Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Staggers

STAGGERS, or Apoplexy, a disorder in the heads of horses, which becomes evident from the drowsiness; bad appetite; watery and inflamed eyes; and the staggering or reeling gait of the animals. The head is continually reclining on the manger; a slight fever prevails; and the discharge of urine is in a very small proportion.

If the disease arise from wounds, or blows on the head, the horse will, in addition to these symptoms, become frantic, particularly after feeding; and, if it fall down, without being able to rise, there will be little prospect of recovery.

Sometimes, the staggers proceed from colds, caught by too early turning the animal out to grass, after violent exertions: it will, therefore, be requisite to bleed him freely, and to support the head and shoulders with straw: if he survive the fit, clysters prepared from a strong decoction of senna and salt, or the purging clyster (mentioned, vol. ii. p. 490), must be administered every morning and evening. It has farther been recommended, to blow a dram of the powder of Asarabacca, once in the course of the day, into the animal's nostrils, in order to promote a discharge: after which, two or three aloetic purges (see Horse-medicines, vol. ii. p. 490) ought to be given; and, to prevent a relapse, small doses, not exceeding one ounce, and consisting of equal parts of cinnabar, antimony, and guaiacum, formed into balls, should be daily administered, for the space of a month.

When the staggers originate from fulness of blood, high feeding, or want of exercise, it is the praftice of farriers, frequently to take small quantities of blood from the horse, and to give an opening diet, together with scalded bran or barley. It appears to us, however, that such bleedings, unless in cases of urgent necessity, might be avoided; by keeping the animal on hay mixed with double its quantity of cut straw, and making him work moderately every day.

Staggers, in Sheep, is a species of apoplexy, arising from too great fulness of blood. It principally attacks young lambs, which fall down; and, if not timely relieved, they speedily perish. The mode of cure generally adopted by shepherds, is to bleed the creatures frequently in the eye-vein, and to remove them to a coarse pasture, with a view to prevent the danger of a relapse.