No powerful medicines should be used without discretion; for in the milder forms of the disease, as the simple palsy of the hind extremities, the treatment, though of a similar character, should be less powerful, and every effort should be made for the comfort of the cow, by providing a thick bed of straw, and raising the fore quarters to assist the efforts of nature, while all filth should be promptly and carefully removed. She may be covered with a warm cloth, and warm gruel should be frequently offered to her, and light mashes. An attempt should be made several times a day to bring milk from the teats. The return of milk is an indication of speedy recovery.
Milch cows in too high condition appear to have a constitutional tendency to this complaint, and one attack of it predisposes them to another.
Simple Fever.
—This may be considered as increased arterial action, with or without any local affection; or it may be the consequence of the sympathy of the system with the morbid condition of some particular part. The first is pure or idiopathic fever; the other, symptomatic fever. Pure fever is of frequent occurrence in cattle. Symptoms as follows: muzzle dry; rumination slow or entirely suspended; respiration slightly accelerated; the horn at the root hot, and its other extremity frequently cold; pulse quick; bowels constipated; coat staring, and the cow is usually seen separated from the rest of the herd. In slight attacks, a cathartic of salts, sulphur, and ginger, is sufficient. But, if the common fever is neglected, or improperly treated, it may assume, after a time, a local determination, as pleurisy, or inflammation of the lungs or bowels. In such cases the above remedy would be insufficient, and a veterinary surgeon, to manage the case, would be necessary. Symptomatic fever is more dangerous, and is commonly the result of injury, the neighboring parts sympathizing with the injured part. Cattle become unwell, are stinted in their feed, have a dose of physic, and in a few days are well; still, a fever may terminate in some local affection. But in both cases pure fever is the primary disease.
A more dangerous form of fever is that known as symptomatic. As we have said, cattle are not only subject to fever of common intensity, but to symptomatic fever, and thousands die annually from its effects. But the young and the most thriving are its victims. There are few premonitory symptoms of symptomatic fever. It often appears without any previous indications of illness. The animal stands with her neck extended, her eyes protruding and red, muzzle dry, nostrils expanded, breath hot, base of the horn hot, mouth open, pulse full, breathing quick. She is often moaning; rumination and appetite are suspended; she soon becomes more uneasy; changes her position often. Unless these symptoms are speedily removed, she dies in a few hours. The name of the ailment, inflammatory or symptomatic fever, shows the treatment necessary, which must commence with purging. Salts here, as in most inflammatory diseases, are the most reliable. From a pound to a pound and a half, with ginger and sulphur, is a dose, dissolved in warm water or thin gruel. If this does not operate in twelve hours, give half the dose, and repeat once in twelve hours, until the bowels are freed. After the operation of the medicine the animal is relieved. Then sedative medicines may be given. Sal ammoniac one drachm, powdered nitre two drachms, should be administered in thin gruel, two or three times a day, if required.
Typhus fever, common in some countries, is little known here among cattle.
Typhoid Fever
sometimes follows intense inflammatory action, and is considered the second stage of it. This form of fever is usually attended with diarrhœa. It is a debilitating complaint, and is sometimes followed by diseases known as black tongue, black leg, or quarter evil. The cause of typhoid fever is involved in obscurity. It may be proper to say that copious drinks of oat-meal gruel, with tincture of red pepper, a diet of bran, warmth to the body, and pure air, are great essentials in the treatment of this disease.
The barbarous practices of boring the horns, cutting the tail, and others equally absurd, should at once and forever be discarded by every farmer and dairyman. Alternate heat or coldness of the horn is only a symptom of this and other fevers, and has nothing to do with their cause. The horns are not diseased any further than a determination of blood to the head causes a sympathetic heat, while an unnatural distribution of blood, from exposure or other cause, may make them cold.
In all cases of this kind, if anything is done, it should be an effort to assist nature to regulate the animal system, by rousing the digestive organs to their natural action, by a light food, or, if necessary, a mild purgative medicine, followed by light stimulants.