Diseases & disorders of the horse : a treatise on equine medicine and surgery / by Albert Gresswell and James Brodie Gresswell.

  • Gresswell, Albert.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases & disorders of the horse : a treatise on equine medicine and surgery / by Albert Gresswell and James Brodie Gresswell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    T34 posture. In very bad cases, the horse will slowly rear on his hind legs when made to move. The pulse is quick and sharp, and the breathing is hurried and distressed. If the hind feet are alone affected, the fore feet are directed backwards underneath the body. When all four feet are affected, the patient usually prefers the recumbent posture. The hoofs when felt are noticed to be much hotter than in health ; and some observers have recorded that they have seen blood ooze from the coronets. Distinct throbbing of the arteries of the pastern may also sometimes be felt. The action of a horse affected in the hind feet only, somewhat resembles that of stringhalt. If the hoof be tapped sharply, the horse manifests considerable uneasiness. Sometimes in his agony, a horse will perspire profusely and gasp for breath. The symptoms presented by a horse suffering from acute laminitis, sometimes lead to the supposition on the part of the unskilled, that it is inflammation of the lungs, which the animal is affected with. We have often been called to bad cases of so-called inflammation of the lungs, which we have found to be in reality, pure and uncomplicated attacks of “fever in the feet.” In this connection, however, it may be mentioned that horses affected with this disease, sometimes suddenly develop inflammation of the lungs or bowels, or pleurisy, or first one and then another. In pathological language, this kind of rapid change in the seat of a disease is called “ metastasis.” During the year 1883, we were called to attend a five-year old valuable dark brown hunter, the property of a dealer resident in a town in Lincolnshire. The number of respirations per minute was 74, the temperature 105° F., and the pulse 96. The disease was confined to the fore feet. As the horse was very plethoric, four quarts of blood were abstracted from the jugular vein. The animal was bled locally at the coronets. The feet were afterwards placed in a tub of hot water for over twenty-four hours. On the following day, the animal was much better, and hot bran poultices were substituted for the hot water. The pulse was now 82, and the respirations 54. On the third day, although the feet were better, the pulse was 84, and the breathing numbered 68 per minute. At this juncture, as frequently happens in acute laminitis, the horse developed all the symptoms of acute pleurisy. This complication was treated by the application of the hot pack to the chest, the internal remedies not being altered. On the fourth day, the pulse remained the same, but on the fifth and sixth days it gradually fell to 52. After this time the patient improved rapidly. On the seventh day, towards evening, the owner came in a hurry to announce that the animal was colicked. We found him to be suffering from acute inflammation of the bowels, and the pulse again rose to 80. This new complication was treated with morphia, and mustard poultices were applied to the belly. On the eighth day, there was not much alteration in the condition of the patient, but on the ninth, the pain ceased, and the pulse fell. Then, until the twelfth, the animal continued to improve. On the