HOOVE, OR "BLASTING."

When cattle or sheep are first turned into luxuriant pasture, after being poorly fed, or laboring under any derangement of the digestive organs, they are apt to be hoven, blown, or blasted.

Treatment.—Should the symptoms be very alarming, a flexible tube may be passed down the gullet. This will generally allow a portion of gas to escape, and thus afford temporary relief, until more efficient means are resorted to. These consist in arousing the digestive organs to action, by the following stimulant and carminative drink:—

Cardamom seeds,1 ounce.
Fennel seeds,1 ounce.
Powdered charcoal,1 table-spoonful.
Boiling water,2 quarts.

Let the mixture stand until sufficiently cool; then strain, and administer in pint doses, every ten minutes.

The following clyster should be given:—

Powdered lobelia,2 ounces.
Powdered charcoal,6 ounces.
Common salt,1 table-spoonful.
Boiling water,2 quarts.

When cool, strain, and inject.

If the animal is only blasted in a moderate degree, this treatment will generally prove successful. Some practitioners recommend puncturing the rumen or paunch; but there is always great danger attending it, and at best it is only a palliative: the process of fermentation will continue while the materials still remain in the paunch. Some cattle doctors make a large incision into the paunch, and shovel out the contents with the hand; but the remedy is quite as bad as the disease. For example, Mr. Youatt tells us that "a cow had eaten a large quantity of food, and was hoven. A neighbor, who was supposed to know a great deal about cattle, made an incision into the paunch; the gas escaped, a great portion of the food was removed with the hand, and the animal appeared to be considerably relieved; but rumination did not return. On the following day, the animal was dull; she refused her food, but was eager to drink. She became worse and worse, and on the sixth day she died."

In all dangerous cases of hoove, we must not forget that our remedies may be aided by the external application of warmth and moisture; flannels wrung out in hot water should be secured to the belly; at the same time, the legs and brisket should be rubbed with tincture of assafœtida. These remedies must be repeated until the animal is relieved. Steady and long-continued perseverance in rubbing the abdomen often succeeds in liberating the gas. If the animal recovers, he should be fed, very sparingly, on scalded food, consisting of equal parts of meal and shorts, with the addition of a few grains of caraway seeds. A drink composed of the following ingredients will aid in rapidly restoring the animal to health:—

Marshmallows,2 ounces.
Linseed,1 ounce.
Boiling water,2 quarts.

Set the mixture near the fire, and allow it to macerate for a short time; after straining through a sieve or coarse cloth, it may be given and repeated at discretion.

Remarks.—As prevention is much more convenient and less expensive than the fashionable system of making a chemical laboratory of the poor brute's stomach, the author would remind owners of stock that the practice of turning the latter into green, succulent pasture when the ground is damp, or permitting them to remain exposed to the night air, is among the direct causes of hoove. The ox and many other animals are governed by the same laws of nature to which man owes allegiance, and any departure from the legitimate teachings, as they are fundamentally ingrafted in the animate kingdom by the Omnipotent Creator, is sure to subject us to the penalty. We are told that, during the night, noxious gases and poisonous miasmata emanate from the soil, and that plants throw off excrementitious matters, which assume a gaseous form, and are more or less destructive. Now, these animals have no better powers of resisting the encroachments on their organization (through the agency of these deleterious gases) than we have; they must have atmospheric air to vitalize the blood; any impurity in the air they breathe must impair their health. Still, however, the powers of resistance are greater in some than in others; this explains the reason why all do not suffer. Sometimes, the gases are not in sufficient quantities to produce instant death, but only derange the general health; yet if an animal be turned into a pasture, the herbage and soil of which give out an excess of nitrogen and carbonic acid, the animal will die; just as a man will, if you lower him into a well abounding in either of these destructive agents. From these brief remarks, the farmer will see the importance of housing domestic animals at night.