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By Cadance ButlerIt is possible to find all sorts offascinating treatments and remedies in the veterinary texts of late antiquity. Whileplants are the most common components of pharmacological remedies, minerals andanimals were also incorporated with some frequency. Many of these cures appearto have been relatively painless; however, others can quite easily be counted within the category of uncomfortableremedies, either for the animal being treated, the animal being used as part ofthe treatment, or, in some especially unfortunate cases, for both parties. &#160;When considering the use of animals asingredients, it is important to evaluate the source of each zoologicalcomponent. While some animal parts and byproducts are made available toveterinary care providers secondhand (i.e.after a pig has been slaughtered for sacrifice or human consumption, some ofits fat is used in an ointment), other animals are used either in theirentirety or are killed primarily for their veterinary properties. Whereas the formercould be seen as a way of making practical use of what would otherwise bewaste, the latter indicates a greater allocation of resources to the healing ofanimals.  A head louse (Pediculus humanus). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi. Credit: Wellcome Collection In a treatment for stomach pain, the4th century CE veterinary writer Pelagonius recommends the following:Place three human lice in the right ear of the horse in such a way that they are not named but are removed immediately from any little article of clothing. (Pelagonius, Ars Veterinaria 122)As can be seen in Dr. Totelin’s post earlier this month, Greek and Roman medical authors were not only well aware of the problem posed by lice, but also recommended a variety of treatments for their removal. The desire to prevent lice infestations also extended to livestock, as is made clear in ancient agricultural treatises, especially with regards to poultry. For instance, Varro (116-27 BCE) suggests manually removing lice from the birds which are already infected (Varro, On Agriculture 3.14), whereas Columella (4-70 CE) recommends removing all of the feathers from the head and from under the wings as a preventative measure (Columella On Agriculture 8.7.2)Because of these efforts to preventlice from infesting livestock, it seems somewhat counterproductive tointentionally introduce the parasites to a new host, assuming that the horsewas free from lice in the first place. While human lice (Pediculus humanus) and equine lice (Haematopinus asini&#160;and Damaliniaequi)are different species which cannot survive on the other’s host, it is unclearwhether or not that was known in antiquity, as the agricultural and veterinarywriters refer to all lice as pedes orpediculi. The requirement for humanlice here, alongside the specific directions for collecting the lice, likelyindicates a magical element to the treatment, rather than an acknowledgement ofdifferent lice species. Regardless of the louse’s inability to survive in itsnew home, horses have highly sensitive skin in their ears, and I cannot imaginethat having lice placed inside them would have been a particularly pleasantexperience.The larva and fly of a house fly (Musca domestica). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi. Credit: Wellcome Collection As disagreeable as the lice might havebeen, however, Columella’s remedy for a horse with difficulty urinating sounds exponentially moreunpleasant. He states:If [the horse] does not produce urine, the remedies are almost the same. For oil mixed with wine is poured over the flanks and hindquarters, and if this has not been sufficiently beneficial, insert a small suppository of reduced honey and salt into the hole through which urine flows, or a live fly, or a grain of frankincense, or a suppository of bitumen is inserted into the natural places. (Columella, On Agriculture 6.30.4)Much like lice, flies were widely recognized as pestsin antiquity. Besides tormenting animals with their general presence (Varro, On Agriculture 2.5.14), flies arecapable of both exacerbating existing wounds and causing serious new ones.According to Columella, for instance, preexisting wounds should be anointed with a mixture of pitch, oil, and agedaxel-grease in order to prevent afly, and subsequent larva, infestation (Columella, On Agriculture 6.16.3). Furthermore, he then claims that flies cancause so many sores in dogs’ ears during the summer that their ears are damagedbeyond repair (Columella, On Agriculture7.13.1).The logisticsof depositing a live fly within a horse’s urinary tract aside, the processwould have been challenging, likely painful for the horse, and almost certainlywould have resulted in the fly’s eventual death. As much as the plight of thepoor fly makes me shudder, however, the treatment was held in high enoughregard, or was enough of an oddity, that Pelagonius included it in his ownveterinary treatise approximately three centuries later (Pelagonius, Ars Veterinaria 162). As in the case ofthe lice, it is unclear why a creature typically considered to be harmful tothe health of livestock suddenly becomes the means by which a suffering animalis healed. In both of the remedies discussed above, animals typically consideredpests are employed as healing agents. Occasionally, harmful creatures, such as theshrew, are used to treat injuries that they themselves have inflicted(Pelagonius, Ars Veterinaria 279);however, the use of live pests to treat an unrelated illness is something elseagain. Ultimately, heedless of the horse’s real discomfort, the lice and(somewhat incredibly) the fly are sacrificed for the perceived greater good.