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
Fainting is a symptom that is not often seen in horses. When it occurs
it is shown by unsteadiness of gait, tottering, and, finally, inability
to stand. The cause usually lies in a defect of the small brain, or
cerebellum. This defect may be merely in respect of the blood supply, to
congestion, or to anemia, and in this case it is likely to pass away and
may never return, or it may be due to some permanent cause, as a tumor
or an abscess, or it may result from a hemorrhage, from a defect of the
valves of the heart, or from poisoning.
Loss of consciousness is known as coma. It is caused by hemorrhage in
the brain, by profound exhaustion, or may result from a saturation of
the system with the poison of some disease. Coma may follow upon
cerebral depression, which occurs as a secondary state of inflammation
of the brain.
Where the sensibility of a part is increased the condition is known as
hyperesthesia, and where it is lost--that is, where there is no feeling
or knowledge of pain--the condition is known as anesthesia. The former
usually accompanies some chronic disease of the spinal cord or the
earlier stages of irritation of a nerve trunk. Hyperesthesia is
difficult to detect in a nervous, irritable animal, and sometimes even
in a horse of less sensitive temperament. An irritable, sensitive spot
may be found surrounded by skin that is not sensitive to pressure. This
is sometimes a symptom of beginning of inflammation of the brain.
Anesthesia occurs in connection with cerebral and spinal paralysis,
section of a nerve trunk leading to a part, in severe mental depression,
and in narcotic poisoning.
URINARY AND SEXUAL ORGANS.
In considering the examination of the urinary and sexual organs we may
consider, at the beginning, a false impression that prevails to an
astonishing extent. Many horsemen are in the habit of pressings upon the
back of a horse over the loins or of sliding the ends of the fingers
along on either side of the median line of this region. If the horse
depresses his back it is at once said "his kidneys are weak." Nothing
could be more absurd or further from the truth. Any healthy horse--any
horse with normal sensation and with a normally flexible back--will
cause it to sink when manipulated in this way. If the kidneys are
inflamed and sensitive, the back is held more rigidly and is not
depressed under this pressure.
To examine the kidneys by pressure the pressure should be brought to
bear over these organs. The kidneys lie beneath the ends of the
transverse processes of the vertebrae of the loins and beneath the
hind-most ribs. If the kidneys are actually inflamed and especially
sensitive, pressure or light blows applied here may cause the horse to
shrink.
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