PRECAUTIONARY MEANS.- Animals should be prevented from falling down too suddenly and rolling over, especially in the case of horses and cattle, lest the stomach, bowels, or bladder should be ruptured. The animal should be slowly led about, and if it threaten to throw itself down, whip it and drive it about by forcible means; and when it cannot be prevented, straw or some soft material must be provided for it to fall upon. A horse should be put into a loose box with plenty of straw, so that he can roll about freely. After the attach is over, great caution is necessary as to food, which much be soft, and given is small quantities, until the digestive functions are perfectly restored. Exercise should be only gentle for a few days.
Constipation – Costiveness – Confined Bowels – Bowel Bound
When there is a hardened collection of dung in the lower bowel, with irregularity or stoppage of evacuations, attention should be paid to the relief of the animal, as neglect may lead to inflammation of the bowels. Very young foals are subject to dangerous constipation, consequent on inability to discharge the faeces which exist in the intestines at birth.
CAUSES.- Dry, rich spoiled food, indigestible food, such as old rough grass, sudden change of food, overheating, a cold, insufficient exercise, debility attending acute disease extreme youth, old age, etc.
SYMPTOMS.- When this compliant is not a more symptom of some disease, but exists alone, the animal is dispirited, off its food, or eats slowly, and the discharges of dungs either cease altogether, or the dung is very hard and dark.
TREATMENT. Nux Vomica and Sulphur.- Hard, scanty dung, lined with mucus, and the abdomen puckered up. Administer these remedies for several days; dose of Nux at night, and of Sulph. in the morning.
In less chronic cases of constipation, a few two-grain doses of the trituration of Nux administered in the morsel of favourite food, night and morning, will often be found an excellent remedy.
Bryonia.- Alternate constipation and diarrhoea, especially from cold. A dose thrice daily.
Hyoscyamus, Plumb., podoph., and Opi. are also useful remedies in particular cases.
GENERAL TREATMENT.- Let the animal have regular and moderate exercise, and green food, soft or boiled food, mashes, but few oats, and no beans. When the obstruction appears to take place in the large terminal bowels, which is full of hardened dung, and occasional injection of tepid water will be very useful, and it is also less dangerous than back-raking. For dogs habitually suffering from constipation daily exercise is essential; a small quantity of uncooked meat may be given once a day; whole-meal cakes and thick oatmeal porridge are suitable.
Corns
Corns are not hardened cuticle, as on the human foot, but a semi- fungoid growth, composed of horny matter and granulations intermingled. they are very common and troublesome, for frequently purulent matter is found, which under-runs the sole or breaks out on the coronet. Corns are most common to flat feet, and feet with weak, low heels. They are occasioned by had shoeing, as shown by the pressure of the heel of the shoe, either by its bearing immediately on the sole where it is too thin to bear the pressure, or by the shoe forcing the heel of the crust inwards. In this way the sensible sole is often bruised, the small blood-vessel ruptured, and the effused blood penetrates the pores of the horny sole, thereby causing the dark-red appearance observable on paring out the heels.
TREATMENT.- First pare out the corn and remove all dirt. The foot must be dressed with the Tincture of Arnica, applied by means of cotton; afterwards the shoe should be tacked on lightly, with a leather sole between it and the food, so as to remove the pressure from the effected part. In those instances in which the lameness is severe, and the corn is of very recent date, the foot should be poulticed with a mixture of linseed meal, bran and hot water. A poultice is the more necessary when a corn inflames and suppurates. After the poultice apply Arnica lotion. For further information with regard to shoeing the Veterinary Vade Mecum may be referred to.
Cough
Not a few diseases in which the respiratory organs are involved are accompanied by Cough, such as Inflammation of the throat or chest, Hydrothorax, Broken Wind, Nasal Gleet, etc. When these diseases are not properly treated, the Cough often remains. It is of importance to ascertain whether Cough exists by itself, or whether it is a symptom of a more serious affection. In the latter case it disappears with the removal of the disease.
The varieties of Cough in the horse, as they are indicative of different diseases, are fully detailed in the Veterinary Vade Mecum. With regard to cattle, it should be remembered that even when they are in the most healthy condition they will often cough or bluff, but the expiration is easy and causes no disturbance to the animal. If cattle or sheep have a persistent cough, they should be at once prepared for the butcher.
CAUSES.- Dust; foreign bodies at the top of the windpipe; indigestion, arising either from excess of food or from food of an improper kind; dentition; but more frequently Cold is the exciting cause, in which state the lining membranes of the air passages or lungs are irritated. Overfed dogs often have a dry, searching cough, which, if they are old, degenerates into Asthma; dogs are also subject to Cough consequent on Obesity, going into the water, being washed with warm water in winter, or being confined for some time in a damp situation.
TREATMENT.- Aconitum.- Coughs of an inflammatory character; short, dry, frequent. When the mucous membrane becomes moist, and the pulse small and feeble, Aconite should be discontinued, or given in alternation with a more specific medicine.
Belladonna.- Cough dry, short, barking, worse in the evening or at night, apparently caused by tickling or irritation in the throat; sore throat and painful swallowing; chronic cough.
Apis.- Often beneficial when Belladonna has failed; also for cough due to inflammation of the larynx; suffocative, painful, attended with considerable dyspnoea. Cough hoarse, painful, with clear ropy mucus discharged from the mouth.
Arsenicum. – Dry cough in the evening or at night, after eating or drinking, or going up hill, or on contract with cold air; difficult breathing, this discharge from the nostrils; loss of flesh and strength. Coughs which remain after Influenza or Catarrh, apparently dependent on loss of nervous power.
Nux Vomica.- Cough dry, hoarse, spasmodic; worse in the morning, after exercise or after eating; attended with disorder of the stomach, furred tongue, foul mouth, uncertain appetite, constipation.
Phosphorous.- Dry cough excited by cold air, drinking, irritation and tickling in the windpipe, accompanied with phlegm and difficult respiration.
Ipecacuanha.- Accumulation of phlegm, which rattles in the chest; shaking spasmodic cough; oppressed breathing.
Bryonia.- Cough which requires much effort, and cuts short the respiration; cough during east winds or frosty weather, or after eating and drinking; continued dry cough, especially early in the morning, accompanied by rattling in some part of the trachea, and produced by pressure on the part of the trachea where the rale is heard.
Drosera.- Chronic cough, hoarse, deep and hollow.
Cuprum.- Long-standing and dry cough; short cough, causing the animal to lose vivacity and good condition.
Iodium.- Laryngeal and tracheal cough, accompanied by plastic effusion, or dependent on with foul inflammation of the mucous membrane, with foul discharge from the nostrils. Irritability without inflammation of the salivary glands.
Antimonium Tart.- Bronchial cough, when loose, and accompanied by very abundant secretion and discharge of mucus, loud rattling, and distressed breathing.
Mercurius, Rumex, Kali bichromicum and Dulcamara are also useful remedies.
Sulphur.- Long-continued and obstinate cough This medicine may often be advantageously given in alternation with some of the remedies before mentioned, especially when a remedy has been carefully selected, but does not effect the desired improvement.
ADMINISTRATION.- A dose three or four times daily; when improvement takes place, only once in every twelve or twenty-four hours.
ACCESSORY MEANS.- No inferior food should be given; carrots, either raw or boiled, are very suitable; linseed tea, and other diluent drinks, will generally afford relief to animals affected with cough.
Cracked Heels
Cracked heels are common among horses, especially during the winter and early spring. At this season casting the coat is often attended with a disordered state of the system, and general debility; and cracked heels are no uncommon accompaniment. The disease may affect the two hind limbs only, or all the heels of the extremities.
CAUSES.- Poverty and uncleanliness, associated with wet; clipping the heels during wet weather, or wet in alternation with frosts; exposing the heels to wet and not afterwards drying them well; plethora from over-feeding and want of work; hereditary predisposition. The disease is more common among under-bread horses than among well-bred ones.
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."