The Bot Fly.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4646, 13 February 1894, Page 3

The Bot Fly.

An eminent authority on the diseases of the horse, referring to the Bot fly, says :~The stomach seems to be the natural nursery for the proteciion and the propagation of the stomach bot, When the eggs have remained in the stomach for a year they become a perfect chrysalis (that is, the form of a butterfly before it reaohcs the winged state), and then they release their hold of tho stomach and are expelled with the dung. It will be provided with wings in a ehort time, and will fly about commencing the propagation of its speoies which passes through the same period of incubation. There are two kinds, stomach end fundament bote. The stomach bots are the result of turning horses into pasture in the summer months, and are produced from the eggs laid on the fore legs of the horse by the botfly. The symptoms are an unthrifty coat, and loss of flesh after running out to pasture. All horses which run out to grass are quite sure to have bot in their stomachs, and as there is so muoh misconception about bots and their destructiveness to horses, we copy the result of a series of experiments with bots three-fourths grown. When immersed in rum they live 25 hours: decoction of tobacco, 11 hours; strong oil of vitriol, 2 hours 18 minutes ; essential oil of mint, 2 hours 5 minutes. Were immersed without apparent injury, in spirits of camphor, 10 hours; fish oil, 49 hours; tincture aloes, 10 hours; in brine, 10 hours; solution indigo, 10 hours. A number of small bots, with one that was full grown, vera immersed in a strong solution of corrosive sublimate > one of the most powerful poisons the small ones, died in one hour, but the full grownone was taken out of the solution, six hours after its immersion, apparently unhurt. It will bo seen by the above experi-

ments, that ho medicine can be given whichwillaffeot the hot, that will not destroy the coating of the etomaoh, and injure or kill the horse. No veterinary surgeon can distinguish the symptoms of bote from those of cblio. In fact, there is '' but little douht that ninety-nine oat of every 006 hundred oases of belly-ache are no moro uor less than colic and not hots, and should be treated accordingly. In treating for the bet fly, the general condition of tho horse should bo improved, so that the debilitating effects of the bota may not interfere with the general health of the horse, [t is generally considered impossible to expel or destroy the bots, Give the following tonio medicines to improve the general condition—pulr. gentian |lb., pulv, copperas }lb„ pulv, fenugreek Jib,, pulv. eleoam« pane p, Mix well, and give a large tableapoonful once a day. Fundament Bot is also the result of running out to grass, but instead of the eggs being deposited on the legs, they are deposited on the lips of the horse. They a«]found in the reotum, and often seen about the anus and under tho tail. The best treatment is-injections of raw linseed oil, or of tobacco smoke.