The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1874-02-12
for the farmer.
DISEASES OF HORSES


The diseases occurring by bad management are
exceedingly numerous aud sometimes severe.
They may superyene Immediately after an error
in management has been committed, but more
frequently spring from weakness and susceptible
ity to disease, produced by continual neglect OF /
error. Thus single instance Of abstinence
from food, or exposure to rain and cold, seldom |
produces in q healthy animal any permanent |
evil; but when such instances become frequent, |
they soon begin to develop their injurious cOnse-
quences- Encouragement may frequently be
long continued before its bad effects become at
all apparent. The insufficient food, oNer-work
and insufficient shelter, require considerable
time before they produce even their earliest ei-
fects but, in proportion these effects are slow
and imperceptible in their development, they are
more to be dreaded, on account of the raVages
they may make before being detected or srres-
ted. Any single of disease Is greatly
strengthened by the cooperation of other causes:
For example, deficient ventilation or want oil
cleanliness aggrsvate the evils resulting from
hunger, Overwork or exposure To wet ana coloj
again, oyerwork and want Of shelter are much
more severely felt by ill-fed than by weii-fed
animals.
By insufficient food we understand food in
sufficient either rs TO nutritiveness or quality.
shall use the term in its twO-fold sense. How
ever, it will be obvious that these two forms al
insufficient food produce similar effects, and thst
both operate injuriously by reducing the strength
and general vigor of the system Under either
miserable looking; their skins adhere to their
ribs and are infested with lice and other verinin,
thin ba;r becomes coarse and rOngh their strength
and spirits also fail, and they are unit even for
moderate exercise. These are the consequences
of insufficient food with which, on account of
their comparatively frequent occurrence, we are
most familiar. When, hoEeyer, the defective
feeding is still more excessive or of longer dura-
ton, or when its injurious consequences are
aggravated by other errors in management, it
leads to still greater evils, some of which may be
here enumerated. The gradual removal of the
fat and shrinking of the muscles produce
IRENE emaciatiOn, the digestive system loses its
tone, and diarrh9a and dysentiry appear, which
rapidly reduce the fast-failng strength the blood
is thin and wstery, and passes the walls of its
vessels, causing swelling in various dependent
parts of the body, in the limbs and about the
sheath. This Impoverished state of the body
especially favors the production of two very
riOus diseases, viz: tuberean consumption and
CHAMBERS. These affections owe their origin to
similar causes their existence indicates de-
Perforated and vitiated state of the blood, and
their cure is all but hopeless.
Food may be improper on account of an excess
of quantity over nutritiveness or bad quality,
and under these several heads we propose motto
ing the subject of improper food.
An excess in quantity Of food consumed at one
time is very apt to prOduceimmed bad cOnse-
guences, as collie, enterits, laminitis, and occa-
sionally, from the great distention generally pre-
sent in such cases. reupture either of the stomach
OF iutestnes. Affections of this kind frequently
occur among farm horses from the large quantity
of food consumed after protracted abstinence, or
from their getting loose during the night and
gaining access to the cOrn-crib. In such cases
food is consumed to an amount so unusually large
that it is only partially digested; in this process
il soon undergoes chemical change and becomes
a source of irration, and the intestines endeavOr
to relieve themselves of their load by those vio
lent spasmodic coutractons which form the
characteristic symptoms of collie. The irritation
is sometimes so excessive that unless natural
or artificial aid be afforded, inflammation Sc Is in.
Frequently, too, the sensitive and vascular lam
ina Of the feet become inflaned, constituting
lamiuitis, acute founder.
Food is occasionally given to horses in a state
of bad preservation; the common error of this
nature is the use of heated or musty oats, corn
or hay. Such food, by irritating the intestines,
often gives rise to indigestion or diarrhea, or,
by stimulating the kidneys, produces diuresis
and diabetes. When, from bad preservation OF
other causes, food is of very defective quality,
and forms, for some time, the whele or great
portion of the diet il causes all those evils above
noticed, as resulting from insufficient food.
Horses fed for length Of time on large quanti-
ties of rich and stimulating food, very liable
to enlargement of the liver. Such food requires
for its proper digestion very large quanti-
ties of bile and to meet this cnnstant excessive
demand the liver becomes gradually increased in
size. From the stimulating nature of their food,
brewers and distillers' horses in particular are
very frequently affected with enlargement of
the liver, and have known of several cases in
which the enlargement and softeniDg of that
organ was so great as to causc rupture or death.
To preserve horses in good health and vigor,
their food must be of sufficient quantity and
nutritiveness; it must be given at short inter
vals it must not be given in too large quantity,
nor of too rich quality; it must be in good pre-
servatiOn, given regularly, and changed with
care and by degrees-EI.