in treatment of Bog
Spavin with the above mentioned prescription in both young and old
animals, and perhaps it will be well to use it on both young and old
animals in both acute and chronic forms of Bog Spavin.

BOTS

(Gastrophilis)

Effect of Bots on the Health of Horses

Although the presence of bots inside of a horse can be of no possible
advantage to him, their presence, when in small numbers, as a rule
produce very little or no ill effect in the horse, but if their number
be large they cannot help being a source of debility and irritation. In
practically all cases they produce indigestion, especially among young
horses, also loss of condition, colic and even death.

CAUSE: By the bot flies, which lay their eggs during the autumn on the
skin and hair of the horses. These eggs on becoming hatched (in from 20
to 25 days) produce small worms which irritate the skin by their
movements and thus cause the horse to lick them off and to take them
into his mouth, with the result that they gain access to various parts
of the intestinal canal. The bot having selected its place of
residence, attaches itself to the membranes lining the stomach and
intestines, and derives its sustenance during its stay from the wound
made by its hooks. In the summer the larva, after living inside the
horse for about ten months, quits its hold and is expelled with the
feces. Having concealed itself near the surface of the ground it becomes
changed into a chrysalis from which the gadfly issues after an inactive
existence of from thirty to forty days. The female fly becomes
impregnated, lays her eggs on those parts of the horse from which they
can be most easily licked off, and thus completes her cycle of
existence.

SYMPTOMS: Membranes about the eyes and mouth are very pale, as though
the animal had lost a large quantity of blood; they will also be subject
to colicky attacks, hair faded, dull, rough appearance, appetite poor
and manifests a pot belly.

PREVENTION: The best means of prevention are spraying your horses with
the following fly repellant: Crude Carbolic Acid, 10%; Oil of Tar, 25%;
Crude Oil, 65%. Mix thoroughly. This prevents the gadfly from depositing
her eggs on the animals.

TREATMENT: Withhold all food for twenty-four hours, then administer Oil
of Turpentine, one ounce; place in a gelatin capsule and give with
capsule gun. Follow this in six hours with a physic consisting of Aloin,
two drams; Ginger, two drams. Place