DISEASES IN CATTLE.
Hoven, or Swelling of the Paunch,
Is a temporary ailment, caused by eating too freely of fresh and generally wet clover, or other succulent food. The animal gorges the first stomach with so much food, that its contents cannot be expelled. Inflammation of the membrane takes place, and decomposition of the food soon follows. This is known by the distension of the paunch, and difficulty of breathing, and unless speedily relieved, suffocation and death will ensue. Both sheep and cattle are subject to it.
Remedies.[1]—In its early stages, when not too severe, it has been removed by administering some one of the following remedies.
A pint of gin poured down the throat.
From one to two pints of lamp or other oil.
Strong brine.
New milk with one-fifth its bulk of tar mixed.
An egg-shell full of tar forced down the throat, followed by a second, if the first fails.
A tablespoonful of volatile spirit of ammonia, diluted with water.
A wine-glass full of powder, mixed with cold lard and forced in balls into the stomach.
A teaspoonful of unslaked lime dissolved in a pint of warm water, shaken and given immediately.
A pint of tolerably strong lye.
[1] Besides his own experience, the writer has drawn from the N. E. Farmer, the Albany Cultivator, the American Agriculturist, and other reliable American and English works, some of the remedies for diseases herein mentioned.
The Proper Mode of giving the above Remedies
Is for a person to hold the horn and cartilage of the nose, while another seizes and draws out the tongue as far as possible, when the medicine is thrust below the root of the tongue. If liquid, it must be inserted by the use of a bottle.
The probang is used when the former remedies are ineffectual. This consists of a tarred rope, or a flexible whip-stalk, three-fourths of an inch in diameter, with a swab or bulbous end. Two persons hold the head of the animal, so as to keep the mouth in a line with the throat, while a third forces it into the stomach, when the gas finds a passage out. A stiff leather tube with a lead nozzle pierced with holes, is best for insertion, through which the gas will readily escape.
Some one of the above purgatives should be given after the bloat has subsided, and careful feeding for some days must be observed.
Light gruels are best for allaying inflammation, and restoring the tone of the stomach.
When no other means are available, the paunch may be tapped with a sharp penknife, plunging it 1½ inches forward of the hip bone, towards the last rib in the left side. If the hole fills up, put in a large goose-quill tube, which to prevent slipping into the wound, may remain attached to the feather, and the air can escape through a large hole in the upper end.
Prevention is vastly better than cure, and may be always secured, by not allowing hungry cattle to fill themselves with clover, roots, apples, &c. When first put upon such feed, it should be when the dew and rain are off, and their stomachs are already partially filled; and they should then be withdrawn before they have gorged themselves.
This is a convenient instrument for extracting poisonous substances from the stomach. It is also highly useful for administering medicines and injections, and if fitted with several tubes, one may suffice for animals of any size. It consists of a syringe, a, with a side opening at b, and another at the bottom d, as shown in [Fig. 16]. For injections, [Fig. 15] is used, and
the end of the syringe is placed in a vessel containing the fluid, when a probang or injection-tube is screwed on to the side opening at b, through which the fluid is forced into the stomach or rectum, as may be required. The probang should be a tube of thick but elastic leather, and it may be passed into the mouth, through an aperture in a block, placed on edge between the teeth, which is easily done while a person holds the head of the animal firmly.
Choking
Is frequently relieved by some of the following expedients.
The use of the probang or whip-stock, mentioned under the head of remedies for Hoven, by which the root is forced into the stomach.
A soft root may be crushed so as to allow of swallowing, by holding a smooth block against it, and striking with a mallet on the opposite side.
If within arms-length, the root may be removed by hand.
It is said this can be done, by tying up the fore-leg with a small cord, close to the body, and giving the animal a sudden start with a whip; or by jerking the fore-leg out forward.
Or pour down the throat a pint bottle full of soft soap, mixed with sufficient hot water to make it run freely.
Prevention consists in cutting the roots; not feeding them when the animals are very hungry, and not disturbing them while eating.
Inflammation of the Stomach.
This is frequently produced by a sudden change from dry to green food, and some other causes.
Epsom salts, castor oil, sulphur, and carbonate of soda, in sufficient quantity to purge freely, are good remedies.
It may be prevented by changing the food gradually.
Mange, or Scab.
This is denoted by the animal rubbing the hair off about the eyes and other parts. The skin is scaly or scabby, sometimes appearing like a large seed-wart.
Remedies.—Rub the spots with sulphur and lard, after scraping and washing with soap.
When the skin is cracked, take sulphur, 1 lb.; turpentine, ¼ lb.; unguentum, (or mercurial ointment,) 2 ounces; linseed oil, 1 pint. Melt the turpentine and warm the oil, and when
partly cooled, stir in the sulphur; when cold, add the unguentum, mixing all well. Rub this thoroughly with the hand on the parts affected.
We have no doubt this, like scab in sheep and itch in the human species, will be found, on close investigation, to be caused by minute insects located in the skin. Salt and water ought, in that case, to be a good remedy.
Hollow Horn, or Horn Ail.
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.—Bloody 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 accumulate 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 appetite.
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 ¾ or 1 lb. of brimstone or sulphur; and 8 hours after, as many salts.
Bloody Murrain, or Red Water.
This disease first shows itself in a cough, then heaving of the flanks, with bloody, black, and fœtid 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 drink
ing 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, 1½ 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 appetite, 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, nourishing food; and bitter infusions, chamomile flowers, hoarhound, oak bark, &c., in beer.
Scours, or Diarrhœa.
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, (Œstrus 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. molasses. 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.
Milk, or Puerperal Fever,
Is a common disease with cows in high condition, at the time of calving. It may, in almost every case, be avoided, by keeping them in moderate feed and flesh.
Remedies.—Bleed freely, say 6 to 10 quarts, according to the circulation of the blood; then give 1 to 1½ lbs. of Epsom salts, according to the size of the beast, to be repeated in half lb. doses every six hours, till she purges freely.
Injections should always be given when purgatives are tardy in their operation.
Caked Bag
May be removed by simmering the bark of the root of bitter-sweet in lard, till it becomes very yellow. When cool, apply it to the swollen udder once in 8 or 10 hours; or wash it several times a day in cold water.
A pint of horseradish, fed once a day, cut up with potatoes or meal, is useful for the same purpose.
This is also a tonic, helps the appetite, and is good for oxen subject to heat.
Garget
Is a more intense degree of inflammation than exists in caked bag and sore, swollen teats, and shows itself in hard bunches on the udder.
The cow should be bled, and take a large dose of physic; then wash the udder as in caked bag.
Repeated doses of sulphur is a good remedy.
Garget, or scoke root, given of the size of a large finger, grated and fed in their food, is a general application with farmers. The garget plant grows from three to six feet high, with a purple stalk, and strings of berries hanging down between the branches.
Sore Teats
May be healed by rubbing with goose oil, cream, new milk; or make the same applications for it as for caked bag. The bag and teats should be well cleansed with warm soft water, if to be followed by any ointment.
The following application is recommended by Youatt: One ounce of yellow wax and three of lard; melt together, and when cooling, rub in one quarter ounce of sugar of lead, and a drachm of alum finely powdered.
Warts
Are of two kinds; the first, on the outer skin, may be removed by rubbing with camphorated olive oil. The others penetrate into the flesh, and may be removed by a ligature of fine twine, or silk, or india-rubber drawn into a string, and tied tightly around the wart, which falls off in a few days.
Remedies.—Nitrate of silver, (lunar caustic,) applied to the wart, will remove it, but it produces a sore.
Apply a strong wash of alum.
Rub with the juice of milk-weed.
Poultice with grated carrot.
Cut off the wart with sharp scissors, when the cow is dry. It will bleed little, and soon heal.
Sore Necks on Working Oxen.
These occur when worked in wet weather, or with bad yokes. The remedy is, rub with a healing application. The preventive is, good yokes; the application of grease; or a decoction of white or yellow oak bark applied to the affected parts. Or, a better preventive is a canvass or leather cap to protect the neck entirely from the storm.
The Bite of Poisonous Snakes
May be cured by shaking together equal parts of olive oil and hartshorn, and rubbing the wound and adjacent parts three or four times a day. For a full-grown animal, one quart of olive oil and an ounce of hartshorn should be administered internally, in addition to the above.
For Stings of Bees, Hornets, &c.
Apply warm vinegar and salt, rubbing the parts thoroughly.
For a Forming Tumor.
Rub thoroughly with strong brine, or a solution of sal ammoniac dissolved in eight times its weight of water. If the tumor comes to a head, open it near the bottom with a lancet; or place a seton in it so as to admit the escape of purulent matter.
Lice and Vermin
Sometimes abound on cattle during the latter part of winter and spring. These are generally the result of mange, which is itself the effect of ill-feeding and ill-condition. They are removed with the cause. We doubt if they can be permanently kept off, where the animal is losing flesh and health.
Remedies.—Restore the health and condition, and sprinkle sand, ashes, or dirt plentifully around the roots of the horns, and along the ridge of the neck and back.
A liberal application of train or other oil has nearly a similar effect.
Never apply an ointment containing corrosive sublimate or
other poison, as it may be licked by the animal or its fellows, who may thus become seriously poisoned.
The Trembles,
Producing milk sickness (a most fatal disease) in the human family, from eating the milk or flesh of animals affected by it. This disease, which exists principally in the region of the Wabash River, is supposed by Dr. Drake to be owing to the poison oak, (Rhus Toxicodendron,) or poison vine, (Radicans,) which the animals eat.
Symptoms.—The animal mopes, is feverish and costive, but apparently preserves its appetite. The next stage of the disease is faintness and vertigo, which is shown when the animal is put upon exertion, being followed by excessive trembling and entire prostration.
Remedy.—Almost every cathartic has been tried in vain. Indian corn, both dry and green, has been fed to all animals accustomed to eating it, and when they can be induced to feed upon it freely, purging is generally secured. Rest of the animal is absolutely essential while the disease continues, and is itself an effectual remedy in mild cases.
Besides the diseases enumerated, there are occasional epidemics, such as black tongue, black foot, or foot root, &c., which carry off great numbers of animals. Remedies for these are frequently not discovered, and the epidemic is allowed to run its course unchecked. The only preventives are such care, food, and management as the experienced herdsman knows to be best suited to the maintenance of the health and thrift of his stock.
Note.—Some ailments will be found under the head of diseases of the other animals mentioned in this work, the general resemblance of which to each other will justify nearly a similar treatment.
If intelligent farriers are at hand, they may sometimes be called in with advantage; though we acknowledge our distrust of the quackery of most of those passing under this title. There is little science or intelligent study in the composition of this class, the world over; and much of their practice is the merest empiricism. The owner should see to it, if he employs one of whose attainments he is doubtful, that neither medicines nor operations be used, unnecessarily severe or hazardous to the animal. Especially, should the diabolical practice be interdict
ed, of the abundant and indiscriminate use of poisons, boiling oils, turpentine, and tar, and the hot iron applied to the sensitive wound or naked flesh. If certain or effectual remedies for the removal of disease cannot he applied, such as augment the suffering or endanger the life of the poor dumb things, may at least be avoided.