DISEASES OF THE LIVER.

Diseases of the liver are somewhat rare in horses. The
probable cause is simplicity of diet. Hot climates, as in
man, seem to be conducive of equine liver disease. Liver
diseases are often insidious. They are sometimes mistaken
for lung diseases. Next to the lungs the liver seems to be
the most frequent seat of tubercles. Sometimes it is soft
or rotten and clay colored ; sometimes hard and tough, the
color, however, being natural.

INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER (HEPATITIS),

Seems to be of three kinds or degrees—the cover or
membrane, the substance of the liver, or both. Percivall
and Williams give the following

Symptoms.—Dull ; head heavy; eyes drooping and lus-
terless; occasional cough; no appetite; apparent inward
pain, but not acute ; stands up ; very feverish ; in two
or three days the fever or diffused bile causes the mouth
and eyes to become yellow, the blood golden-hued and
specked with yellow, floating particles; dung balls im­
bued with bile and sometimes coated with viscid, bilious,
mucous-like, reddish-brown matter, leaving an opium-like
stain when rubbed on white paper; urine scanty and
thick, with bilious tinge and copious sediment; may lie
on left side, but soon rises; right side tender, if not
somewhat swollen ; when standing, points (rests) the off
(right) fore limb ; pulse quick, strong, bounding; breath­
ing sometimes disturbed, sometimes not; stupid ; dizzy;
staggers; danger of apoplexy or bursting of liver.

DISEASES OF THE LIVER.                            133

Remedy.—Purgatives, salines, ammonia chloride. Ac­
onite for fever. Ipecac Foment and stimulate over liver.
Digestible, laxative food. Exercise after relief of acute
symptoms. Nitro-hydrochloric acid in chronic cases. Sa­
lines and careful dietary safer than more active remedies
when the inflammation or congestion is associated with
epizootic or other disease. For doses, see pages 13 to 29.

Congestion of the Liver.—Robertson describes three
kinds—the passive, the active, and the biliary. These,
which may be the result of lung or heart disease, sudden
chills, specific fevers, blood contamination, too much or
improper food, lack of exercise, &c., seem to be preludes
to inflammation of the liver.

Robertson also describes ‘ Scirrhosis of the Liver,’ a
chronic or subacute inflammation of the interconnective
liver tissue; ' Fatty Liver,’ ‘ Albuminoid or Lardaceous
(lard or wax) Liver,’ &c.

Liver Concretions.—Rigot found 90 concretions in
the bile ducts of a liver. The cavities were enlarged and
their walls thickened, but there were no indications of
liver disease during life. The same horse had a salivary
calculus (stone).

Hydatid Tumors of the Liver are rare. They are
bladder-like, and vary in size from a hazel-nut to an or­
ange, containing a clear fluid and numerous organisms
(mites). They cause very little if any disturbance.

Rupture of the Liver is caused by external violence,
overdistention with blood or bile, &c. Fatal.

JAUNDICE OR YELLOWS (ICTERUS).

Is a symptom of disease rather than disease itself. It
is usually attributed to either deranged bile secretion or
bile distribution. When the bile is taken into the blood

134

THE DISEASES OF THE HORSE.

instead of its natural channel—the alimentary canal—it
imparts a yellow tinge to the eyes, nose, mouth, skin,
urine, and sometimes the dung. The latter is sometimes
clay colored. Sometimes the bowels are deranged and
there is a “defective movement of the right fore limb,"
a dry, scurfy, and itchy state of the skin, loss of appe­
tite, strength, &c.

Remedy.—In ordinary cases light, digestible food will
sometimes suffice. A laxative, alternated with salines,
clears away excess of bile, and promotes a healthy action
of the liver. Ammonia chloride and salines useful where
a case is complicated with duodenal catarrh. (The duo­
denum is the first of the small intestines.)

When depending on suppression of bile, apply mustard
or other stimulant over liver. Thickened ox bile, in bo­
lus, twice a day, with moderate doses of aromatic spirit
of ammonia between. Nitro-hydrochloric acid, and quin­
ine with it when the patient is weak.

For doses, see pages 13 to 29.

Little relief can be given in jaundice when it is caused
by scirrhosis or fatty degeneration.

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