Laudanum in doses of 6 to 10 drops per day administered in rice water, extract of opium, weak solutions of tannin, etc., are also of value. Filliàtre has successfully used tar water in the first stages. The solution consists of vegetable tar 6 drachms, boiling water 1 quart. This solution is used tepid in the proportion of 1 part to 3 parts of warm milk.
Decoctions of spiked purple loosestrife, willow bark, etc., are also of great value in certain districts.
The drug which appears least dangerous, however, is that so often successfully used in young children—viz., subnitrate of bismuth. It can be given in doses of 30 to 45 grains per day, with lactic acid in doses of 75 to 150 grains, according to the size of the patients. If the animals are greatly exhausted and have been ill for some time there is less chance of recovery, and under these circumstances Dr. Lesage’s anti-colic serum might be used.
It gives excellent results in infants, and it has proved successful in simple diarrhœa of calves.
CHAPTER VII.
POISONING.
Accidental poisoning is frequent in domesticated animals. It may present no visible lesions, and it is therefore very important to recognise the symptoms which indicate the secret lesion.
POISONING DUE TO FOOD.
Under this title are included all forms of poisoning resulting from the ingestion of bad fodder. Such expressions as “intestinal typhus” and “typhic gastro-enteritis” only indicate a special stage in the condition, which is never twice the same.
Causation. The most important changes in the food ingested do not consist in a mere modification in its chemical composition, but in the presence of various parasites which develop in grain and forage, after moistening, or after abnormal fermentation in the interior of the grains. These parasites are chiefly represented by fungi belonging to the genus Mucor: Aspergillus or Penicillium; blight—Puccinia graminis, Uredo linearis; smut—Tilletia caries, Ustilago segetum, Ustilago maydis; yeasts of different kinds resulting from the fermentation of brewers’ grains; and, finally, unrecognised microbes which act by means of the poisons they secrete.
The symptoms are always very vague. At first the only marked symptom is loss of appetite, accompanied by dryness of the mouth and muzzle, depression and constipation. The animals never clearly show signs of gastro-enteritis; nevertheless, the changes in general health point very clearly to a digestive origin.