After the operation of these medicines the horse is generally so far relieved that nothing more is necessary to perfect a recovery than an abstemious diet, consisting chiefly of bran mashes, with a small quantity of the sweetest and best hay. When the debility is considerable a little gruel may be given; and if the purgative effect of the medicine continue longer than one day, it should be restrained by giving a little gruel made of wheat flour or arrow root. This disorder happens most frequently about September or October, especially after a hot season. The various degrees in which we meet with it depends chiefly, I believe, upon its being noticed sometimes earlier than at others. At first the symptoms are alarming; the horse appears languid and sluggish, and feeds badly; the eyes look rather dull, and upon opening the lids with the finger and thumb the yellowness before described may be observed; the inside of the lips and gums will be found also tinged with yellow. In this stage an opening ball and an abstemious diet would be sufficient generally to effect a cure; but if it be neglected in this stage, and if the horse is kept at work, and especially if he is ridden fast, or urged to any considerable exertion, the heart and lungs will be so oppressed with blood that medical skill will often be found unavailing.
Protracted cases of distemper are sometimes accompanied by a pustular eruption, which extends over the surface of the chest and belly, and peels off in scales: but this integumental determination seldom affords any relief, and such cases almost invariably terminates fatally. This state is also sometimes accompanied with an hepatic affection of a very fatal character, which has been called among sportsmen the yellow disease, from its tinging every part of the surface of the body with a yellow hue: the urine also is of a deep yellow, the consequence of some morbid translation of the inflammation to the secreting vessels of the liver. Mr. Youatt has found this state most frequent in the hound and greyhound; he also has observed it particularly where there is little catarrhal exudation from the nose, which I believe is the case, although I have also seen it accompanied by a profuse discharge.—White—Blaine.
Yelp, v. To bark as a beagle hound after his prey.
Yew, s. A tree of tough wood.
While mention is making of the bad effects of yew-berries, it may be proper to remind the unwary, that the twigs and leaves of yew, though eaten in a very small quantity, are certain death to horses and cows, and that in a few minutes. A horse tied to a yew hedge, or to a faggot stack of dead yew, shall be found dead before the owner can be aware that any danger is at hand: and the writer has been several times a sorrowful witness to losses of this kind among his friends: and in the island of Ely had once the mortification to see nine young steers or bullocks of his own lying dead in a heap, from browzing a little on a hedge of yew in an old garden into which they had broken in snowy weather. Even the clippings of a yew hedge have destroyed a whole dairy of cows, when thrown inadvertently into a yard. And yet sheep and turkeys, and, as park-keepers say, deer, will crop these trees with impunity.—White’s Antiquities of Selborne.
Young, a. Being in the first part of life, not old; ignorant, weak; it is sometimes applied to vegetable life.
Young horses, however, seldom derive that benefit from cordials and ale that older horses do, and particularly those which are accustomed to such treatment. The most effectual and the most innocent restorative is rest; for which in summer a field is the best situation: but if, during the time of rest, the horse be kept in a stable, his diet must be carefully attended to. This should be rather opening, and such as the horse appears to relish; vetches, or other green food, are perhaps the best. Good sweet bran is an excellent thing to keep the bowels cool and open, and may be rendered nutritious in almost any degree by the addition of good fresh bruised oats or malt. A small quantity of good sweet and clean oats thrown into the manger now and then will often induce a horse to feed when there is want of appetite; and a very small quantity of the sweetest hay, given occasionally, is generally eaten with great relish.
Young horses often fall off in their appetites during the time of cutting teeth. At this period there is often a soreness of the mouth, in which the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels seems to participate. In such cases the want of appetite is generally attributed to the lampas, or a swelling or fulness in the roof of the mouth, adjoining the front teeth; because the horse is sometimes observed to mangle his hay, as it is termed; that is, he pulls it out of the rack, and after chewing it a little while, throws it out again. The common remedy, if such it may be called, is the application of a red-hot iron to the part, and burning out the prominent part or lampas; but this is never necessary. All young horses have that fulness in the roof of the mouth which is named lampas; and it never interferes with their appetite or the chewing or gathering of their food; there may, however, be some degree of tenderness about the gums at the time of teething, when soft food, such as bran mashes, should be given for a few days; and as the stomach and bowels are sometimes affected also, a little nitre may be given in the mashes, and an emollient clyster thrown up. When there is costiveness, or slimy dung, a laxative drench may be given also, composed of 4 oz. Epsom salt; 2 drachms of carbonate of soda; 1 pint of warm water; and 4 oz. of castor oil.
If the mouth appears very tender or sore, it may be washed or syringed with a lotion, composed of alum, honey, and water. Keeping a horse on new oats or new hay is often followed by some derangement of the stomach and bowels, indicated by looseness and want of appetite, and sometimes by excessive staling also, with considerable thirst and a staring coat. A change of diet is in such cases the most essential thing; but it is often necessary also to give some tonic medicine, or a warm laxative, such as three or four drachms of aloes, three drachms of soap, and a drachm or two of ginger, with a few drops of oil of caraway. Horses sometimes fall off in appetite merely from loading their bowels, or from staying in the stable idle too long. In this case an abstemious diet, principally of bran mashes or grass, and a clyster, are necessary, and if that fail a mild dose of physic should be given.—White.