operate most freely in restoring health. This can best be rendered
in the form of nursing, which sick animals greatly appreciate.
However indifferent a horse may be to caressing or kind attention
Nursing.
during health, when ill he certainly appreciates both,
and when in pain will often apparently endeavour to attract notice
and seek relief from those with whom he is familiar. Fresh air and
cleanliness, quiet and comfort, should always be secured, if possible.
The stable or loose-box should be warm, without being close, and
free from draughts. If the weather is cold, and especially if the
horse is suffering from inflammation of the air-passages, it may be
necessary to keep up the temperature by artificial means; but great
care should be taken that this does not render the air too dry to
breathe. The surface of the body can be kept warm by rugs, and
the legs by woollen bandages. Yet a sick horse is easily fatigued
and annoyed by too much clothing, and therefore it is better to
resort to artificial heating of the stable than to overload the body
or impede movement by heavy wrappings. If blankets are used, it
is well to place a cotton or linen sheet under them, should the horse
have an irritable skin. For bedding, long straw should be employed
as little as possible, since it hampers movement. Clean old litter,
sawdust or peat-moss litter is the best. If the hoofs are strong,
and the horse likely to be confined for some weeks, it affords relief
to take off the shoes. Tying up should be avoided, if possible,
unless it is urgently required, the horse being allowed to move
about or lie down as he may prefer.
When a sick horse has lost his appetite, he should be tempted to eat by offering him such food as will be enticing to him. It should Food for a sick horse. be given frequently and in small quantities, but should not be forced on him; food will often be taken if offered from the hand, when it will not be eaten out of the manger. Whether the animal be fed from a bucket or from a manger, any food that is left should be thrown away, and the receptacle well cleaned out after each meal. As a rule, during sickness a horse requires laxative food, in order to allay fever or inflammatory symptoms, while supporting the strength. The following list comprises the usual laxative foods employed: green grass, green wheat, oats and barley, lucerne, carrots, parsnips, gruel, bran mash, linseed and bran mash, boiled barley, linseed tea, hay tea and linseed oil. Green grass, lucerne, and similar articles of food if cut when in a wet state, should be dried before being given. Boiled grain should be cooked with very little water, so that it may be floury and comparatively dry when ready; a little salt should be mixed with it. One gallon of good gruel may be made with a pound of meal and cold water, which should be stirred till it boils, and afterwards permitted to simmer over a gentle fire till the fluid is quite thick. To make a bran mash, scald a stable bucket, throw out the water, put in 3 ℔ of bran and 1 oz. of salt, add 2½ pints of boiling water, stir up well, cover over and allow the mash to stand for fifteen or twenty minutes until it is well cooked. For a bran and linseed mash, boil slowly for two or three hours 1 ℔ of linseed, so as to have about a couple of quarts of thick fluid, to which 2 ℔ of bran and 1 oz. of salt may be added. The whole should be stirred up, covered over and allowed to steam as before described. The thicker the mash the more readily will the horse eat it. Linseed tea is made by boiling 1 ℔ of linseed in a couple of gallons of water until the grains are quite soft. It may be economically made by using less water to cook the linseed, and afterwards making up the quantity of water to about a gallon and a half. Hay tea may be prepared by filling a bucket, after scalding it, with good sweet hay, pouring in as much boiling water as the bucket will hold, covering it over, and allowing it to stand until cold, when the fluid may be strained off and given to the horse. This forms a refreshing drink. Linseed oil, in quantities of from 1 oz. to 6 oz. daily, may be mixed with the food; it keeps the bowels in a lax condition, has a good effect on the skin and air passages, and is useful as an article of diet. When debility has to be combated, as in low fever or other weakening diseases, strengthening and other easily digested food must be administered, though some of the foods already mentioned, such as boiled grain, answer this purpose to a certain extent. Milk, eggs, bread and biscuits, malt, corn, &c., are often prescribed with this object. Milk may be given skimmed or unskimmed; a little sugar may be mixed with it; and one or two gallons may be given daily, according to circumstances. One or two eggs may be given beaten up with a little sugar and mixed with milk, three or four times a day, or more frequently; or they may be boiled hard and powdered, and mixed in the milk. A quart of stout, ale or porter may be given two or three times a day, or a half to one bottle of port wine daily. Scalded oats, with a little salt added, are very useful when convalescence is nearly completed. As a rule, a sick horse should have as much water as he likes to drink, though it may be necessary in certain cases to restrict the quantity, and to have the chill taken off; but it should never be wanner than 75° to 80°.
As little grooming as possible should be allowed when a horse is very weak; it should be limited to sponging the mouth, nostrils, eyes and forehead with clean water, to which a little eucalyptus or sanitas may be added. Rub the legs and ears with the hand, take off the clothing, and shake or change it once a day, and if agreeable rub over the body with a soft cloth. Exercise is of course not required during sickness or injury, and the period at which it is allowed will depend upon circumstances. Care must be taken that it is not ordered too early, or carried too far at first.
Much care is required in administering medicines in the form of ball or bolus; and practice, as well as courage and tact, is needed Administration of medicine. in order to give it without danger to the administrator or the animal. The ball should be held between the fingers of the right hand, the tips of the first and fourth being brought together below the second and third, which are placed on the upper side of the ball; the right hand is thus made as small as possible, so as to admit of ready insertion into the mouth. The left hand grasps the horse's tongue, gently pulls it out and places it on that part of the right side of the lower jaw which is bare of teeth. With the right hand the ball is placed at the root of the tongue. The moment the right hand is withdrawn, the tongue should be released. This causes the ball to be carried still farther back. The operator then closes the mouth and watches the left side of the neck, to note the passage of the ball down the gullet. Many horses keep a ball in the mouth a considerable time before they will allow it to go down. A mouthful of water or a handful of food will generally make them swallow it readily. It is most essential to have the ball moderately soft; nothing can be more dangerous than a hard one.
To administer a drink or drench requires as much care as giving a ball, in order to avoid choking the horse, though it is unattended with risk to the administrator. An ordinary glass or stone bottle may be used, providing there are no sharp points around the mouth; but either the usual drenching-horn or a tin vessel with a narrow mouth or spout is safer. It is necessary to raise the horse's head, so that the nose may be a little higher than the horizontal line. The drink must be given by a person standing on the right side (the attendant being in front or on the left side of the horse), the cheek being pulled out a little, to form a sack or funnel, into which the medicine is poured, a little at a time, allowing an interval now and again for the horse to swallow. If any of the fluid gets into the windpipe (which it is liable to do if the head is held too high), it will cause coughing, whereupon the head should be instantly lowered. Neither the tongue nor the nostrils should be interfered with. Powders may be given in a little mash or gruel, well stirred up, or in the drinking water.
If a wide surface is to be fomented (as the chest, abdomen or loins), a blanket or other large woollen cloth should be dipped in water as hot as the hand can comfortably bear it, moderately wrung out and applied to the part, the heat and moisture being retained by covering it with a waterproof sheet or dry rug. When it has lost some of its heat, it should be removed, dipped in warm water and again applied. In cases of acute inflammation, it may be necessary to have the water a little hotter; and, to avoid the inconvenience of removing the blanket, or the danger of chill when it is removed, it may be secured round the body by skewers or twine, the hot water being poured on the outside of the top part of the blanket by any convenient vessel. To foment the feet, they should be placed in a bucket or tub (the latter with the bottom resting wholly on the ground) containing warm water; a quantity of moss litter put in the tub or bucket prevents splashing and retains the heat longer. Poultices are used for allaying pain, softening horn or other tissues, and, when antiseptic, cleansing and promoting healthy Poultices. action in wounds. To be beneficial they should be large and always kept moist. For applying poultices to the feet, a piece of sacking, or better a poultice-boot, supplied by saddlers, may be used with advantage. Poultices are usually made with bran, though this has the disadvantage of drying quickly, to prevent which it may be mixed with linseed meal or a little linseed oil. Antiseptic poultices containing lysol, izal, carbolic acid or creolin, are very useful in the early treatment of foul and punctured wounds. A charcoal poultice is sometimes employed when there is an offensive smell to be got rid of. It is made by mixing linseed meal with boiling water and stirring until a soft mass is produced; with this some wood charcoal in powder is mixed, and when ready to be applied some more charcoal is sprinkled on the surface. It may be noted that, in lieu of these materials for poultices, spongiopiline can be usefully employed. A piece of sufficient size is steeped in hot water, applied to the part, covered with oiled silk or waterproof sheeting, and secured by tapes. Even an ordinary sponge, steeped in hot water and covered with waterproof material, makes a good poulticing medium; it is well adapted for the throat, the space between the branches of the lower jaw, as well as for the lower joints of the limbs.
Enemata or clysters are given in fevers, constipation, colic, &c., to empty the posterior part of the bowels. They can be administered Enemata or clysters. by a large syringe capable of containing a quart or more of water, with a nozzle about 12 in. long, or by a large funnel with a long nozzle at a right angle. Water, soap and water, or oil may be employed. To administer an enema, one of the horse's fore feet should be held up, while the operator introduces the nozzle, smeared with oil or lard, very gently and steadily into the rectum, then injects the water. The quantity injected will depend on the nature of the malady and the size of the horse; from 2 or 3 quarts to several gallons may be used.
