HEALTH FACTORS IN MORSE MANAGMENT.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 7, 18 September 1906, Page 8

HEALTH FACTORS IN MORSE MANAGMENT.

By S. S. CAMERON, M R.C.V.S., in the “Agricultural Journal of .Victoria.?^

I \ No. 1. Although by. constant association with them, most horsemen acquire an instinctive comprehension of the normal and healthy features of their charges, it may be well to set down in definite terms what are the signs and habits of health in horses before dealing with the conditions which may indued an abnormal change, or with the methods and practices in management which may make for the prevention of such a change.

SIGNS AND HABITS OF HEALTH IN HORSES. Attitude.—Stands with feet flat on ground, limbs placed evenly side by side, with equal bearing and weight on each. The horse occasionally “stands at ease" by resting the hind limbs alternately—the joints are partly flexed, the fetlock is knuckled, the heel raised, and the toe rests lightly on the ground. The fore limbs are never so rested in health.

Rests at night and during the day, when undisturbed, by lying down with the knees and hocks flexed, and the body inclining slightly to one side.

Rises by raising the forequarters first, then gathers the hind limbs under the body, and springs to the upright position. Gait.—Even and rythmical movement of limbs, and even distribution of weight. Appetite. When stabled .—Eager desire for food—as distinguished from greediness or laconic picking—at regular feeding times. Desire for variant foods such as carrots, green stuff, grass, and the like. Refusal of mouldy or coarse food, also bones, lime, sand, earth, and rubbish. Slow rhythmic grinding of the bolus of food.

,Jn paddock.—Almost continuously grazing and moving, except when attention arrested, or when engaged in play, or seeking shade from sun. or shelter from wind or rain. Healthy working horses usually roll when just turned out ; whinnying at familiar sounds, or when alarmed, is indulged ih at intervals. Coat.—Sleek, flat, glossy, and even (no harness marks) when groomed ; greasy,to the touch vwhen not. Skin.— Supple and loose to handle, clean and free from scurf when groomed ; scurfy when ungroomed. Pigment (black) in most horses. Equable warmth and sensibility to touch all over. Ears,—Mobile, alert, and evenly pricked.

Eyes.—Eyeball bright and glistening, without excess of moisture or tears ; sensitive to touch approach of finger. Pupil transparent, in shape oval or oblong, with rounded ends ; sensitive to light contracting in a bright light and dilating in darkness. White of eye (sclerotic coat) clear, even white ; not bloodshot or tinged with yellow or other colour.

Haw of eye and conjunctiva (lining of eyelids), carnation red, and moist. Eyelids mobile and sensitive. Lips. —Mobile, dry, smooth,-velvety, and sensitive to the touch.

Nostrils—Dry, except for an occasional drop of moisture below the tear duct.

Mouth.—Lining dull pink colour, moist and free from clamminess. Teeth, Incisors free from chipping or signs of wear, except on nipping surface ; molars, even grinding surfaces, free from jaggedness at edges and from decay. Gums, Upper bars level with teeth, soft and springy, but not tense, painful, or swollen, except during teething. Tongue, Mobile, moist, and free from furriness.

Visible Mucus Membranes (lining of nostrils, eyelids, and vulva).—Carnation red in colour, and moist.

Hoofs.—Shape, approaching the circular on the ground surface ; the hind hoofs are somewhat more oval. The natural angle at which the front of the hoof meets the ground at the toe is about 50deg. in the fore feet, and 55deg. in the hind feet, the latter being more upright and having usually higher heels. Wall, the surface of the wall should be even, smooth, and polished, free from cracks, rings, or uneveness of growth Heels, broad and open. Bars, strong and thick, to afford bearing surface for heel of shoe. Frog, broad, full, and springy, free from moisture and foetid smell ; should show signs of wear by contact with ground. Sole, dry and flakey ; free from moisture ; absence of softness and powdering texture. The hoof horn should be tough and yielding, not rigid, brittle or “shelly." The off and near hoofs should be uniform in size and shape. Anus.—Full and prominent in young horses ; clean and free from scurf and scales.

Defaecation.—Moderate frequency of bowel movements—the average being 10 or 12 times in 24 hours—unaccompanied by fetid flatus and without unpleasant smell. Faeces (dung). Quantity.—From 25 to 35 lb. during the 24 hours, a greater bulk being passed during the night than the day time. Appearance moderately dry and balled with moderately firm coherence of particles but without gluey consistence or coating; free from whole grain or only partially disintegrated food particles ; colour corresponding with character of feed. (Balled faeces of normal cohesion float in water.) Urination.—Desire to “stale" on returning to the stable or on being bedded down.

Urine.—Quantity varies according to diet and activities, being less in horses at work ; average about nine pints a day, passed at three or four stalings. Appearance, yellowish red or straw colour, and turbid, without excess of sediment, blood tinge, sliminess, or foetid odour. The urine of mares in season has an oilv consistency.

Temperature.—lnternal, lOOdeg. F. to lOldeg. F. External, moderate | and even warmth of body surface ; : warmth of ears, extremities (pasI terns and cannons), and hoofs uniform. j Pulse.—From 35 to 45 beats per minute. i Breathing.—From 12 to 15 respirations per minute. Even rhythmical rise and fall of ribs and flank ; absence of tifting cough or other noise, and of double flank heave on sharp exercise. CAUSATION OF DISEASE. * There ore a variety of matters . which have a mote or Urn important

raent; matters which, taken singly, may perhaps be considered of little moment, but which, taken together, make all the difference between success and failure. The care, experience, time, and money spent in breeding and rearing horses are practically wasted if the stock is not maintained sound and healthy. If unsound or diseased, horses arc unprofitable financially and useless economically. Methods and practices which have for their object the maintainance of health and soundness hinge so largely on a knowledge of the causation of disease that it will be well to touch lightly on that aspect of the question first, for the old medical axiom, “Remove the cause and the effect shall cease," is as true of disease prevention as it is of s disease treatment. It is not intended to deal with the actI ual causes of disease, such as germs, poisons, injuries accidents, and the like, but rather with those conditions which may be said to constitute predisposing causes of disease, i.e., those factors which render animals exposed to them more suseptible to the attack of actual disease causes, or which have a tendency to undermine the natural vigour and disease-resist-ing robustness of the constitution. Leaving aside, as being beyond the control of the horse-breeder such predisposing causes of disease as climate and locality, the subject of overstocking may be first dealt with. OVER-STOCKING.

Apart from the ill effects of continuous grazing in the way of soil exhaustion, and apart also from the actual fouling of the herbage by excess of animal discharges, and worms and parasites which they, contain, over-stocking has the further disadvantage that the good grasses are continuously eaten off as they shoot into growth, and are thus prevented from seeding. In this way the extirpation of much wholesome and nutritious herbage is hastened. At the same time useless, and perhaps actually harmful and noxious plants which are not eaten by stock until the pastures are bare of the more valuable grasses, are permitted to flourish and seed, until eventually the unnutritious plants predominate owing to the good grasses having been eaten out. A familiar illustration of this is the gradual usurpation of a pasture by Yorkshire fog grass. Wherever this grass is sown with sweeter grasses, the latter are eaten down continually, while the fog is neglected by stock owing to its harshness and, being a strong grower, it soon takes possession of the pasture. Even in times of plenty tho folly of overstocking is not less acute, for then the less valuable and noxious plants are left still more severely alone by stock, and they then propagate and spread their baneful presence over the whole pasture, occupying ground that would otherwise accommodate herbage of a more nutritious character.

FOOD AND WATER. The food and water supplies are important factors in the maintaining of the health of stock. On the one hand excess of food, either in quantity or quality, may predispose an animal to indigestion, colic, congestion of the liver and like derangements of the digestive functions, and' on the other hand, lack of food or starvation, by inducing debility, will lay the system open to the successful attack of germs and other direct causes of disease. Unsuitability of food is equally likely to pave the way for disease. Feeding on musty hay, for example, for a lengthened period, will, if it does not actually cause the disease, at all events precipitate an attack of asthma or broken wind. Now hay and partially fermented chopped foods are notorious as auxiliary, causes of colic and other bowel disturbances.

While it may be admitted that horses do not require that their food should be varied to tho extent requisite in man or other omnivorous animals, all experience points to the advisability of an occasional chango of food. A diet which is suitable in the depth of winter is not calculated to be health-maintaining during the excessive heat of summer, yet the wheaten or oaten hay or chaff ration is seldom altered ; and, if supplemented, it is by the addition of oats or bran, by which the monotony is not varied. The want of variety is rarely relieved by the giving of carrots or other alterative food, and it is very exceptional for barley, maize, beans, peas, or linseed foods to be used. At certain seasons green stuff may be given, but, consisting as it usually does of young oats, it is no change, such as an occasional feed of green vetches, peas, beans, or prairie grass would be. What has been said regarding food in excess or deficiency may apply also to water, although animals will rarely take an excess of water if they are allowed continual access to it. On many, extensive grazing areas throughout Australia, and particularly during drought periods, the only available supply of water is that contained in natural water-holes or artificial tanks. Such stagrant water is always highly charged with vegetable growth, and often with the urine and excrement of animals putrid and filthy, and it'forms an ideal developing medium for legions of worms and other parasites. Contaminated water, by virtue of the organic matters and microbes it contains, is often an exciting cause of disease. Indeed, there are grounds for believing that the influence of contaminated water in the propagation of various epizootic diseases, has not been given sufficient weight. ENVIRONMENT.

The environment of animals has also an important bearing on their freedom from disease. Unwholesome sqrroundings may, according to their character and intensity, either excite disease or predispose the animal to an attack. Vitiated atmosphere as a result of deficient ventilation and air flushing is often a contributory cause of pneumonia, influenza, and other debilitating diseases in stabled horses. So noticeable is the effect of insanitary surroundings on the occurrence and spread of certain diseases that it has become customery to group them together under the term “filth diseases." By this is meant not so much that filth in itself will cause these diseases, as that their causitive germs will find in the unclean surroundings—deposits of dung, manure, and rubbish, stagnant drainage, and the like—ideal conditions for maintaining germ life. As instances of such filth diseases in horses, lockjaw and influenza may be mentioned. Want of cleanly surroundings, especially of working hones, encourages skin diseases such mi mature, eczema, maUcnflers, crook-

ed; neeis, mud fever, and grease.; Want of shelter from cold and rain, or want of clothing by preventing the conservation of' bodily heat, and want of shade from excessive sun heat by retarding radiation of bodily heat, all influence the natural vigor of the animal prejudicially, and so predispose to disease. HEREDITY.

The influence of heredity is well known to be potent for good or bad, according as the parents are sound and healthy, or unsound and diseased With the majority, of diseases that are classed as hereditary, such as roaring, broken wind, spavin, curb, navicular disease, ringbone, cataract, &c., it is the tendency to develop the particular disease which is inherited, and not the disease itself. In-breeding, which is closely allied to heredity, tends to accentuate characteristics, and may occasionally be practiced with advantage, but intimate knowledge with its laws is necessary to prevent deterioration of constitution. Nearness of blood relationship (called consanguinity) emphasizes the tendency to development of hereditary defects, so that where disease exists in a family, close breeding should be rigidly avoided. The bringing together of strains which each possess, unsuitable characteristics or a tendency to contract the same disease is very unwise for the same reason, viz., the likelihood of such characteristics or tendencies being accentuated in the progeny. Cross-breeding will at first favour increase of vigor, but much harm may ensue through want of knowledge of the effects of prepotency in sire or dam or through injudicious mating.