JAUNDICE.
—Until of recent date the disease in the human so common at certain seasons of the year was unknown among animals, or, at least, if present had never been discovered by the veterinary profession. But be that as it may, we are now finding it in plenty among horses of all ages, from colts up to aged horses; very prevalent among sheep, and quite frequent among cattle. The early writers on veterinary science usually attributed the cause to gall stones. But that theory can hardly be tenable in this country, where we find it essentially more prevalent on low, marshy soils or on the hill lands that have been long unplowed, where animals are pastured, or hays are cut. The general symptoms of it are a general dullness, hanging of the head as though it ached, or pressing the head, if the animal be a bovine or sheep, against the barn or stall. The tongue will be found dry or covered with a thick, sticky slime. The membranes of the eyeball of a yellowish cast. In horses the tongue will usually have a black coating. The appetite in all animals is capricious. They will eat well one day and scarcely touch food the next. As a rule, they will manifest great thirst, yet will drink but little. There are exceptions to this, however. The voidings are not uniform. Sometime the urine is quite high colored; at other times not. But, as a rule, it is scanty. The feces are sometimes quite hard and covered with a shiny slime. At other times there will be extreme looseness of the evacuations. These last symptoms are to be well considered in using a treatment when the voidings are hard and slimy. In case it is a horse that is ailing, a physic of aloes should be given, one ounce being the dose for a thousand pounds of horse, and two teaspoonfuls of podophylin. Give this dissolved in water and pour down as a drench, and follow with a bitter tonic for from two to four weeks, or until the voidings are normal and all scurf is removed from the tongue. As a tonic for this none is better than a mixture of powdered gentian root, six ounces, powdered golden seal 2 ounces, powdered sulphate of iron 4 ounces, well mixed in 1 pound of common salt. Give in the feed a tablespoonful in ground oats three times a day, until improvement takes place. Then drop to twice a day and later once a day. In case of the bowels being very loose always give a pint dose of a mixture of castor oil 4 ounces, pure raw linseed oil 12 ounces. Then follow with the tonic powder named. The symptoms in cattle are quite similar to those of the horse, except the bovine’s eyes usually discharge some, yet not profusely, and there are frequently puffy swellings beneath their lower jaws. In case their bowels are abnormally loose, give the oil as for the horse. If constipated give from one to two pounds of Epsom salts at one dose as the physic, with the podophylin added as for the horse, and follow with the same tonic powder. In the case of sheep, which are by nature constipated animals, nothing equals a ten-grain dose of calomel, followed the next day with a four or six-ounce dose of Epsom salts (sulphate of magnesia), and as sheep are reluctant to eat any tonics in their feed, we are compelled to pour their medicine down them. Mix together 4 ounces each of the tincture of gentian, golden seal, ginger and iron, and give a tablespoonful twice a day in a half pint of water. But always give the calomel, as it will clean out the liver of a sheep as no other known agent will. The symptoms are much the same as in cattle. Begin treatment early or success will not follow.