No prudent farmer will neglect to observe approaching symptoms of disease in his stock. The cheapest way to keep animals healthy is to treat them properly in time, and before disease is seated upon them. Hoose often ends in consumption and death.
Inflammation of the Glands
often occurs in hoose, catarrh, etc., but they resume their natural state when these complaints are removed. The animal cannot swallow without pain sometimes, and soft feed should be given. Remove the cause, and the inflammation ceases. Some make a relaxing poultice of marsh-mallows, or similar substances; and rub the throat with a mixture of olive or goose oil one gill, spirit of camphor one ounce, oil of cedar one ounce, and half a gill of vinegar.
Inflammation of the Lungs.
—Common catarrh or hoose sometimes leads to inflammation of the lungs, which is indicated by dulness and sore cough. The ears, the roots of the horns, and legs, are sometimes cold. The breath is hot, as well as the mouth; and the animal rarely lies down, and is reluctant to move, or change its position. Warm water and mashes, or gruel, may be given, and the animal kept in a dry place. The cause of the complaint should be removed, and the trouble will generally soon cease. The treatment is much the same as for fever; but where the surface of the body is cold, as is generally the case, give sweet spirits of nitro two ounces, liquor acetate of ammonia four ounces, in a pint of water, two or three times a day.
Diarrhœa
is brought on by too sudden change of food, especially from dry to green and succulent food; sometimes by poisonous plants or bad water. If slight, the farmer may not be anxious to check it. It may show simply an effort of nature to throw off some injurious substances from the body, and so it may exist when the animal is quite healthy. But, if it continues too long, and is likely to debilitate the system, a mild purgative may be given to assist rather than check the operation of nature. Half a pound of Epsom salts, with a little ginger and gentian, will do for a medium-sized animal in this case; but a purgative may be followed in a day or two by an astringent medicine. Take prepared chalk two ounces, powdered oak-bark one ounce, powdered catechu two drachms, powdered opium one drachm, and four drachms powdered ginger. Mix these together, and give in a quart of warm gruel. Sometimes a few ounces of pulverized charcoal will arrest the diarrhœa. Common diarrhœa may be distinguished from dysentery by a too abundant discharge of dung in too fluid a form, or in a full, almost liquid stream, sometimes very offensive to the smell, and now and then bloody. In dysentery, the dung is often mixed with mucus and blood, and is not unfrequently attended by a hard straining. The quantity of dung is less than in diarrhœa, but more offensive.
Diarrhœa may occur at any season of the year, and sometimes leads to dysentery, which more frequently appears in the spring and fall.
Dysentery
, or scouring rot, is a dangerous and troublesome malady when it becomes seated.