WARTS.
—The cause of these little tumors of the skin is not definitely known. They occur on all domestic animals, appearing most frequently on horses and cattle. Pure acetic acid, dropped on the wart until it is saturated and softened, destroys in the early stages. Warts about which a small cord may be tied are most easily treated in that way. After they have sloughed off, apply a little terchloride of antimony with a feather or cotton. When the scab forms, remove it and apply the chemical again. With a couple of applications the spot will be lower than the surrounding skin. Now use an ointment, made of 4 tablespoonfuls of oxide of zinc and 8 tablespoonfuls of lard. Apply this daily until the sore spot is healed. Sometimes a form of warts suddenly appears on colts and calves and scatter themselves about the lips, nose and face. They are common and appear and disappear suddenly. No treatment is necessary.
WATER IN THE BRAIN.
—Dropsy in the brain. A condition characterized by an accumulation of fluid in the brain. The disease is either congenital or arises during the first years of life. When it occurs the best thing is to kill the young individual at once.
WATER IN THE CHEST.
—Often after a case of pleurisy a reaction comes and a very large quantity of water settles in the chest cavity, anywhere from two to four pailfuls. When the disease comes on the animal has difficulty in breathing; takes in the breath quickly. There is a constant biting at the flanks; the pulse increases to a hundred beats a minute. If you place your ear over the chest you will likely hear no sound at all. Best treatment is wholesome food, boiled flaxseed, and blisters for both sides of the chest. Use strong mustard plasters. A good medicine to use is one-fourth of a pound of saltpeter or nitrate of potash, one fourth of a pound of ground gentian and one-fourth of a pound of sulphate of iron. These should be mixed and then 1 teaspoonful given every four hours. You had better consult a veterinarian. Other complications set in so readily that help may be secured in other ways. Some veterinarians puncture the chest so as to draw off the surplus water that has accumulated.
WHITE SCOURS OF CALVES.
—Calves of several days or weeks old suffer from indigestion, which is indicated by thriftlessness, and then scouring. The discharges are white, sour, curdled and frequent at first and then become watery, greenish and offensive, passing in stream often. Calves live some days and fast lose flesh, showing all the symptoms of ill health.
One of the commonest causes is feeding dirty, souring or decomposing factory skim milk in large quantities at long intervals; even sweet skim milk so fed may produce the trouble. To prevent scours give calves a perfectly clean, airy, sunny pen and yard attached. Separate any calf that scours. Avoid dirty, dark, damp, poorly ventilated pens in which scouring calves have been. Give all food from clean, scalded, sun-dried vessels. Feed small quantities of food often; and in milk mix lime water freely two or three times a week as a preventive; and daily when scouring has been experienced. Also see that the udders of cows nursing calves do not become contaminated with manure or other filth.
Wash udders with a two per cent solution of coal tar disinfectant before any calf is allowed to suck for the first time, and then repeat to keep the udders clean. Also disinfect the navel of each calf at birth with a 1⁄500 solution of corrosive sublimate and repeat the application twice a day until the navel is perfectly healed over. At the first sign of scours give castor oil shaken up in milk. Two to 6 tablespoonfuls is the dose according to the size and age of the calf. Follow two or three times daily with a 1 to 2-teaspoonful dose of a mixture of one part of salol and two parts of subnitrate of bismuth in milk or water. For calves scouring on skim milk mix in each pint of milk 1 teaspoonful of a mixture of half an ounce of formaldehyde in 151⁄2 ounces of distilled water, to be kept in an amber-colored bottle.