Domestic Animals Part 6

This is not unfrequently _hollow stomach_, and very often follows stinted fare, hard usage, and exposure to cold. We have noticed this as most prevalent among oxen that have done a severe winter's work.

_Symptoms._--b.l.o.o.d.y urine; swollen udder; shaking the head; eyes and head swollen; standing with the head against a fence or barn; eyes dull and sunken, and horns cold.

_Remedies._--Bleed and physic, shelter and feed properly.

Take a half pint of good vinegar, two tablespoonfuls of salt, one teaspoonful of pepper, and mix and pour into each ear, holding the head on one side for two minutes.

Bore with a large gimlet on the under side of the horn, three or four inches from the head; and if hollow, bore nearer the head and let out all the matter, and syringe two or three times a day with salt and water, or soap-suds, or salt and vinegar.

Spirits of turpentine rubbed in around the base of the horns, will arrest the disease in its incipient stages.

Pour a spoonful of boiling hot brimstone into the cavity between the horns.

Pour a teakettle of boiling water on the horns, holding so as to prevent injury to the other parts.

Soot and pepper given internally are good.

Jaundice, or Yellows.

This is owing to gall-stones or calculi, which occasionally acc.u.mulate in large numbers, and is sometimes owing to increased or altered quality of the bile. It is manifested by the yellowness of the eye and skin, and high color of the urine, and poor appet.i.te.

_Remedies._--Bleed, and purge with Epsom salts.

If taken in season, 2 ounces of ground mustard may be mixed with a liquid, and given twice a day.

Green food is a good preventive.

Mad Itch.

This disease exists in some of the Western states, and shows itself by jerking of the head, and itching around the nose and base of the horns.

They will lick their sides and backs, and jerk and hiccup till they fill themselves with wind; afterwards they froth at the mouth, and in 24 hours die raving mad.

_Remedy._--Give as much soot and salt as the animal will eat; soon after, give or 1 lb. of brimstone or sulphur; and 8 hours after, as many salts.

b.l.o.o.d.y Murrain, or Red Water.

This disease first shows itself in a cough, then heaving of the flanks, with b.l.o.o.d.y, black, and f[oe]tid evacuations, tenderness over the loins, and coldness of the horns. Tumors and biles sometimes appear. The animal holds down the head, moans, is restless, and staggers when walking.

_Causes._--We have lost several animals by this fatal disease, and are not aware of having cured any when severely attacked. In repeated instances, we have seen large flukes taken out of the liver, strongly resembling the common leech, which abounds in many of our swampy lands.

It is certain that on new, low swamps and clay lands, cattle are most liable to it; and when they have been subject to repeated attacks in such localities, clearing and draining have checked it.

Youatt attributes it to certain kinds of forage, which are peculiar to the above situations. We are rather inclined to ascribe it to exposure, to excessive dampness, and especially to miasma; for although the brute creation are perhaps less sensitive to these influences than man, yet, as they are governed by the same unvarying laws of nature, when subjected to conditions totally unsuited to their economy, they must suffer equally in kind, though probably not in degree, with the more refined human frame. But it is evident the disease, its causes, and remedies, are as yet imperfectly understood.

_Remedies._--However intelligent men may differ as to its causes, all agree that the animal should first be bled, and then thoroughly purged.

In obstinate cases, this last is a difficult matter. We have given repeated doses of powerful cathartics without producing any effect; and whenever the medicine is inoperative, death speedily follows.

Large doses of common salt, or Epsom salts dissolved in water, are good purgatives, and if the animal neglects drinking after taking them, he should be drenched with copious draughts of water. These should be repeated every few hours, if ineffectual.

Injections are sometimes useful, when medicine fails to act. These may be made of soap and water; or take 2 or 3 gills of oats boiled, 3 drachms saltpetre, 1 oz. linseed oil, mix and use them when warm.

The opening of the bowels may be followed with a pint of linseed oil, as an additional and gentle laxative.

When the animal begins to recover, gentle astringents and tonics may be given.

_Preventives._--We have more confidence in preventives than in remedies.

Good keep, shelter, dryness, and clean pastures, will generally prevent attack. The cattle should at all times be supplied with two or three troughs under cover, on the sides and bottoms of which tar should be plentifully spread. Let equal portions of salt and slaked lime be in one; salt and wood ashes in another; and salt and brimstone in a third.

Many farmers have entirely avoided this disease while using one or more of these, when they annually lost many by it previously.

Hoof Ail

Is indicated by lameness, fever, and a soft swelling just above the hoof.

_Remedies._--Carefully wash the foot in warm soap-suds, and while still damp, apply between the claws on the affected part from one to three grains of corrosive sublimate. If it does not fully adhere, it must be mixed with hog's lard, but it should be so applied as to be out of the reach of the animal's tongue, as it is a powerful poison, and the extreme irritability of the feet will induce him to lick them.

The claw is efficiently cleansed, by drawing a cord briskly through it, when either of the above applications, or blue vitriol put on two or three times a day, or spirits of turpentine, will effect a cure.

It is sometimes cured by putting the animals in the stanchions, and applying a sharp chisel three-fourths of an inch from the toe, and striking it with a mallet till it is cut off. If it does not bleed freely, cut off shavings till it does. If the animal is refractory, let a person hold up the opposite foot. Keep them in the stable two or three days, and out of the mud for a week.

Loss of Cud

Is loss of appet.i.te, prostration, and general ill-health.

_Remedies._--Give a warm bran mash, with good hay, and warm water with salt.

An aloe tincture, made with brandy and ginger, is good.

Afterwards give good, dry, nouris.h.i.+ng food; and bitter infusions, chamomile flowers, h.o.a.rhound, oak bark, &c., in beer.

Scours, or Diarrh[oe]a.

A common remedy, is to boil the bark of white oak, white pine, and beech, and give a strong infusion in bran. If they refuse to eat it, pour it down. The oak is astringent, and the pine and beech soothing and healing.

Warbles

Are grubs, the egg of which is deposited in the back of cattle by the gad-fly, (_[OE]strus bovis._) They are discernible by a protuberance or swelling on the back. They may be pressed out by the thumb and finger; or burnt out by plunging a hot wire in them; or a few applications of strong brine will remove them.

Wounds

In cattle are readily healed, when the animal's blood is in good order, by applying a salve made of 1 oz. green copperas; 2 oz. white vitriol; 2 oz. salt; 2 oz. linseed oil; 8 oz. mola.s.ses. Boil over a slow fire 15 minutes in a pint of urine, and when almost cold, add 1 oz. oil of vitriol, and 4 oz. spirits turpentine. Apply it with a feather to the wound, and cure soon follows.