Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-06-07

Dailp krnnrhrr 3ournal.
The Epizootic in Horses.

The malady usually shows itself as cold
| in the head, or sore throat, or an affection of
the lungs attended by tickling ana moist
| irritating cough, aroused by the slightest
exertion OF change of air, and which proves
very exhausting to the patient There may
or may not be fever, according to thelseverity
| of the attack. but there is always consider
| able loss of strength and vigor the patient
sweats easily and breathes hard, and soon
lags when ridden driven. But the al
| fection is by no means always confined to
| the lungs and air passages. The digestive
orgons suffer. and full meal will often lie
for length of time undigested, undergoing
| fermentation. giving of gases, and proving
source OF collie. impaction of the bowels, and
even inflammation. The treatment will re-
| quire to be varied the different mani
| festations of the disease yet there are Ger
| tain general rules that will serve to ward of
| dangerous complications, and in the absence
| of the better help, will conduct the great ma
| jority of cases to successful termination.
| In the first place, in animals likely to be ex
posed to the affection, everything should be
| done to maintain a high condition of general
health and vigor. The malady will fall with
| the greatest severity on horses that are over
| worked, underfed, furnished with musty or
decayed corn or fodder, or those kept in close.
i'll ventilated or impure stables those kept
standing in currents of cold air, or exposed
in rain storms, or those heated by work and
then allowed to chill suddenly without the
precaution of housing, rubbing down or
blanketing. The judicious owner will avoid,
on one hand, too heating stimulating diet,
which may tend to constipation and ferbrile
disturbance. and on the other too exclusive
ly soft and relaxing diet of wheat bran, ap-
Piles, corn stalks and the like. A diet
of sound oats and hay, with perhaps
| one-half to one pound of linseed cake daily,
or a mash of wheat bran twice week, will
usually keep the digestive functions active,
| without the danger OF relaxation and weak
ness. Work should be regular, but mod
crate. so as to keep up good tone and hardy
condition. When stopped out Of doors the
horse should be blanketed, and on no account
should be allowed to stand out in n rain
storm or shower. Ipdoors fair amount of
warmth should be sought, and cold draughts
should be guarded against; but these ends
should never be sought at the expense ofpure
air. Better far to expose to greater cold,
and make up for this by clothing the body
and bandaging the legs loosely. than compel
the animal to breathe the same air repeated
ly, or to inhale volatile products of decom-
posing dung and urine.
By way of preventive medicine, little can
be done. L nave known persons VINO Salteu
freely to escape an attack altogether and the
action of salt in favoring the normal changes
of nutrition and the tissues and the removal
from the body of used up products, doubtless
serves to maintain condition of body which
is unfavorable to this and other specific atfec-
tions. Yet many studs escape without any
such precaution, and the occurrence is prob.
ably quite as much a coincidence as an illus
tration of cause and effect. If the salt is
used at all, it may be given in doses of an
ounce daily, and drachm of chlorate of
potassa may be profftably added. This
last agent renders the blood redder,
fits it for the more efficient work
of nutrition, and the consumption and
elimination of waste products, and thus reu-
ders the system less suitable field for the
propagation of any specific disease poison.
Another precaution' would be the frequent
fumgation of horses with the smoke of burn
ing sulphur. There can be 20 doubt that the
influenza of horses is propagated by conta
gious germ, and therefore whatever will des-
troy that germ should protect against infec-
ton During the employment of sulphur
fumigation the animals should be placed in
rather close building and there made to
breathe for half an hour twice a day the fu-
mes of the sulphur in as concentrated a form
| as they can without coughing. The uphur
must not be burned under their noses. but
| behind them, so that it may diffuse through