Symptoms.—Dullness. The animal loses its spirits, so to speak, usually shivers or trembles. When this ceases, the temperature rises to perhaps 105° to 106° F. The ears and legs grow cold, the nose hot and dry, pulse rapid but firm, breathing short and labored, a short hacking cough will be present. Such animals generally remain standing.
Other symptoms are constipation, the feces covered with mucus or a slime, great thirst. The eyes are inflamed and look glassy. The secretions of milk are suppressed, if these symptoms develop in milking cows.
Treatment.—Place the animal in clean, warm, comfortable quarters permitting light and as much pure air as possible, but avoid drafts and blanket the animal if chilly. Hand rub the legs and bandage with woolen cloths. Administer Pulv. Carbonate of Ammonia, four ounces; Pulv. Nux Vomica, three ounces; Quinine, two ounces; Nitrate of Potash, two ounces; Potassium Iodide one ounce. Make into twenty-four capsules and give one capsule every four hours with capsule gun. Also apply a paste made from Mustard and cold water over the lung cavities just back of the fore legs. Apply once a day and perhaps one or two applications will be sufficient.
If this disease is treated when the first symptoms develop, a good recovery will follow. Feed easily digested food as hot wheat bran mashes or steamed rolled oats, vegetables and green grass if possible.
CONTAGIOUS ABORTION.
(Infectious Abortion)
Cause.—Due to germ (Bacollus Abortus) coming in direct contact with the genital organs of a bull or cow and can be indefinitely transmitted from one herd to another by infected bulls serving healthy cows, or infected cows when served transmit the infection to healthy bulls. Healthy cows become infected by their genital organs coming in contact with litter on floors when lying down or rubbing against fences, walls or posts previously soiled by aborting cows. Cattle licking one another is also a prolific cause.
Symptoms.—The signs of calving are not so well marked as in normal calving, especially where the aborting animal is a heifer and the gestation period has not exceeded three or four weeks. In cows, especially where the gestation period has advanced to five or seven months, the symptoms are easily detected as a rule by a swelling of the udder, or what is commonly termed “making bag,” the outer portions of the womb swollen and inflamed as in normal calving. As the period of abortion approaches, there will be a discharge of mucus and blood from the womb. Labor pains are not as severe as in normal calving, owing to the absence of hair on the foetus and being smaller; although the afterbirth (fœtal membranes), may be retained the same as in normal calving.
Preventive Treatment.—This perhaps is the cheapest and best method of treating Contagious Abortion. When purchasing bulls or cows, ascertain whether the farm you purchased from has Contagious Abortion. An investigation of this kind often saves labor, time and money.
Medical Treatment.—When once Contagious Abortion makes its appearance, separate infected from non-infected animals, remove all litter, manure, etc., from barns, corrals, and burn or bury deeply. The conveyances used should be tight so as to prevent scattering. Scrub and disinfect floors, fences, walls and barns and rubbing posts with a solution made from three pounds of Copper Sulphate to ten gallons of water, permitting it to thoroughly dissolve before using. Use an ordinary barrel and cover so as to prevent any cattle drinking same, as it is very poisonous. When a cow aborts, remove the calf and afterbirth in a tight receptacle that will prevent any portion from being scattered, and burn or bury deeply; disinfect the floor and walls of stall where the abortion took place as long as the cow is discharging any fluids from the womb. A gallon of distilled or boiled water containing about one per cent Carbolic Acid should be injected into the womb with an ordinary hose and funnel. This should be repeated once a day for a week. Use a solution of the same strength for washing the tail and parts around the outer part of the womb, or in fact any part that the discharge of an aborting cow may come in contact with.