Special Report on Diseases of the HorseUnited States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Science
Special Report on Diseases of the Horse
United States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Horses -- Diseases
This is comparatively rare in the mare, though in some cases the udder
becomes painfully engorged before parturition, and a doughy swelling,
pitting on pressure, extends forward on the lower surface of the
abdomen. When this goes on to active inflammation, one or both of the
glands becomes enlarged, hot, tense, and painful; the milk is dried up
or replaced by a watery or reddish, serous fluid, which at times becomes
fetid; the animal walks lame, loses appetite, and shows general disorder
and fever. The condition may end in recovery, in abscess, induration,
or gangrene, and, in some cases, may lay the foundation for a tumor of
the gland.
_Treatment._--The treatment is simple so long as there is only
congestion. Active rubbing with lard or oil, or, better, camphorated
oil, and the frequent drawing off of the milk, by the foal or with the
hand, will usually bring about a rapid improvement. When active
inflammation is present, fomentation with warm water may be kept up for
an hour and followed by the application of the camphorated oil, to which
has been added some carbonate of soda and extract of belladonna. A dose
of laxative medicine (4 drams Barbados aloes) will be of service in
reducing fever, and one-half ounce saltpeter daily will serve a similar
end. In case the milk coagulates in the udder and can not be withdrawn,
or when the liquid becomes fetid, a solution of 20 grains carbonate of
soda and 10 drops carbolic acid dissolved in an ounce of water should be
injected into the teat. In doing this it must be noted that the mare has
three separate ducts opening on the summit of each teat and each must be
carefully injected. To draw off the fetid product it may be needful to
use a small milking tube, or spring teat dilator designed by the writer.
(Plate XIV, figs. 2 and 3.) When pus forms and points externally and can
not find a free escape by the teat, the spot where it fluctuates must be
opened freely with the knife and the cavity injected daily with the
carbolic-acid lotion. When the gland becomes hard and indolent, it may
be rubbed daily with iodin ointment 1 part, vaseline 6 parts.
TUMORS OF THE UDDER.
As the result of inflammation of the udder it may become the seat of an
indurated diseased growth, which may go on growing and seriously
interfere with the movement of the hind limbs. If such swellings do not
give way in their early stages to treatment by iodin, the only resort is
to cut them out with a knife. As the gland is often implicated and has
to be removed, such mares can not in the future suckle their colts and
therefore should not be bred.
SORE TEATS, SCABS, CRACKS, WARTS.
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