,184
FARRIERY.
origin of the nerves, w hich is the most common cause of the apo-plexy, and may be either blood or serum. This last most Irc-qucnlly happens to horses that have poor watery blood. The pre-vious symptoms are, drowsiness; watery eyes, somewhat full andinflamed ; a disposition to reel ; feebleness; a bad appetite ; thehead almost constantly hanging, or resting on the manger ; some-times with little or no fever, and scarce any alteration in the dung’or urine; the horse is sometimes disposed to rear up, and apt tofall back when handled about the head ; which is often the easewith young horses, to which it does not suddenly prove mortal,but with proper help they may sometimes recover. 1 f the apo-plexy proceed from w ounds or blows on the head, or matter onthe brain: besides the above symptoms, the horse will he franticby tits, especially after his feeds, so as to start and fly at eveiything. These cases seldom admit of a perfect recovery ; andwhen horses fall down suddenly, and work violently at theirflanks, without any ability to rise after a plentiful bleeding, theyseldom recover. All that can be done is to empty the vessels asspeedily as possible, by striking the veins in several parts at once,bleeding to four or live quarts: and to raise up the horse’s headand shoulders, supporting them with plenty'of straw. 1 flic sur-vive the fit, cut several rowels: give him night and morning clys-ters prepared w ith a strong decoction of senna and salt, or thepurging clyster, No. 22 ; blow oncea-day up his nostrils a drachuiof asarabacca, or either cf the powders, No. 19, which* will pro-mote a great discharge; afterwards two or time aloelic purgesshould lie given ; and to secure him from a relapse, by attenuat-ing and thinning his blood, give him an ounce of equal parts ofantimony, nitre, and gum-guaiacum every night. With regard tothe other disorders of the head, such as lethargy or sleeping evil,epilepsy or falling-sickness, vertigo, frenzy, and madness, convul-sions, and paralytical disorders, it may he observed, that mi»l ofthem are fo be treated as the apoplexy and epilepsy, by bleedingand evacuations, with the alteratives these directed.
In Lethargic Disorders, the horse generally rests bis headwith his mouth in the manger, and his poll often reclined to oneside; lie will shew an inclination to eat, but generally falls asleepwith Ifis food • his mouth, and he frequently swallows it wholewithout chewing: emollient clysters are extremely necessary inthis case, with the antispasmodic balls recommended for apo-plexy ; strong purges are not requisite, nor bleeding in too largeipiantities, unless the horse be young and lusty.
IIorse= are often affected with this distemper: which is knownbv a dusky yellowness of the eyes; the inside of the mouth andlips, the tongue and bars of the roof of the mouth, looking also yel-low. The horse is dull, and refuses all kinds of food ; the feveris slow, yet both that and the yellowness increase together.The dung is often hard and dry, of a pale yellow or palegreen. IIis urine is commonly of a dark dirty brown colour: andwhen it has settled some time on the pavement, it looks red likeblood, lie stales with some pain and difficulty : and if the dis-temper be not checked soon, grows delirious: which is a sign ofan inflammation of the liver. The jaundice is either idiopathic orsymptomatic; the seat of the first is in the liver, and the 2d maysupervene to some other disease ; or it may be critical w hen a fe-ver is declining, and then the horse soon recovers his appetite, be-gins to look lively, the fever ceases, and the yellowness soon wearsoff. With regard to prognostics, when the horse is young amifull of blood, the consequence of iiigh feeding, and want of suffi-cient exercise, the cure will not be difficult. But if the diseasesucceed hard labour, w-liich has hurt the liver by an abscess orotherwise, the cure will be exceeding difficult. When the liveris schirrous, which may be concluded by the swelling of the offside of the belly, about the region of the liver; the horse maylinger a great while before it kills him, but he will grow weakerand weaker till he entirely becomes unfit for business. But if heretain his strength and vigour, without sickness or loss of appetite,there will be no danger of recovery by' proper means. In thecure, we ought first to examine whether he has a fever, and thedegree of it, that we may judge whether tiie liver be inflamed crnot. if it be, we must begin with bleeding, and repeat it oeca-sioiullv as long as the symptoms render it necessary, and as soonas possible rub the blistering ointment into the side all about the
region of the liver. These means alone will remove the inflam-mation, when they are administered in time. If any thing morebe wanting, it must be laxative clysters to bring away the faiccs,lor this disease is always attended with costiveness. Whim thefever is gone oil", if the jaundice still remain Irom the obstructionof the bilious duel, equal parts ot aloes, rhubarb, and soap, oz.of each should be made into a ball and given every 3d or 4lh day,washing it down with a pint of the deobstruenl decoction, No, 17,when the material, can be procured.
Of the Disorders of the Kidneys and Ih.addf.r.
The kidneys of a horse may he overstrained several ways ; asby thawing too great a weight, by heavy burdens on the loins, andby not permitting him to stale on journeys. This last indeed is notproperly a strain, but it has the effects of one, because all the ves-sels being turgid and over-loaded, they must of necessity be toomuch stretched, and their tone debilitated, which is the case in all"•trains. The ame raav happen if a horse be hard worked, whenhe is full of blood and humours; or lie may receive blows on the’ioins or other hurts, which turning to an inflammation, may drawthe kidneys into consent. When the horse has undergone any suchhurts or hardships, the affection of the kidney s, may be discoveredby a w eakness of the back and ioins, by difficulty of staling, bythick foul urine, sometimes bloody. These symptoms are attend-ed with faintness, deadness of the eyes, and loss of appetite. Butthere is one sign very particular, and that is, he can seldom ornever be backed without discovering signs of pain. The samething will happen, when a horse has been wrenched in the back,but them there is no great alteration in the urine, except its beinga little higher coloured (ban ordinary, nor does he lose his appe-tite or flesh. When the disease lias continued a considerable time,it is attended with all #ie signs of a surfeit. When a fever attendsa difficulty of staling, it is a sign of an inflammation of the kidneys. With regard to prognostics, diseases of (lie kidneys arenever without danger, especially when they continue long, andthe horse breaks out into scabs and blotches. An inflammation ofthe kidneys is very dangerous, unless taken in time. When ahorse’s urine is turbid, and yet comes away without much pain orstraining, while the appetite is good and his eyes are brisk andlively, there is no danger: as also when he stales, ami the thicksediment abates by degrees, till the urine conics to be of a nnturaicolour. But when the urine is thick and ropy, and full of ulcer-ous matter or blood, attended with weakness and want of appetite,the case is dangerous. The consequences of a disordered slateof the urinary organs are principally two; strangury and dia-betes.
I. Strangury, or an Obstruction of urine, may arise from dif-ferent causes. When it is not owing to wind, or hardened dungpressing upon the neck of the bladder, il may proceed from in-flammation in the bladder or kidneys, ulcerations there, or spasmsupon any particular part. When owing to inflammation or spasm,the general indications of cure are, to lessen the stricture upon theparts; to reduce the inflammation ; and to promote the evacuationof urine: the first of which intentions may be answered by a mo-derate loss of blood ; the second, by the use of internal emollients;and the third, by gentle stimulants and mild diuretics. In stran-gury from inflammation or spasms in the parts, the horse makesfrequent motions to stale, stands wide and straddling, appears fullin the flank, and somewhat dejected. The first measure is bleed-ing, more or less plentifully according to the urgency of the symp-toms. In a convenient time after this operation, inject the tur-pentine clyster, No. 23, II; or the diuretic drink, No. 13, 11,may bo given twice in the interval of three or four hours. Shouldneither of these, nor both in conjunction, procure an evacuationby urine, give the mild diuretic ball, No. 5, 11, repeating it everyfour hours after tlie exhibition of the second dose, till relief he ob-tained by a plentiful evacuation. When the parts designed for thesecretion of urine are cold and benumbed, the stimulant cataplasm*No. 34, or the blistering ointment, No. 47, I, may belaid to hisloins. The former is a very penetrating composition, and mayreach the cause of the complaint. It must be spread upon flannel,and bound on with another piece over that. It may he renewedonce in two davs, till the horse stales freely.
II. A Diabetes is a greater discharge of urine than the quan-tity of water that has been drunk. This generally proceeds Irom
a laxity