Nux Vom.- Inability to move the limbs, or spasmodic and convulsive jerks; constipation.
PREVENTIVE TREATMENT. – As soon as the symptoms of apoplexy are perceived, a few doses of Aconite and Belladonna in alternation will often prevent the attack. The animal should have light feed, sufficient exercise, and not be exposed to great exertions during hot weather, or directly after food.
APPETITE, LOSS OF – ANOREXIA.
Loss of appetite may occur without any other sings of illness. A careful examination must be made of the food, to find out whether it is perfectly good; and of the mouth, whether there is anything wrong about the teeth, or whether there are any injuries, thorns, ulcers, aphthae, inflammation, etc. Inquiry must also be made whether the loss of appetite may lot result from overloading the stomach, or from excessive exertion. If none of these causes be in operation, it is probable that the compliant arises from impaired digestion.
TREATMENT. – Arsenicum.- Loss of appetite from eating bad food; the animal is weak and dull. A dose night and morning, half an hour before the usual feeding time, for a week or two.
Nux Vomica. – If there is derangement of the digestive organs, arising from a cold, or other causes, and the dung is hard and dry, this remedy may be substituted for Arsenicum, and given four times a day.
Pulsatilla. _ This has proved useful when the loss of appetite was attended with absence of thirst, or with diarrhoea and cold feet.
Ant.Crud.- Loss of appetite, utter dislike to food, alternate constipation and diarrhoea, flatulence, pains in the stomach.
For loss of appetite from disease, no remedies can be prescribed but such as are adapted to the removal of the disease itself. No attempt should be made to compel a sick animal to take food, as under such circumstances it would be injurious, and would retard the cure. As soon as food would be serviceable, the desire for it will generally return.
ADDITIONAL MEANS. – Examine the hay, whether it is good and free from mould, burn, or dust; and the oats, it they are of an unexceptionable kind, and not musty. It will often be advantageous to change the diet of the animal. This alone may affect the necessary improvement. See that the water is pure, and the stable and manager clean.
BOG SPAVIN – THOROUGH-PIN
DEFINITION.- A soft elastic swelling on the antero-interior part of the hock joint, where the ligaments lie wide apart and give room for distention.
CAUSES. – Over-work, especially in young horses, hunters, and harness horses; subacute inflammation of the synovial membranes from cold or constitutional causes.
SYMPTOMS.- Sometimes stiffness, but seldom lameness, attracts our attention to an enlargement on the front and inside of the hock. It is generally soft and elastic, but in old and very severe cases it may be hard and inelastic by calcareous deposits, when lameness is always present. From the pressure of the swollen synovial membrane on the superficial vein which passes over the hock, the vein become enlarged and distended with blood. This has led some veterinary authors to consider it as a distinct disease, which they term Blood Spavin, and they have recommended extirpation of the vein; but no scientific veterinary surgeon of the present day would sanction such an operation.
THOROUGH-PIN. In this form of disease the enlargement takes place on each side of the superio-posterior part of the hock.
CAUSES. – Similar to those which set up Bog Spavin.
TREATMENT.- In recent cases the hock should be fomented with warm water three times a day, and after each fomentation a tablespoonful of Arnica lotion (Arnica one part to water twenty parts) should be rubbed in. In about a week afterwards, Rhus lotion should be applied in the same manner. At the same time, ten grains of Mercurius Sol. should be placed dry on the tongue three times a day. In cases of long standing there is no treatment equal to pressure, and that can best be applied by a truss similar to the one invented and sold by Mr. Taylor, of Norwich. In lieu of the truss, pressure may be made by a wet chamois-leather bandage, and the application of piece of lint underneath, wet twice a day with glycerine.
BONE SPAVIN
DEFINITION.- This disease may be defined as a bony deposit on the inner and lower parts of the hock joint.
CAUSES.- These may be regarded as predisposing and exciting. Predisposing.- This consists in congenital malformation of the joint, and is called hereditary. 2. Exciting. – Suddenly throwing a horse on its haunches, either in harness or riding; galloping in heavy ground; jumping, especially in a deep or bank country; slipping on ice or wood pavement, or long-continued heavy draught.
SYMPTOMS. – In the early stage we may not be able to detect any enlargement, but on turning the animal over in the stable we shall perceive that he hops on the toe of the affected limb, and does not put the heel to the ground. As the disease advances we may feel the enlargement by placing our finger on the vein, just below the seat of the disease. The action of a spavined horse is peculiar. As soon as the toe comes to the ground, he catches it up again with a kind of spasmodic effort or quick catch, like Stringhalt; he also drags the limb, as if from want of motive power, as well as from pain in the joint. The lameness always decreases with motion.
TREATMENT.- Rhus.- This medicine should be given three times a day; at the same time a lotion of it should be rubbed on the back. The animal should be turned into a loose box for about a month, and the inner heel of the hind shoe raised on a level with the outside. When osseous deposition has taken place the following application may be used:- Mercur. Biniod. 3j., Ol.Palmae.3ij. The hair should be shaved off, and then with a spatula or flat piece of wood some of the mixture should be smeared thickly over the enlargement. The horse’s head must be tied up for twelve hours, after which he may be turned into a loose box. The dressing may be repeated every other day until the hock becomes covered with scurf, which should be allowed to clear away before the application is resumed. BOTS.
The “bot” is the larva of the gadfly. It is often found in large numbers in the stomach of the horse. When first swallowed, towards the end of summer, it is not much bigger than a pin’s head, but in about two months it attains the size and appearance of a small grub, in which state it remains until June or July, when it is discharged with the faeces. Whether these parasites do any harm during their sojourn in the horse’s stomach is a matter of dispute among veterinarians. The probability is that as long as they are only attached to the cardiac extremity, whose cuticular coat is insensible, they do no harm; but when a few stragglers find their way into the duodenum they may produce colicky pains or other symptoms of intestinal derangement.
TREATMENT.- None seems to be of any avail, nor in the majority of cases is any advisable, for the presence of the “bots” cannot be discovered until they commence coming away of their own accord, and then a few days will rid the horse of them without our interference. If colic or indigestion supervene, Nux Vomica will prove remedial.
BROKEN KNEES.
The term “Broken Knee” is applied to any injury to the knee, from a bruise or graze of the skin to what is more properly called “open joint.” In order to ascertain the extent of the disaster, the first thing to be done, after a horse has fallen and injured its knees, is to remove all dirt and blood by careful washing with tepid water. Should the knees be merely grazed, the use of Arnica lotion applied two or three times daily, with rest, will alone be necessary to effect a cure. If the skin and parts underneath are torn, the divided parts must be united together as completely as possible, and a piece of lint, saturated with Arnica lotion, kept to the leg by means of a bandage. At the same time give Arnica internally every three hours.
If the animals is feverish, give Aconite and Arnica in alternation every three hours. If, notwithstanding, the would will not heal without the formation of matter, hot fomentations and linseed-meal, turnip, or carrot poultices must be applied twice a day for three or four days, and afterwards, when the injured parts present a clean, raw surface, Calendula lotion must be applied instead of Arnica lotion. The horse’s head should be racked up for a few days, or placed in cradles to keep him from biting the would.
If the injury is of a very severe character, so that the joint is opened and the bones are exposed, it will often be both humane and economical to destroy the animal as early as possible. Injuries, however, of so dangerous a kind are of but rare occurrence, and in most cases the prompt use of the measures just indicated will be rewarded with success.
The treatment of the more serious cases of Broken Knee is given in the Veterinary Vade Mecum.
PRECAUTIONARY HINTS.- A minute examination should be made of the feet of the animal, to see whether the shoe fits the foot properly; whether a nail has penetrated the frog, or the sole of the foot; whether a stone is embedded between the frog and the shoe; or whether corns occasion the stumbling.
BROKEN WIND.
DEFINITION.- Difficulty of breathing accompanied by a double expiratory movement and marked by periods of exacerbation, or fits similar to those of asthma.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."