But experience has shown that, while such treatment is troublesome to carry out, its efficacy cannot be relied upon.
Success is more certain with fumigations, as they penetrate directly to the worms, stupefy them, and induce fits of coughing that cause expulsion. They are practised in buildings from which all forage is previously removed, and which are well closed. Into these the diseased [animals] are introduced, and on a red-hot shovel are placed rags, horns, feathers, hair, old pieces of leather, empyreumatic oil, tar, juniper berries, asafetida, etc. The intensity, duration, and number of these fumigations are graduated as the sheep become accustomed to them. At first once a day may suffice, and then the intensity should be moderate and the duration about ten minutes; afterwards two, and finally three, may be given during the day, each lasting for twenty minutes. Kowalewsky says he has obtained very good results from similar fumigations. Fumigations with chlorine, sulphur, and sulphuret of mercury or cinnabar have been recommended, but they are dangerous.
(Stephen recommends as follows: Put about forty lambs at a time into an air-tight house, and place tar, sulphur, and turpentine in a pot of burning coals, suspended by a chain from the ceiling and brought as near to the heads of the animals as possible; the fumes are to be allowed to fill the house, and more ingredients are added as required, the lambs being kept in the place for twenty-five minutes each time, and the process to be repeated on three occasions.)
Tracheal injections in the verminous bronchitis of calves are of great utility; but for a flock of sheep they would be troublesome and difficult to administer. However, Nieman, has successfully employed them on 384 sheep belonging to several small owners. He used a solution of 2 parts iodine and 10 parts iodide of potassium in 100 parts of distilled water. This fluid was mixed, in equal parts, with oil of turpentine, and made into an emulsion with olive oil; each sheep received 5 to 8 grams of the mixture, and the number of the injections varied according to the gravity of the disease—from two to three at two days’ interval. The worms were killed and expelled during the paroxysms of coughing, and the bronchitis was modified.
The medical treatment should be assisted by very nourishing food, and by bitter, stimulating, and ferruginous tonics, which arouse the digestive functions and allow those animals which are least exhausted to reach the period of elimination of the parasites.
At the commencement of any kind of treatment it is well to have an examination of the flock, with the object of sending the worst cases to the butcher.
The same medicaments have been employed in treating this malady in calves as in that of sheep, and no better results have been obtained. Neumann and Janné have, however, been successful with asafetida (30 grams), Chabert’s empyreumatic oil (60 grams), and a mucilaginous decoction (500 grams)—a spoonful of this mixture being given in a half litre of milk, and the treatment continued for about a month.
The results are less uncertain if the worms lodged in the bronchial tubes are directly acted upon, either by means of injections of the same kind as those employed for sheep, or fluid medicaments introduced directly into the bronchi.
Read says he has cured calves worn down almost to skeletons by verminous bronchitis by the following procedure: The head of the calf is slightly elevated, and about 2 drachms of ether, chloroform, oil of turpentine, or rectified oil of amber—single or combined—are poured into each nostril and allowed to vaporize there; it will then, by the respiration, be carried into the air passages, and thus destroy the filariæ. In some cases it must be repeated two or three times, but once has frequently the desired effect.
The method of treatment by intra-tracheal injection, introduced by Levi, of Pisa, has yielded very satisfactory results. Levi has been completely successful with a sheep. Éloire has employed it in sixteen calves affected with the disease, and all were cured. He used the following mixture: Black poppy oil, 100 parts; oil of turpentine, 100 parts; carbolic acid, 2 parts; purified cade oil, 2 parts. Each calf received 10 grams of this mixture daily for three days.