Milch Cows and Dairy Farming / Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management

by Charles Louis Flint

Constipation or Costiveness

sometimes attacks calves a few days old, that have not been judiciously managed. It may be brought on by putting a calf to a cow whose milk is too old, or from feeding a calf from the milk of several cows mixed. It results from too heavy a mass of coägulated milk in the fourth stomach, which becomes very much swollen with hard curd. It is difficult to remedy. The best way is to pour down some Epsom salts, two ounces, dissolved in two quarts of warm water, by means of a horn or bottle, and follow this by half the dose every six hours.

Constipation sometimes appears in calves from two to four months old, when their food is too suddenly changed. The bowels must be opened and the hardened mass in the stomach softened very soon, or it will lead to fatal consequences.

Farmers are generally very careless about observing these things till it is too late. As already said, prevention is cheaper than cure; but, if the complaint once appears, no time should be lost to administer a purge of salts in proportion to the size of the animal or the severity of the attack. Many a valuable animal will be saved by it.