And now we will pass on to review a few cases among the EQUIENS.
The majority of horses that come under treatment in large cities and urban districts are the subjects of one or more of the many forms of lameness, and next to lameness, first in numerical importance among the diseases is colic, a sort of hybrid pathological designation, which is made to state in ordinarys table aparlance to describe every description of part affecting the abdomen of the horse from whatever cause such pain may be due; it no doubt originated from a spasmodic condition affecting that portion of the intestinal canal known as the colon, and when the pain really is located in that quarter the appellation is very appropriate; but whereas the causes and precise seats of pain in the abdomen of the horse are numerous and varied, in an equally varied degree must the practitioner prescribe, if he is to successfully combat this many-sided form of disease.
Unfortunately for horses and their owners, practitioners are far too apt to generalise when prescribing for abdominal pain, instead of precising according to the totality of the symptoms presented, while stablemen, and indeed, many owners only too readily fall into the error of imagining that such a thing as a specific is in their possession for abdominal pain, as though there was only one cause and one remedy for the same, and for this reason many are the horses that are lost that might other- wise be saved for years of useful labour.
The causes and the seats of lameness are so numerous that it would serve but little purpose to occupy space with an account of any particular case, suffice it to say that while I do not by any means discard the use of the actual cautery in old-standing chronic cases of lameness where the exuded inflammatory lymph has become formed material around the sheaths of tendons, at the same time I never resort to the operation if milder measures will suffice, more especially as the latter under many conditions are more effective and rapid in their results.
There is one form of disease which, especially in racing and hunting stables, has proved a veritable bugbear and has inflicted no end of pecuniary loss and mental disappointment on owners; I refer to so-called roaring; in stable parlance this term is applied to every horse which called upon to gallop, can be distinctly heard to make a rasping or whistling noise, which may in time develop into an absolute roar, in the act either of inspiration or of expiration, or it may be of both acts according to the degree which the disease has attained.
There are various causes for this condition of things, but from whatever cause it arises; there is no doubt that the horse, where required to put forth considerable physical exertion in its employment, is materially deteriorated in value, in as much as, let the cause be what it may, the free ingress to and egress from the lungs of the requisite oxygen is in a greater or less degree interfered with.
I do not propose to go into the various causes which may give rise to the production of abnormal noise during the respiratory act in the horse, but I may point out that where it assumes its worst form, and as understood by veterinary surgeons, it is denominated roaring.
It is due to a wasting of the laryngeal muscles usually of the left or near side, which muscles serve to act upon that portion of the larynx, surgically designated the arytenoid cartilage; in consequence of this wasting (due to lack of nerve excitation) of the muscles, the cartilage loses its support and falls inwards, this obstructing the free passage of air, hence the noise produced in the course of respiration; as there must be a cause for such wasting of the laryngeal muscle, I feel sure that the generally accepted reason, namely.
Paralysis of the recurrent nerve, is that cause; and I am confirmed in the belief, as I find a certain drug which by Hahnemann is credited with the power of acting destructively upon nerve-fibre, is the very remedy which is capable of alleviating this condition in the horse, and I have reason to know from experience that the said drug is capable of producing a degenerative change in the nerve roots and fibres very similar to that which post mortem examination reveals in the recurrent nerve in cases of horses that have been the subject of roaring; furthermore, I have tested the value of this therapeutic theory and have invariably obtained successful results from its application to horses that have made a noise.
Success having thus followed the treatment of such an obstinate disease, one that has baffled the best efforts of the most noted practitioners of the allopathic school of veterinary medicine, no one will be surprised to learn that in the case of ordinary idiopathic disease an equally large proportion of successes follow the adoption of homoeopathic practice among horses.
Other common diseases of the HORSES and their Remedies*
*Doses same as of the cows. are:-
Abortion–Arnica, China, Pulsatilla, Rhus Tox, Sabina, Secale.
Abscess–Aconite (in the beginning when abscess is forming, with much inflammation); Hepar (when abscess is formed and resolution is delayed); Arnica (when due to injury); Arsenicum (thick pus of bad smell and color); Mercurius (pus dark and thin).
Diarrhoea–Arsenicum (due to green or unwholesome food); Bryonia (alternated with constipation); Carbo Veg. (very offensive discharge); Chamomilla (greenish evacuations); China (when intermittent); Colocynth (appearing Dysentery, with evacuations of slime and blood) Dulcamara (when taken cold, after getting wet in summer, with watery evacuations, accompanied with colic); Pulsatilla (frequent evacuations, full of air bubbles); Sulphur, alternated with Arsenicum (bloody and very offensive evacuations; also in chronic cases).
Farcy (Glanders or Oedematous Swelling of the Feet)–Aconite, Arsenicum, China, Dulcamara, Kali bichromicum Rhus Tox., Thuja.
Fatigue–Arnica (internally and also bandage feet with cloth dipped in Arnica Solution, 1; 20 parts of water).
A dose of Nux Vomica if there is loss of appetite, Calendula (if there is passing of bloody urine after violent exercise).
Indigestion–Antimonium Crudum; Arsenicum (long-standing cases); Bryonia; China (in young horses); Ipecacuanha (with vomiting); Nux Vomica (stupid, drowsy state, stands long time without changing position); Silicea (sweat from least exertion); Sulphur (an intercurrent remedy for every stage of the disease).
Injuries–Same as of the cows (vide Page 23).
Mang Sulphur (six drops, once daily, for 2 to 3 weeks).
Parturition, difficult–Arnica (every two hours, until relief); when with febrile symptoms, alternate with Aconite.
Retention of Urine–Aconite, alternated with Cantharis–in the beginning; Cannabis, Hyoscyamus or Lycopodium–in obstinate cases.
Urine, blood–Aconite (in the beginning); Arnica (when due to injury); Cannabis (after violent straining); Cantharis (frequent and painful emissions); Dulcamara (when due to exposure to wet); Mercurius (profuse discharge, with sweating).
Warts–Thuja (6 drops internally, twice a day and application of strong tincture externally also twice a day); Arsenicum, Calcarea Carb. or Causticum may also be required.
