Domestic Animals Part 7

Milk, or Puerperal Fever,

Is a common disease with cows in high condition, at the time of calving.

It may, in almost every case, be avoided, by keeping them in moderate feed and flesh.

_Remedies._--Bleed freely, say 6 to 10 quarts, according to the circulation of the blood; then give 1 to 1 lbs. of Epsom salts, according to the size of the beast, to be repeated in half lb. doses every six hours, till she purges freely.

Injections should always be given when purgatives are tardy in their operation.

Caked Bag

May be removed by simmering the bark of the root of bitter-sweet in lard, till it becomes very yellow. When cool, apply it to the swollen udder once in 8 or 10 hours; or wash it several times a day in cold water.

A pint of horseradish, fed once a day, cut up with potatoes or meal, is useful for the same purpose.

This is also a tonic, helps the appet.i.te, and is good for oxen subject to heat.

Garget

Is a more intense degree of inflammation than exists in caked bag and sore, swollen teats, and shows itself in hard bunches on the udder.

The cow should be bled, and take a large dose of physic; then wash the udder as in caked bag.

Repeated doses of sulphur is a good remedy.

Garget, or sc.o.ke root, given of the size of a large finger, grated and fed in their food, is a general application with farmers. The garget plant grows from three to six feet high, with a purple stalk, and strings of berries hanging down between the branches.

Sore Teats

May be healed by rubbing with goose oil, cream, new milk; or make the same applications for it as for caked bag. The bag and teats should be well cleansed with warm soft water, if to be followed by any ointment.

The following application is recommended by Youatt: One ounce of yellow wax and three of lard; melt together, and when cooling, rub in one quarter ounce of sugar of lead, and a drachm of alum finely powdered.

Warts

Are of two kinds; the first, on the outer skin, may be removed by rubbing with camphorated olive oil. The others penetrate into the flesh, and may be removed by a ligature of fine twine, or silk, or india-rubber drawn into a string, and tied tightly around the wart, which falls off in a few days.

_Remedies._--Nitrate of silver, (lunar caustic,) applied to the wart, will remove it, but it produces a sore.

Apply a strong wash of alum.

Rub with the juice of milk-weed.

Poultice with grated carrot.

Cut off the wart with sharp scissors, when the cow is dry. It will bleed little, and soon heal.

Sore Necks on Working Oxen.

These occur when worked in wet weather, or with bad yokes. The _remedy_ is, rub with a healing application. The _preventive_ is, good yokes; the application of grease; or a decoction of white or yellow oak bark applied to the affected parts. Or, a better preventive is a canva.s.s or leather cap to protect the neck entirely from the storm.

The Bite of Poisonous Snakes

May be cured by shaking together equal parts of olive oil and hartshorn, and rubbing the wound and adjacent parts three or four times a day. For a full-grown animal, one quart of olive oil and an ounce of hartshorn should be administered internally, in addition to the above.

For Stings of Bees, Hornets, &c.

Apply warm vinegar and salt, rubbing the parts thoroughly.

For a Forming Tumor.

Rub thoroughly with strong brine, or a solution of sal ammoniac dissolved in eight times its weight of water. If the tumor comes to a head, open it near the bottom with a lancet; or place a seton in it so as to admit the escape of purulent matter.

Lice and Vermin

Sometimes abound on cattle during the latter part of winter and spring.

These are generally the result of _mange_, which is itself the effect of ill-feeding and ill-condition. They are removed with the cause. We doubt if they can be permanently kept off, where the animal is losing flesh and health.

_Remedies._--Restore the health and condition, and sprinkle sand, ashes, or dirt plentifully around the roots of the horns, and along the ridge of the neck and back.

A liberal application of train or other oil has nearly a similar effect.

Never apply an ointment containing corrosive sublimate or other poison, as it may be licked by the animal or its fellows, who may thus become seriously poisoned.

The Trembles,

Producing _milk sickness_ (a most fatal disease) in the human family, from eating the milk or flesh of animals affected by it. This disease, which exists princ.i.p.ally in the region of the Wabash River, is supposed by Dr. Drake to be owing to the _poison oak_, (Rhus Toxicodendron,) or _poison vine_, (Radicans,) which the animals eat.

_Symptoms._--The animal mopes, is feverish and costive, but apparently preserves its appet.i.te. The next stage of the disease is faintness and vertigo, which is shown when the animal is put upon exertion, being followed by excessive _trembling_ and entire prostration.

_Remedy._--Almost every cathartic has been tried in vain. Indian corn, both dry and green, has been fed to all animals accustomed to eating it, and when they can be induced to feed upon it freely, purging is generally secured. Rest of the animal is absolutely essential while the disease continues, and is itself an effectual remedy in mild cases.

Besides the diseases enumerated, there are occasional epidemics, such as _black tongue_, _black foot_, or _foot root_, _&c._, which carry off great numbers of animals. Remedies for these are frequently not discovered, and the epidemic is allowed to run its course unchecked. The only preventives are such care, food, and management as the experienced herdsman knows to be best suited to the maintenance of the health and thrift of his stock.

_Note._--Some ailments will be found under the head of _diseases_ of the other animals mentioned in this work, the general resemblance of which to each other will justify nearly a similar treatment.

If intelligent _farriers_ are at hand, they may sometimes be called in with advantage; though we acknowledge our distrust of the quackery of most of those pa.s.sing under this t.i.tle. There is little science or intelligent study in the composition of this cla.s.s, the world over; and much of their practice is the merest empiricism. The owner should see to it, if he employs one of whose attainments he is doubtful, that neither medicines nor operations be used, unnecessarily severe or hazardous to the animal. Especially, should the diabolical practice be interdicted, of the abundant and indiscriminate use of poisons, boiling oils, turpentine, and tar, and the hot iron applied to the sensitive wound or naked flesh. If certain or effectual remedies for the removal of disease cannot he applied, such as augment the suffering or endanger the life of the poor dumb things, may at least be avoided.