The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

216 The Management and Treatment of the Horse,
no account have a quantity of water given it directly
after a hard journey ; one quart of water is quite enough
until the animal has had some corn or sweet hay, then
more water and more food may be given with safety.
Again, in washing the horse it is always better to let the
dirt remain on than to wash it and not rub it perfectly
dry. Many owners of horses will not allow their horses to be
washed after a hard run with the hounds, upon the
ground of preventing the chances of inflammation. It is
not the washing that induces it so much as the neglect
of rubbing dry. When this complaint is accompanied
by excessive purging with great pain, astringent medicine
should not be administered. All kinds of food should
be denied it, and in its stead mve gruel a decoction of
linseed, thin starch or arrowroot, and a strong solution of
gum-arabic ; clysters of warm gruel should also be given,
in which a quarter of an ounce of aloes is mixed. Some
prefer from six ounces to half-a-pound of Epsom salts.
Those should be administered with the clyster-pipe ;
Heid's patent pump is by far the best, but a good and
cheap pipe can be made of a piece of elder and an ox-
bladder. Take a piece of elder about a foot long, and
after taking out the pith, tie the bladder on one end,
and pour your gruel into the bladder, then force the
stick of elder up the rectum and withdraw gently, the
suction will nearly empty the bladder. If the irritation
and continuation of pain continue after twelve or four-
teen hours have elapsed, it will be necessary to give the
following gruel in two quarts :—Prepared chalk one
ounce, catechu four ounces, opium two scruples. This
should be repeated every four hours until the purging