The Horse in Health, Accident & Disease

wsmm //- k JUA THE HORSE IN HEALTH ACCIDENT & DISEASB Darley matheson" M.R.G.V.S. •muKmm THE HORSE IN HEALTH, ACCIDENT AND DISEASE - O C -^ S' .k "5^ "^ cT O in A g'cib h-it-. 60 ,• C 2 c> .C/2 M *» .CI, .« ^ to c ..s <L' O ^.S en *^ ffi ^ .? a « JO O ,- 1 THE HORSE IN HEALTH, ACCIDENT & DISEASE A THOROUGHLY PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR EVERY HORSE OWNER BY "DARLEY MATHESON," M.R.C.V.S. AUTHOR OF " CATTLE AND SHEEP," AND NUMEROUS OTHER VVOKKS ON LIVE STOCK, ETC. ILLUSTRATED London C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd Henrietta Street 192 — CONTENTS CHAPTER I STABLE AND STABLE CONSTRUCTION, HYGIENE OF THE STABLE Housing—Sanitation—Flooring—Situation—Construction—Stable »age fittings—Water supply—Bedding . .11 CHAPTER II GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF HORSES Grooming—Feeding—Clipping—^Washing—Clothing and band- ages—Watering—Wintering and Summering horses—Agist- ment of horses—Forage—Bedding . .15 CHAPTER III HEAVY DRAUGHT HORSES The Shire and Clydesdale—Percheron and Suffolk—The Packing- ton BUnd horse and Weisman's Honest Tom—The Suffolk —^The farmer's horse—The vanner and the tradesman's . horse ' 35 \, ......... CHAPTER IV HEAVY DRAUGHT HORSES—AGE, SEX, COLOUR, SELECTION, SOUNDNESS, ETC. Selection—^Mating—Conformation—Value of the heavy draught horse—Soundness—Colour—Age—Vice—Buying a horse Feet—Sight and wind—Various diseases .... 47 CHAPTER V BREEDING HEAVY HORSES AND THE SELECTION OF THE SIRE AND THE DAM FOR THIS PURPOSE Breeding heavy horses—Selection—Pedigree .... 56 CHAPTER VI THE CARE OF MARE AND FOAL THEIR MANAGEMENT FROM SPRING TO WINTER Period of gestation—Selection—Age at which to breed from Registration of brood mares—Disease—FoaUng season Weather—Weaning—Septic laminitis . • 59 — 6 THE HORSE CHAPTER VII THE SADDLE HORSE OR RIDER Hacks and hackneys—Manners—Vice—British bred horses— page Height—Colour—Ponies—Plain and showy horses—Sound- ness——The Cleveland Bay—The light van and tradesman's horse ^The hunter . -65 CHAPTER VIII BUYING A LIGHT HORSE AND WHAT TO AVOID IN SELECTING THE SAMEj Judgment—Source of purchase—Soundness—Welsh ponies — •• Points to note ^Vice—Common afflictions . -77 CHAPTER IX THE AGE OF THE HORSE AS INDICATED BY THE TEETH, ETC. How to distinguish horses of different ages—Physical signs of age—^Teeth—Gums—Method of approximating age in horses 82 CHAPTER X VICE Vice . 91 CHAPTER XI LAMENESS IN THE HORSE Predisposition—Acute or chronic—Searching for cause—Principal causes—Rheumatic arthritis—Dislocations and fractures . 93 CHAPTER XII SHOES AND SHOEING PREPARATION OF THE FOOT Shoeing—The Farrier—Hot and cold fittings—Wear of shoes Machine-made shoes—Preparation of foot—Weights of shoes —Nail holes—^Leather soles—Frost nails—Lameness . 98 CHAPTER XIII THE FOOT IN HEALTH AND DISEASE Sound feet indispensable—Concussion and bad shoeing—Grading of feet—Various features in health and disease—Structure of the feet—Laminitis or founder—General management and treatment—Navicular disease—Sandcrack—False quarter—Canker of the foot—^Thrush—Side-bone—Cutting or brushing—Forging—Bruised heel . .102 — CONTENTS 7 CHAPTER XIV FACTS OF GENERAL INTEREST The pulse—The temperature—The breathing—Physicking horses page —Administering medicine to horses—BUstering and firing Fomentation—Feeding sick horses—Castration of colts HeaUng ointment—Wound lotion—Lotion for sore backs and saddle gall—Tonic powders—Saline fever powders . 121 CHAPTER XV ANATOMICAL OUTLINES OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HORSE The skeleton—The muscular system—The internal structure ol a horse—The respiratory system—The digestive system The urinary and genitive organs . 1 30 CHAPTER XVI , SPECIFIC INFECTIVE DISEASES Catarrh — Chronic catarrh — Strangles — Influenza — Epizootic celluUtis or "pink eye"—Glanders—Farcy or cutaneous glanders—Anthrax—Tetanus—Joint-ill or arthritis in foals Rheumatism—Purpura—Infectious stomatitis—Tuberculosis —Actinomycosis . .146 CHAPTER XVII AFFECTIONS OF THE RESPIRATORY AND CIRCULATORY SYSTEMS Roaring—Thick wind—Broken wind—Chronic cough—Sore throat—Pneumonia—Septic pneumonia—Formalin in pneumonia—Pleurisy—The heart and its functions . .164 CHAPTER XVIII SOME COMPLAINTS OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS Shear-mouth—The horse bee—Worms—CoHc—Diarrhoea and scour in foals—Lymphangitis or weed . , . i73 CHAPTER XIX SOME AFFECTIONS OF URINARY ORGANS Azoturia Diabetes or excessive urination . .180 CHAPTER XX THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND SOME AFFECTIONS OF THE SAME Stringhalt—Shivering—Epilepsy or vertigo . .183 — 8 THE HORSE CHAPTER XXI DISEASES OF BONES, JOINTS, TENDONS AND LIGAMENTS Slipped shoulder—Splint—Causes of splint—^treatment—Ring- page bone—Open joint—Septic arthritis—Bursal enlargements or JJy^; wind-galls—Bog-spavin and thoro-pin—Curb—Bone-spavin —Sprained tendons and ligaments—Treatment of same . 185 CHAPTER XXn SOME SKIN AFFECTIONS Epizootic lymphangitis—Ulcerative cellulitis—Psoroptic, sar- coptic and symbiotic mange—Causes of mange—Recurrent mange—Parasitic mange order—Treatment of mange Rules to be followed for the prevention and cu1"e of mange in horses—Lice—Ringworm—Causes of ringworm—Collar and saddle gall—Mud rash—Cracked heels—Grease—Nettle rash .......... 196 CHAPTER XXIII THE EYE AND SOME COMMON AFFECTIONS Injuries to the eyehds—Ophthalmia—^Treatment and management of same—Recurrent or specific ophthalmia—Opacity of the cornea—Cataract . , . ,216 CHAPTER XXIV WOUNDS, FRACTURES AND DISLOCATIONS Various kinds of wounds—Broken knee—Picked-up nail Treatment of wounds—Fractures—Various kinds of fractures .....••••• 223 CHAPTER XXV SOMETHING CONCERNING ORGANIC AND INORGANIC POISONS Yew poisoning—Foxglove poisoning—Deadly nightshade—The hemlocks—Arsenic and antimony . • . • 229 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Points of the Horse THE HORSE IN HEALTH, ACCIDENT AND DISEASE CHAPTER I STABLES AND STABLE CONSTRUCTION HYGIENE OF THE STABLE Those who study the welfare of their horses will endeavour to see that their animals are comfortably housed, though, unfortunately, a large proportion of stables are anything but satisfactory. Some horse owners seem to have an idea that any sort of hovel is good enough to keep a horse in, but there can be no greater mistake, and no man can ever expect an animal to look well or perform its work satisfactorily if it is kept in a cold or a damp stable, without drainage or sanitation of any kind. Every well-constructed stable should have its inlet for pure air and its outlet for impure, be eihciently drained, and provided with proper flooring. Makeshift floors are never any use, and prove to be the most expensive in the long run. Existing stables, deficient in their internal arrangements, can very often be materiaUy improved by slight additional cost. The best site for a stable is one on a gravel soil, with the front of the stable facing the south or south-west. If there is a slight natural elevation of the ground, so much the better. The walls can be constructed of wood, corrugated iron, brick, reinforced concrete, or stone, the last-named being the best of all, unless exception be taken to reinforced 12 THE HORSE concrete. All wooden stables, no matter how soundly constructed, are cold in the winter ; and so are corrugated iron ones, with the additional disadvantage of being too hot in summer. For temporary stables both these materials may suffice. The roof, if a concrete stable, should either be slated or tiled, preferably the former. The best material for the floor is concrete, or else vitrified stable paving. The latter, or something of a similar nature, is used in all the best stables. A floor set with this kind of paving is almost indestructible and certainly the cleanest. Ordinary bricks, * asphalt, and wood are not suitable for stable floors or, at any rate, should never form permanent stable flooring. In laying the floor, the drainage should be on the surface and slope towards a surface drain at the foot of the stall, which conveys the liquid into a well-trapped drain outside the stable. The drain inside the building may either be open or closed, with a surface grating, for preference the latter. A great deal of care should be bestowed upon the construction of the floor, otherwise it will never be satisfactory. For instance, if there is too much of a gradient in the stalls, fluid excreta runs away too quickly and leaves particles of solid matter behind. If, on the other hand, the fall is insufficient, the drainage becomes inefficient. The author hkes to see good roomy stalls in a stable, and not only roomy, but lengthy, say eight feet from the head to the foot of the stall. Half the stalls one sees in stables are much too short and too narrow, and quite incapable of accommodating a heavy draught horse. The width of each stall should be not less than six feet six inches. Given these dimensions, a horse can he down comfortably and rise properly, whereas in a narrow stall it will some- times be cast and unable to rise. The space available will, of course, have all the bearing upon the size and arrange- ment of stalls, loose boxes, etc. Neither the harness room nor the coach house should communicate directly with the stable, as the vapour from the latter is detrimental to STABLES AND STABLE CONSTRUCTION 13 harness and carriage appointments. A loose box or two forms a valuable addition to any stable, detached loose boxes being the best. Many stables are fitted with one or more loose boxes at each end of the stable, or some- where in the building. These are useful for the " segrega- tion '' of a horse, but when the loose boxes are detached from the main building a sick animal can be isolated. The inlet for fresh air should be by means of ventilating windows, i.e. the lower portion closed and the upper open, so that there is a constant current of pure air passing into the stable, and foul air passing out through a ventilating shaft in the roof.

Load more