JAUNDICE, OR YELLOWS.
This disease is well known to every farmer; the yellow appearance of the skin, mouth, eyes, and saliva at once betray its presence. It consists in the absorption of unchanged bile into the circulation, which bile becomes diffused, giving rise to the yellow appearances.
In the treatment of jaundice, we first give a dose of physic, (see Appendix,) and assist its operation by injections of weak lie, made from wood ashes. The animal may roam about in the barn-yard, if the weather will permit; or rub the external surface briskly with a wisp or brush, which will answer the same purpose. The following may be given in one dose, and repeated every day, or every other day, as the symptoms may require:—
| Powdered golden seal, (hydrastus canadensis), | 1 table-spoonful. |
| Powdered slippery elm, | 2 ounoces. |
Water sufficient to make it of the consistence of gruel.
Should a diarrhœa set in, it ought not to occasion alarm, but may be considered as an effort of nature to rid the system of morbific matter. It will be prudent, however, to watch the animal, and if the strength and condition fail, then add to the last prescription a small quantity of powdered gentian and caraway seeds.
There are various forms of disease in the liver, yet the treatment will not differ much from that of the last-named disease. There is no such thing as a medicine for a particular symptom, in one form of disease, that is not equally good for the same symptom in every form. In short, there is no such thing as a specific. Any medicine that will promote the healthy action of the liver in one form of jaundice will be equally good for the same purpose in another form of that disease.
Mr. Youatt states, "There are few diseases to which cattle are so frequently subject, or which are so difficult to treat, as jaundice, or yellows." Hence it is important that the farmer should know how and in what manner the disease may be prevented. And he will succeed best who understands the causes, which often exist in overworking the stomach, with a desire to fatten. Men who raise cattle for the market often attempt to get them in fine condition and flesh, without any regard to the state of the digestive organs, the liver included; for the bile which the latter secretes is absolutely necessary for the perfection of the digestive process. They do not take into consideration the state of the animals' health, the climate, the quality of food, and the quantity best adapted to the digestive powers; and what is of still greater importance, and too often overlooked, is, that all animals should be fed at regular intervals. Some men suppose that so long as their cattle shall have good food, without any regard to quantity,—if they eat all day long, and cram their paunch to its utmost capacity,—they must fatten; when, in fact, too much food deranges the whole digestive apparatus. As soon as the paunch and stomach are overloaded, they press on the liver, interfering with the bile-secreting process, producing congestion and disorganization.
Diseases of the liver may be produced by any thing that will for a time suspend the process of rumination: the known sympathy that exists between the stomach and liver explains this fact.
Digestion, like every other vital process, requires a concentration of power to accomplish it: now, if an ox should have a bountiful meal, and then be driven several miles, the process of digestion, during the journey, will be partly suspended. The act of compelling an ox to rise, or annoying him in any way, will immediately suspend rumination, which may result in an acute disease of the liver. In most cases, however, the stomach is primarily affected.
Dealers in cattle often overfeed the animals they are about to dispose of, in order to improve their external appearance, and increase their own profits: the consequence is, that such animals are in a state of plethora, and are liable at any moment to be attacked with congestion of the liver or brain.
Again. If oxen are driven a long journey, and then turned into a pasture abounding in highly nutritious grasses or clover, to which they are unaccustomed, they fill the paunch to such an extent that it becomes a matter of impossibility on the part of the animal to throw it up for rumination; this mass of food, being submitted to the combined action of heat and moisture, undergoes fermentation; carbonic acid gas is evolved; the animal is then said to be "blown," "hoven," or "blasted." Post mortem examination, in such cases, reveals a highly-congested state of the liver and spleen.
In fattening cattle, the injury done to the organs of digestion is not always observed in the early stages; for the vital power, which wages a warfare against all encroachments, endeavors to accommodate itself to the increased bulk; yet, by continuing to give an excess of diet, it finally yields up the citadel to the insidious foe. Chemical action then overpowers the vital, and disease is the result.
Thousands of valuable cattle are yearly destroyed by being too well, or, rather, injudiciously fed. Many diseases of the liver and digestive organs result from feeding on unwholesome, innutritious, and hard, indigestible food. Bad water, and suffering the animal to partake too bountifully of cold water when heated and fatigued, are among the direct causes of disease.