The simple ailments of horses by WF Author:William Fearnley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 155 HOW TO NUESE A SICK HOESE. Those who undertake this delicate task can never lose sight of certain facts. In the first place, the sense of smell in the ... more »horse in health is highly acute, but rendered even more acute in disease. This, coupled with the fact that he is at all times a dainty feeder—taking care to examine every meal beforehand by the sense of smell—renders it a nurse's foremost duty to secure absolute cleanliness in mixing, cooking, and presenting food to the horse, especially in the lowest statea of sickness. Every utensil must be spotlessly clean and free from smell; the hand even must not come in contact with the food, if this can be avoided. Up to this moment those responsible for the nursing of sick horses too often use the stereotyped order, " Give a bran- mash and aired water," in every case requiring sick diet. It would be an insult to the reader's common sense to explain that this treatment is barbarous to the last degree, and sacrifices lives that might be saved. A large, sour, bran-mash, in a sour, wooden manger, is found the day after it was placed there quite untouched by the poor sick creature; and, often with coarse language, and even blows, it is exchanged for a fresh mash made of the same insipid materials, and placed in the same sour place just occupied by the disgusting mess there before it. The horse dies, and the doctor's drugs have failed to save him ! ! The next grade of intelligence above the foregoing, or below it—the author is not sure which—thinks of port wine and brandy. What sour bran-mashes have failed to do, perhaps fire-water will effect; then the diet is as follows :a mash every morning, with wine or brandy night and morning. In the lowest depths of sickness, when life is thus trembling in the balance, very few think of the sl...« less