Cause.—Injuries, as blows, kicks, etc.; lying on cold, rough ground or floor, standing in drafts, sudden change of weather. Derangement of the system is likely to affect the udder; poorly milked or stripped cows are often victims of Mammitis. Infections in the teat from inserting dirty instruments, as using a bicycle pump for the treatment of Milk Fever. Cows with a retained afterbirth are likely to infect the udder by switching their tail. This condition is very common in heavy milkers following calving.
Symptoms.—The animal chills, hair stands, temperature elevated from one to three degrees above normal; ears, horns and legs cold, which may suddenly become very hot; pulse rapid, breathing hurried, bag hard and swollen and very tender on pressure. When attempts are made to milk, a watery substance comes away, almost colorless at first, but later becomes tinged with blood and pus and has a fetid color. The cow’s muzzle is dry, appetite poor, but great thirst exists. This condition may affect one or more quarters of the udder. Abscesses may form and the udder break and a thick yellowish pus oozes out or the milk glands may solidify and cause hard, lumpy growths in the udder.
Treatment.—Prevention. If an animal is once slightly affected with inflammation of the bag, it is likely to develop a bad case of Mammitis from the slightest injury or exposure as stated above, which depreciates a cow considerably as a milk producer, especially on the market. Great care should be exercised when purchasing a cow for milking purposes. See that the teats and udder are sound, free from lumps, etc.
Medical Treatment.—Hyposulphite of Soda, sixteen ounces; Nitrate of Potassi, four ounces. Mix and make into sixteen powders. Give one powder three times a day in drinking water or place in a gelatin capsule and give with a capsule gun. Also, dissolve Bichloride of Mercury, two grains; Boracic Acid, two drams, in one quart of boiling hot water. When this solution cools to about blood temperature, after stripping all milk fluid or pus from the affected teat or teats, inject with an ordinary bulb injection syringe after placing a teat tube into the end from which the air escapes when the bulb is pressed. Now, place this end of the syringe retaining the teat tube in the affected teat; the other end place in a bottle or vessel containing the solution and gently press the bulb and inject about a pint of the solution into each affected quarter. Leave the solution in the teat for only fifteen to twenty minutes and milk out thoroughly. Repeat this treatment two or three times a day.
For an external application, the following ointment has given remarkably good results: Blue Ointment, two ounces; Lard, two ounces. Mix well and apply twice daily.
INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE.
(Conjunctivitis)
Cause.—Injuries, irritating gases, standing in dark and poorly ventilated stables or foreign bodies in the eye, as chaff, etc.
Symptoms.—A constant flow of tears from the eye running down the animal’s face, which are due to the inflammation of the lining membranes of the eye. The eye is partially or completely closed.
Treatment.—If due to a foreign body, remove it. In order to accomplish this, the animal must be placed in a stanchion, the head twisted and the eyelid turned back. Do not use burnt alum as this will only make the condition worse. Use Boracic Acid, thirty grains; distilled water, one ounce. Apply to the eye three or four times daily, using an ordinary eye-dropper.