Remedies.—Physic will sometimes bring away great numbers of these worms; but when there is much irritation about the tail, and much of this mucus, indicating that they have descended into the rectum, an injection of linseed oil, or of aloes dissolved in warm water, will be a more effectual remedy. The tape-worm is seldom found in the horse.
Bots.
While they inhabit the stomach of the horse, cannot give the animal any pain, for they have fastened on the cuticular and insensible coat. They cannot stimulate the stomach and increase its digestive power, for they are not on the digestive portion of the stomach. They cannot, by their roughness, assist the trituration or rubbing down of the food, for no such office is performed in that part of the stomach—the
food is softened, not rubbed down. They cannot be injurious to the horse, for he enjoys the most perfect health when the cuticular part of his stomach is filled with them, and their presence is not even suspected until they appear at the anus.
They cannot be removed by medicine, because they are not in that part of the stomach in which medicine is usually conveyed; and if they were, their mouths are too deeply buried in the mucus for any medicine, that can be safely administered, to affect them; and, last of all, in due course of time they detach themselves, and come away. Therefore, the wise man will leave them to themselves, or content himself with picking them off when they collect under the tail and annoy the animal.
Wind-galls.
In the neighborhood of the fetlock, there are occasionally found considerable enlargements, oftener on the hind-leg than the fore one, which are denominated wind-galls. Between the tendons and other parts, and wherever the tendons are exposed to pressure or friction, and particularly about their extremities, little bags or sacs are placed, containing and suffering to ooze slowly from them, a mucous fluid to lubricate the parts. From undue pressure, and that most frequently caused by violent action and straining of the tendons, or often from some predisposition about the horse, these little sacs are injured. They take on inflammation, and sometimes become large and indurated. There are few horses perfectly free from them. When they first appear, and until the inflammation subsides, they may be accompanied by some degree of lameness; but otherwise, except when they attain a great size, they do not interfere with the action of the animal, or cause any considerable unsoundness. The farriers used to suppose that they contained wind—hence their name, wind-galls; and hence the practice of opening them, by which dreadful inflammation was often produced, and many a valuable horse destroyed.
Remedies.—A slight wind-gall will scarcely be subjected to treatment; but if these tumors are numerous and large, and seem to impede the motion of the limb, they may be attacked first by bandage. The roller should be of flannel, and soft pads should be placed on each of the enlargements, and bound down tightly upon them. The bandage should also be wetted with warm water, two or three times a day, for half an hour each time. The wind-gall will often diminish or disappear
by this treatment, but will too frequently return, when the horse is again hardly worked.
A blister is a more effectual, but too often temporary remedy. Firing is still more certain, if the tumors are sufficiently large and annoying to justify our having recourse to measures so severe; for it will not only effect the immediate absorption of the fluid, and the reduction of the swelling, but, by contracting the skin, will act as a permanent bandage, and therefore prevent the reappearance of the tumor. The iodine and mercurial ointments have occasionally been used with advantage, in the proportion of three parts of the former to two of the latter.