VETCH. The common name of various leguminous plants of the genera Vicia and Ervum, now much cultivated as green fodder for milch cows and working stock. The seeds (tares) were formerly reputed detersive and astringent. Those of “the Canadian variety make good bread.” (Lindley.)
VET′ERINARY MEDICINES. The common form of medicine for horses is that popularly known as horse balls. They are usually prepared by mixing the dry ingredients, in the state of powder, with a sufficient quantity of treacle, or syrup bottoms, to give the mass a proper consistence for rolling into balls; adding, when necessary, linseed meal, or any other simple powder, to increase the bulk. The usual practice among the veterinary druggists is to keep a compound known in the trade as ‘ball-mass,’ or ‘common mass,’ ready prepared to give form and bulk to more active ingredients. This is usually made of about equal parts of linseed meal and treacle, together with a little palm or lard, thoroughly incorporated by kneading with the hands; and it is kept in a cool situation, tied over to prevent it drying and hardening. For use, the ball-masses are either rolled or moulded into small cylinders of about 11⁄2 to 13⁄4 oz. in weight; and in size, from 2 to 23⁄4 inches long, and from about 1⁄2 to 7⁄8 of an inch in diameter; and they are wrapped in soft paper, which is administered with them. Those for dogs are commonly formed into large boluses or nut-like pieces. The common practice in some houses of adding a little salt of tartar or acetate of potassa to ball-masses kept in stock, for the purpose of preserving them in a soft state, is not to be commended, since these articles decompose many of the saline and mineral compounds which are subsequently added to them.
Medicines for neat cattle are always administered in a liquid form, popularly called drenches. A similar plan is adopted with small cattle, as sheep and goats. For these, however, the quantity should seldom exceed 1⁄4 pint. In all cases, drenches should be very slowly administered.
The following are a few useful horse-balls:
Alterative Balls.—1. Levigated sulphide of antimony, sulphur, and linseed meal,
of each 3 oz.; nitre, 4 oz.; palm oil, q. s. to form a mass; for 12 balls. One to be taken every day, or every other day.
2. (Bell.) Sulphide of antimony, nitre, sulphur, and Æthiops mineral, of each 3 oz.; soft soap, 10 oz.; oil of juniper, 1⁄2 oz.; for 12 balls. As the last.
3. (White.) Sulphide of antimony, caraways, and treacle, of each 1⁄4 oz.; for one ball. As the last.
Cordial Balls.—1. (Blaine). Coriander seed, caraway, and gentian, of each 8 oz.; ginger, 4 oz.; oil of aniseed, 1⁄2 oz.; honey or palm oil, q. s. to form a mass. Cordial, warming, and stomachic.—Dose, 11⁄2 oz.
2. (Hill.) Anise, caraway, and cumin seed, of each 4 lbs.; ginger, 2 lbs.; treacle, q. s.; divide into 13⁄4 oz. balls. Prod. 21 lbs.