Los Angeles herald., 1892-01-04
EQUINE LAN GRIPPE.
HORSES DOWN WITH THE PREV
ALENT DISEASE.
San Francisco Horses Attacked Symptoms
of the Trouble : Its Proper Treat
ment.
La grippe has attacked the horses,
saws the San Francisco Examiner.

La grippe has attacked the horses,
says the San Francisco Examiner.
Almost simultaneously with the ap-
pearance of the dread winter disease in
San Francisco, the horses began to get
sick with new kind of distemper,
which the most skillful veterinarians
now pronounce la grippe. Its results
are much the same as those in the
human family, and so general has the
disease become among the equine race
that it has been pronounced epidemic.
One popularity Of horse la grippe is
that it mas thus far attacked no great
number OF horses in the large stables.
Nearly every stable in the city has a
horse or two down with it, but where
there are large numbers of horses, as in
the street car and public livery stables,
the disease has not attacked a sufficient
number to cripple the business.
The small stables Of firms and private
individuals are the greatest sufferers.
Draymen with two or three horses have
Quit the business, and cabmen with
their own rigs have left the streets.
Private carriage horses are filing the
infirmaries for animals.
The horse la grippe is subject to COM
plications with pneumonia, bronchltls,
lung fever and all those pulmonary dis
eases which accompany the disease in
the human family, and it finds its fatal
ity commonly when in combination with
some other trouble which it brings on.
At the Greeley in6rmary, on Golden
Gate avenue, every stall is occupied,
and two-thirds of the invalids are suffer
ers from la grippe in some form. The
majority of the cases are serious.
The appearance Of the disease in
horses is marked by disinclination for
food, staring, rough coat, repugnance
for water in the early stage and fever
ish appetite for it in the latter, run
ming at the nose, throat and other res
piratory organs.
The treatment is simple but carefully
administered: and the patients require
the. e.closest watching, as the tubes of the
throat are likely to be closed by the
swelling and accumulation OF pus, and
suffocation ensues. When such danger
appears the usual remedy is to make an
incision in the throat and by means of a
tube, as in tracheal operations upon
human beings, to draw off the pus,
keeping the wound open until the swell
ing has disappeared and the danger of
sufforcation has passed. A stimulating
drink of whisky and milk, quart each,
and couple OF eggs, is administered
three times day. Little or no food is
taken by the horses until well on to-
ward recovery.
The heavy draft horses which are sub
ject to exposure in all sorts of weather
have been most generally attacked.
Carriage horses come next in order, but
so far the racing horses have had none
of it. No epidemic has been reported
from the interior, and at present the
trouble seems to be confined to San
Francisco and vicinity.
AS to whether or not the disease is
contagious the veterinarians differ.
The majority are inclined to think it
is not, for horses in adjoining stalls to
the afflicted animals have escaped the
disease, and the fact that in the large
stables the disease does not spread to
the horses generally, adds weight to the
opinion that it is not contagious.
Its coming is ascribed to the weather,
and the veterinarians say that as long
as the present weather conditions last
the disease may be expected to stay.
The thing to do with the horse as with
the human being, is to detect the pres
ence of the disease from the common
symptoms mentioned, and check it in
its infancy, before it has chance to at
tack the lungs and organs and develop
other more fatal combinations. A COM
plete let-up from work, cooling food and
the egg-nog treatment will be found
effective in most cases where the disease