THE CAUSES OF DIGESTIVE DISORDERS—I
The breeder and horse owner have not the time or opportunity to acquire expert knowledge of the diseases of the horse, but it will well repay them to give a little thought and study to the causes of preventive disorders, particularly to those of the digestive organs. The exercise of a little thought and judgment in the management of a stable of horses will lessen to almost nil the occurrence of digestive ailments among its inmates. There are certain affections to which horseflesh is heir which it is impossible to prevent under some circumstances, but those of the digestive organs can be very largely prevented.
We must study these causes under a number of heads. First of all there is the condition of the individual at time of feeding, the quantity of the food, the character of the food, and the form in which it is given. Under the foregoing heads I have not included the natural predisposition of some animals to digestive troubles, for the inherent tendency to some affections cannot be classed among the preventable causes, but, nevertheless, a little extra care may neutralize the tendency to them. Take, for instance, a horse of a nervous temperament, with a light middle-piece. Such an individual is very liable to scour when first taken out, and in some horses this cannot be prevented; but careful attention in giving non-laxative and easily digestible food in properly regulated quantities, with care about watering and the avoidance of violent and overtaxing work, especially when first taken out, will often control this tendency. If nervous, light-middled horses can once be made fat by proper dieting, and are kept in health by light, slow work, the inclination to scour will be much lessened. The accumulation of fat in the abdomen has a tendency to lessen the violence of the action of the bowels and thus to counteract scouring. Horses of the temperament just referred to are better fed on corn than oats, as corn is more fattening and less stimulating to the nervous system, so that horses fed on it are less inclined to be excitable. Greedy, voracious feeders are predisposed to digestive ailments from their tendency to overtax the digestive organs by the consumption of too large quantities of food too hastily eaten. The means of prevention of such a cause is apparent and easy of application. These are examples of two inherent predisposing causes.
A feed that an animal can take with impunity and possibly with benefit under some circumstances, may prove an exciting cause of that very serious trouble in horses, acute indigestion, under other conditions. Take, for instance, a horse that is to be called on to do an unusually long and hard day’s work. The anxious, over-zealous and well-meaning driver will, in some instances, give an extra-sized morning meal, with the idea of buoying the horse up for the ordeal of the day. As soon as the horse has had time to consume it, he starts on his journey; it may be to pull a heavy load, or for faster work. The more violent the work, the more will the digestive process be interfered with. As soon as the course of digestion is arrested, fermentation begins and it may go on to such a degree that the horse soon begins to show signs of something being amiss. He most likely came out of the stable showing life and energy, and went at his work with spirit, but after going a few miles, however, he begins to sweat more than he should, to lag, to drop his head and to bloat. As soon as he is allowed to stand he shows restlessness and becomes demonstrative in his exhibition of pain. He has acute indigestion, due to mistaken kindness on the part of his attendant. Instead of having been given a full feed or rather more than usual, he should have had less, and the first opportunity taken of giving him another small feed.
We have the same thing occurring under different conditions, as, for example, when a horse has had an unusually hard day’s work and is very tired. He is put in the stable and given his usual meal, which he eats. After an hour or so he begins to show signs of abdominal pain. His attendant cannot understand the reason for this, as the horse has only had his usual feed. He does not realize that the horse’s vital powers have become very much lowered, the result of unusual fatigue, and that the stomach participates in this temporary inability and becomes, for a time, unequal to exerting its full digestive powers, and that indigestion has resulted in consequence. Had the horse been allowed to rest for a time, given a little water and allowed to nibble hay, he might have been fed with impunity, although it is usually a wise plan to lessen the feed if a horse is unusually fatigued. The condition, then, of the individual has to be considered in determining the amount of food he should get. Horses that are in good condition, having regular hard work and full feed, are much less liable to be affected by unusual fatigue and full feed than those that are irregularly worked.
In addition to the necessity for caution in feeding when a horse is fatigued from hard work, long abstinence also necessitates care. A horse that has had his stomach empty for a long time, whether fatigued or not, is usually ravenous for his food, and is apt to consume a full allowance of concentrated food too hurriedly to permit digestion to go on satisfactorily. The old plan of giving a little thin warm gruel to a fatigued fasting horse is a good one, in order to prepare him for his full meal later on. It is not always convenient to furnish this, however, and the next best plan is to give a couple of quarts of water and a little hay, to get the stomach into working order before the full meal of concentrated food is given, preceded by more water.
The quantity of food to be allowed a horse is not only an important matter of study from the standpoint of economy, but is a very material one to consider in connection with the question of preventing digestive disorders. The statement can hardly be gainsaid that decidedly the most prolific source of ailments of the digestive tract is overfeeding. Farmers who raise their own feed are possibly the worst offenders in this respect, and particularly in the overfeeding of bulky food, or what is called by some roughage. An enormous amount of hay is thus wasted throughout the country, and injury done to many horses. It is really not an exaggeration to state that fully half the amount of hay fed to horses in the rural districts of this country is wasted. Not only is this so, but a positive injury is inflicted on the horses that consume it. It is, of course, true that horses, for the purposes of perfect digestion, require a certain amount of bulky food. Sufficient nutritious matter can be supplied in concentrated form, but digestion would not go on properly without a certain amount of bulk. Volume of feed is essential to insure the proper activity of the digestive tract.
There is a limit, however, to the bulk required, and if this limit is much exceeded, there is not only a waste of food, but injury is done. If a horse is constantly being fed too large a volume of feed, it overworks and overtaxes the digestive organs, soon weakening these organs and consequently rendering them more liable to indigestion, colic, stoppage and diarrhœa. Even if no such evidence of acute disorder shows itself, as the affections named, the unnecessarily distended bowels encroach upon the chest capacity and interfere with the action of the lungs; so that the horse cannot stand as much exertion as he might otherwise. One likes to see a horse with a good depth of rib, and well ribbed-up and not presenting a tucked-up condition, all of which is evidence of a good feeder. But no horse, unless it is a mare in foal, or one running at grass, should show what is called a “pot-belly,” as that is a sign that too much bulky food is being consumed. Too much bulky food is also a cause of that very serious trouble, called heaves, especially if the food happens to be of defective quality, and consequently difficult of digestion. One often hears it said that clover hay is apt to cause heaves. The reason is that horses are very fond of it, and if they are allowed all they want, will eat an excessive quantity of it. If the quality of clover hay is good, and only a proper ration of it is fed, it is no more likely to cause heaves than any other kind of hay.
Fully one-half the horses one sees in country districts are pot-bellied, especially in the winter. In many farm stables you see racks kept full of hay constantly in front of the horses, and the less work they do the more hay they eat, most of them eating certainly twice as much as is good for them. In cities it is different. Hay being high-priced, the quantity fed is usually limited, with the result that digestive troubles are very much rarer than in country districts. It is directly the opposite with regard to the diseases of the breathing organs. In the large, crowded stables of the cities, with breathing space limited, the air becomes charged with impurities, with the result that diseases of the breathing organs are very prevalent, while in the country they are comparatively rare. The relative prevalence of digestive and respiratory troubles in city and country affords a good illustration of cause and effect, but the country horse owner has the advantage, as he has to encounter chiefly diseases that are largely preventable. It is a difficult matter to successfully cope with the prevention of respiratory ailments in cities.
It has been already stated and emphasized that the feeding of too much bulky food to horses is one of the most prolific causes of digestive disorders. The question naturally follows: How much is sufficient for a horse to attain the best results? As far as the supply of nourishment is concerned, it can be supplied amply in concentrated form, as in oats or corn; but a certain amount of bulk is necessary. If there is not a certain amount of bulk in the food material in the bowels, the coats of these organs have not sufficient contents to contract on, so that these organs may be able to move along in proper time substances that should be excreted. The bowels become torpid, as far as excretion is concerned, and the proper digestion and absorption of nutritive material is not carried on. Under these circumstances, health and condition cannot be long maintained, and there will be a waste of food fed in concentrated form. Of course, the amount of bulky food necessary varies according to the size of the horse, and it is approximately correct to put it at about one pound per hundred-weight of the animal’s weight. This may be exceeded in some cases with impunity, to the extent of a few pounds, particularly in horses used for slow work; but it will be found sufficient in the majority of cases. While horses are being used for very fast work, or are in training, a less quantity will suffice. The usual plan in large cities is to feed the allowance of hay all at one time, in the evening, after the horse has finished his day’s work, and it works very well. People used to seeing a horse get all the hay he can eat, think, when they see him restricted, that he is being starved, but they will find he thrives if adequately fed with grain, has better wind, more endurance, particularly for fast work, and is much less liable to digestive ills.