DREAD WIND AFFLICTION

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 95, 19 October 1933, Page 10

DREAD WIND AFFLICTION

Reference is often made to a horse's "making a noise" when galloping, but it does not necessarily-follow that such a horse is a victim of. wind affliction. True wind affliction is a dread infirmity that has defied treatment, medical and surgical, to such an extent that horses. so. affected • have invariably. been retired as soon as they have shown definite signs of the real trouble. . :. '. ;, .; '•- In the cases of .the present-day Australian champion, Chatham, he made a noise that was considered due to a wind infirmity, and as late as last autumn even his connections feared that" his career was to be ruined by the .affliction. Mr. Stuart Pottie, Sydney veterinary surgeon, was called in, and after a thorough examination,' and a special gallop, declared that Chatham was not broken-winded. His diagnosis was that the horse was suffering from an overrichness of blood. It was far too'\heavy to circulate in the normal way. His lungs never got the correct supply of •oxygen, and this often left him gasping for breath during or after working on the tracks. . •" In treatment, Mr. Pottie relieved Chatham of four quarts of blood. After that the horse was administered blood tonics, and.his improvement, after eight daystreatment, was so rapid that he was sent back, to his trainer., , After,, a-short spell he returned .to the scene bfvhis former triumphs a greater horse than hitherto. Little grain is now given Chatham. Thisj.ireverits, ,his blood from becoming too rich,- and it is certain that' he thrives ■in tbis( diet.