the skin becomes cooler and more moist, and the pulse slower and fuller, a tonic and stimulating treatment may be desirable. Gentian 4 drs., saltpeter 4 drs., sal-ammoniac 2 drs. may be given night and morning, or in case of great debility ammonia carbonate may replace the sal-ammoniac. Or the gentian may be replaced by nux vomica, and the ammoniacal preparations by alcoholic ones.
When prostration becomes extreme and stimulants and bitters appear inadequate, transfusion of blood from a healthy horse may save the patient’s life, or a normal salt solution sterilized may be introduced into the vein.
The first method is accomplished through a caouchouc tube with a short tube of silver inserted in each end; the jugular groove of each horse is washed and disinfected, and the vein opened; the tube disinfected with a salicylic acid solution, and cleared out with boiled water is inserted upward into the vein of the sound horse, and when the blood begins to flow the other end is inserted downward into the vein of the sick one. In this way the blood is allowed to flow from the one to the other, the finger being kept on the pulse of the patient to detect any faltering, which like heaving up of the head or rolling of the eyes, may be taken to indicate undue arterial tension, or disturbed brain circulation, and should be the signal for an arrest of the flow. To effect this, pinch the tube in the centre, and wait a minute or so; if the symptoms subside the current may be reopened and a little more carefully admitted, but if not the tube may be withdrawn and the wounds pinned up.
The normal salt solution, .6 per cent., is sterilized by boiling, and placed in a sterilized vessel where it is allowed to cool to the body temperature; then a caouchouc tube furnished with a silver tube at one end and sterilized as for transfusion of blood, is filled with the solution and the vessel containing the latter having been placed at a level higher than the patient, the tube is used as a syphon. When the liquid flows in full stream the silver tube is inserted downward into the jugular of the patient and the liquid is allowed to flow in, subject to the same precautions as regards sudden blood tension as in the case of the transfusion of blood.
Prevention. No country appears to have attempted the absolute exclusion of the disease or the extinction of the germ by a compulsory quarantine and disinfection. The nearest approach to this is in Prussia where in the event of an outbreak of equine influenza, the official veterinarians and police authorities must send in reports to be published in the official papers and communicated to the directors of government breeding studs and to the army authorities. We have here the germ of an effective system of extinction, for if those in charge of government horses in an infected country can protect them against infection, much more could such protection be secured by putting an end to the infection which is now allowed to remain generalized. Moreover in our great outbreak of 1872–3, when germ-potency and all but universal susceptibility were so remarkable, effective quarantine showed the most signal successes, in the resulting immunity of Vancouver’s Island, Prince Edward Island, the whole of the West Indies except Cuba, Central and South America, and isolated districts in Mexico.
Sanitary police in this disease has been abandoned mainly because the virus is so diffusive on the air that quarantine must be more than usually comprehensive to prevent extension of infection, and because the disease is fatal only in a small percentage of cases, so that the loss is apparently minimized. But a panzoötic like that of 1872–3, prostrating 1,000,000 horses, asses and mules in the United States for one to two weeks, and paralyzing the agriculture and commerce of the continent for that length of time, may well make one hesitate to supinely accept for all time an evil, which, experience has shown, can be circumscribed and stamped out. When horse owners, legislatures and veterinarians can be educated up to the needs of the case our yearly local losses from equine influenza, and the occasional all pervading epizoötics of this disease can probably be abolished by the extinction of the germ on the Continent. To achieve this result an immediate large outlay would be well spent. In a new generation, or a new century perhaps, this desirable object may be achieved.
Meanwhile the individual owner can do something to secure a partial protection. On farms and in barracks the animals may be secluded from all other equine animals during the local prevalence of the disease. Men, dogs, and wild animals can be similarly excluded. Litter, fodder, bags, clothing, manure, vehicles, etc., from infected stables and places must be carefully guarded against. Newly purchased animals, carried in any public conveyance, or kept or fed in any public yard or stable must be quarantined at a considerable distance from others, and treated by disinfectant sponging and fumigation before they are allowed to mingle with other equine animals. Stables where the disease has occurred must be thoroughly disinfected, together with all manure made during the epizoötic and for some time thereafter.