The Veterinarian Part 15

FOOT ROT

(Foul in Foot)

CAUSE: Due to filth or from hard substances acc.u.mulating between the two digits, producing irritation and inflammation and suppuration.

SYMPTOMS: Lameness. On examination the foot is swollen, hot and painful to the touch. When the case is of long standing, suppuration occurs and pus will ooze from between the digits, and is very offensive in smell.

This condition causes the digits to slough off, if no attempt is made to relieve it.

TREATMENT: Cleanliness. Where there is considerable inflammation present, apply Hot Bran or Flaxseed poultices. Keep clean and treat as an ordinary wound. The following prescription will be found very effective in Foot Rot: Oil of Origanum, four ounces; Oil of Pisis, four ounces; Oil of Turpentine, four ounces. Saturate oak.u.m or cotton with the above liniment placing between the digits and bandage. Feed laxative food, as hot wheat bran mashes and vegetables.

FOUNDER

(Laminitis)

Inflammation of the internal, sensitive structure of the foot.

CAUSE: Overfeeding, overheating, driving on rough, stony soil. Cattle confined to stand on hard floors without exercise frequently suffer from Founder.

SYMPTOMS: The animals lie down a great part of the time. Feet hot and tender and if made to walk they do so with great difficulty. One or all four feet may become affected, although it is more frequently found in the front feet. The temperature is somewhat elevated, varying from 104 to 106 degrees F., breathing very rapid, appet.i.te fairly good and there will be great thirst. Founder in cows reduces the milk secretion, owing to the great fever that is present.

TREATMENT: Apply cold packs to the feet, ice packs preferred. If the animal can be made to stand in a stream of water having a soft bottom, it, perhaps, is the best method of cooling out the feet. Give a physic of Aloin, three drams; Pulv. Gentian Root, two drams. Place in a gelatin capsule and give with capsule gun. To their drinking water add two or three drams of Pota.s.si Nitrate three or four times daily. Animals suffering with Founder should be provided with soft ground to stand on, as their feet will be tender and subject to the chronic form of the disease.

GARGET

(Congestion of the Udder)

CAUSE: Very common in heavy milkers before or just after calving when the bag is very much enlarged and very sensitive; exposure to chilling or standing in drafts or even neglected for too long a time in milking.

Injuries may also cause Garget.

SYMPTOMS: The bag is very much enlarged, showing signs of inflammation.

The swelling extends well forward following the milk veins. The cow has great difficulty in walking due to sensitiveness of the bag. When milked for two or three days the swelling disappears after the secretion is fully established, but as a rule is tinged with blood. Sometimes small clots of milk or cheese-like particles are ejected with the milk.

TREATMENT: Give a physic consisting of Aloin, two drams; Pulv. Ginger, three drams. Place in gelatin capsule and give with capsule gun: Hyposulphite of Soda, sixteen ounces; Nitrate of Pota.s.si, four ounces.

Mix and make into sixteen powders. Give one powder three times a day in drinking water or place in gelatin capsule and give with capsule gun.

Also dissolve b.i.+.c.hloride of Mercury, two grains; Boracic Acid, two drams, in one quart of boiling hot water. When this solution cools to about blood temperature, after stripping all milk fluid or pus from the affected teat or teats, inject with an ordinary bulb injection syringe after placing a teat tube into the end from which the air escapes when the bulb is pressed. Now, place the end of the syringe retaining the teat tube in the affected teat, the other end place in a bottle or vessel containing the solution and gently press the bulb and inject about a pint of the solution in each affected quarter. Leave the solution in the teat for only fifteen to twenty minutes and milk out thoroughly. Repeat this treatment two or three times a day.

For an external application the following ointment has given remarkably good results: Blue Ointment and Zinc Ointment, equal parts. Mix well and apply two or three times daily.

HARD MILKERS

CAUSE: A thickness or contraction of the mucous membranes lining the teat or growths inside the teat.

TREATMENT: All antiseptic precautions should be carried out in this operation, as boiling the instruments and then covering them with Carbolated Vaseline. Then with a hidden bistoury or a knife concealed in a tube, force upward into the teat, then press out the little blade and draw the instrument down the teat, making about four incisions equal distance apart around the inner surface of the teat. The use of self-retaining teat dilators prevents the contraction of the cut surface, permitting them to remain in the teat for two weeks, removing them only when the milk is being stripped from the teat. Always place them in boiling water and cover with Carbolated Vaseline before inserting.

HOLLOW HORN

Horns of the cattle tribe are normally hollow, although a core extends well into the horn. This, however, is merely a prolongation of a porous bone of the head which affords a point for the horns' attachment, consequently when a cow is sick and the temperature is elevated, the horns are naturally hot, it being the symptom of a disease and not a disease of itself, and which should be treated under its special heading.

The supposed disease "Hollow Horn" once upon a time was treated by boring a hole into the horn with a small gimlet and pouring Turpentine into the opening. This treatment is useless and harmful. It produces inflammation of the frontal sinuses of the head and chances are death of the animal will follow as a result of the treatment and not of the disease.

INDIGESTION

CAUSE: Animals with a voracious appet.i.te will overload their stomachs with food that is hard to digest or is decomposed, causing the organs of a.s.similation to become weakened, sluggish and incapable of doing their proper work.

SYMPTOMS: The animal ceases to ruminate (chew its cud); stands quietly, hair rough, nose dry, temperature elevated one to two degrees, breathing usually faster than normal with slight grunts at each expiration of air from the lungs. The secretions of milk are suddenly diminished. If the hand is placed against the left side and quickly removed, a marked depression or pit will remain, which shows that the paunch is full of undigested food. Bloating is also frequently accompanied by indigestion.

TREATMENT: Administer Aloin, three drams; Ginger, three drams. Place in capsule and give with capsule gun. Permit the animal to drink all the water possible. If bloating is present give two-ounce capsules filled with Turpentine with capsule gun. A tonic is quite necessary in this condition, and the following I am sure will be followed by good results if the case is not of too long a standing: Sodium Bicarbonate, eight ounces; Pulv. Nux Vomica, four ounces; Pulv. Gentian Root, four ounces; Pulv. Ginger, four ounces. Place two tablespoonfuls in gelatin capsule and give with capsule gun every six hours. Very good results are also obtained from rectal injections of soap and warm water. Feed good nouris.h.i.+ng food sparingly, compelling the animal to exercise, etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photograph of a cow.]

GUERNSEY COW MURNE COWAN 19597 A. R. 1906.

SIRE FANTASIA'S JEWELLER 7259; DAM: JANET BROWN 12403.

(Years record 24008.0 lbs. Milk; 1098.18 lbs. b.u.t.ter Fat.) Owned by O. C. Barber, Akron, Ohio.

INFLAMMATION OF THE BAG

(Simple Mammitis)

CAUSE: Injuries, as blows, kicks, etc.; lying on cold, rough ground or floor, standing in drafts, sudden change of weather. Derangement of the system is likely to affect the udder; poorly milked or stripped cows are often victims of Mammitis. Infections in the teat from inserting dirty instruments, as using a bicycle pump for the treatment of Milk Fever.

Cows with a retained afterbirth are likely to infect the udder by switching their tail. This condition is very common in heavy milkers following calving.

SYMPTOMS: The animal chills, hair stands, temperature elevated from one to three degrees above normal; ears, horns and legs cold, which may suddenly become very hot; pulse rapid, breathing hurried, bag hard and swollen and very tender on pressure. When attempts are made to milk, a watery substance comes away, almost colorless at first, but later becomes tinged with blood and pus and has a fetid odor. The cow's muzzle is dry, appet.i.te poor, but great thirst exists. This condition may affect one or more quarters of the udder. Abscesses may form and the udder break and a thick yellowish pus oozes out or the milk glands may solidify and cause hard, lumpy growths in the udder.

TREATMENT: Prevention. If an animal is once slightly affected with inflammation of the bag, it is likely to develop a bad case of Mammitis from the slightest injury or exposure as stated above, which depreciates a cow considerably as a milk producer, especially on the market. Great care should be exercised when purchasing a cow for milking purposes. See that the teats and udder are sound, free from lumps, etc.

MEDICAL TREATMENT: Hyposulphite of Soda, sixteen ounces; Nitrate of Pota.s.si, four ounces. Mix and make into sixteen powders. Give one powder three times a day in drinking water or place in a gelatin capsule and give with a capsule gun. Also, dissolve b.i.+.c.hloride of Mercury, two grains; Boracic Acid, two drams, in one quart of boiling hot water. When this solution cools to about blood temperature, after stripping all milk fluid or pus from the affected teat or teats, inject with an ordinary bulb injection syringe after placing a teat tube into the end from which the air escapes when the bulb is pressed. Now, place this end of the syringe retaining the teat tube in the affected teat; the other end place in a bottle or vessel containing the solution and gently press the bulb and inject about a pint of the solution into each affected quarter.

Leave the solution in the teat for only fifteen to twenty minutes and milk out thoroughly. Repeat this treatment two or three times a day.

For an external application, the following ointment has given remarkably good results: Blue Ointment, two ounces; Lard, two ounces. Mix well and apply twice daily.