The American Reformed Cattle Doctor Part 22

INFLAMMATORY FEVER.

Inflammatory fever manifests itself very suddenly. The animal may appear well during the day, but at night it appears dull, refuses its food, heaves at the flanks, seems uneasy, and sometimes delirious; the pulse is full and bounding; the mouth hot; urine high colored and scanty.

Sometimes there are hot and cold stages.

_Remarks._--When disease attacks any particular organ suddenly, or in an acute form, inflammatory fever generally manifests itself. Now, disease may attack the brain, the lungs, kidneys, spleen, bowels, pleura, or peritoneum. Inflammatory fever may be present in each case. Now, it is evident that the fever is not the real enemy to be overcome; it is only a manifestation of disorder, not the cause of it. The skin may be obstructed, thereby retaining excrement.i.tious materials in the system: the reabsorption of the latter produces fever; hence it is obvious that a complete cure can only be effected by the removal of its causes, or, rather, the restoration of the suppressed evacuations, secretions, or excretions.

It is very important that we observe and imitate nature in her method of curing fever, which is, the restoration of the secretions, and, in many cases, by sweat, or by diarrhoea; either of which processes will remove the irritating or offending cause, and promote equilibrium of action throughout the whole animal system. In fulfilling these indications consists the whole art of curing fever.

But says one, "It is a very difficult thing to sweat an ox." Then the remedies should be more perseveringly applied. Warm, relaxing, antispasmodic drinks should be freely allowed, and these should be aided by warmth, moisture, and friction externally; and by injection, if needed. If the ox does not actually sweat under this system of medication, he will throw off a large amount of insensible perspiration.

_Causes._--In addition to the causes already enumerated, are the acc.u.mulation of excrement.i.tious and morbific materials in the system.

Dr. Eberle says, "A large proportion of the recrement.i.tious elements of perspirable matter must, when the surface is obstructed, remain and mingle with the blood, (unless speedily removed by the vicarious action of some other emunctory,) and necessarily impart to this fluid qualities that are not natural to it. Most a.s.suredly the retention of materials which have become useless to the system, and for whose constant elimination nature has provided so extensive a series of emunctories as the cutaneous exhalents, cannot be long tolerated by the animal economy with entire impunity."

Dr. White says, "Many of the diseases of horses and cattle are caused by suppressed or checked perspiration; the various appearances they a.s.sume depending, perhaps, in great measure, upon the suddenness with which this discharge is stopped, and the state of the animal at the time it takes place.

"Cattle often suffer from being kept in cold, bleak situations, particularly in the early part of spring, during the prevalence of an easterly wind; in this case, the suppression of the discharge is more gradual, and the diseases which result from it are slower in their progress, consequently more insidious in their nature; and it often happens that the animal is left in the same cold situation until the disease is incurable."

It seems probable that, in these cases, the perspiratory vessels gradually lose their power, and that, at length, a total and permanent suppression of that necessary discharge takes place; hence arise inflammatory fever, consumption, decayed liver, rot, mesenteric obstructions, and various other complaints. How necessary, therefore, is it for proprietors of cattle to be provided with sheltered situations for their stock! How many diseases might they prevent by such precaution, and how much might they save, not only in preserving the lives of their cattle, but in avoiding the expense (too often useless, to say the least of it) of cattle doctoring!

_Treatment._--We first give an aperient, (see APPENDIX,) to deplete the system. The common practice is to deplete by blood-letting, which only protracts the malady, and often brings on typhus, black quarter, joint murrain, &c. Promote the secretions and excretions in the manner already referred to under the head of _Puerperal Fever_; this will relieve the stricture of the surface. A drink made from either of the following articles should be freely given: lemon balm, wandering milk weed, thoroughwort, or lady's slipper, made as follows:--

Take either of the above articles, 2 ounces.

Boiling water, 2 quarts.

When cool, strain, and add a wine-gla.s.s of honey.

If there is great thirst, and the mouth is hot and dry, the animal may have a plentiful supply of water.

If the malady threatens to a.s.sume a putrid or malignant type, add a small quant.i.ty of capsic.u.m and charcoal to the drink, and support the strength of the animal with flour gruel.

TYPHUS FEVER.

_Causes._--Sudden changes in the temperature of the atmosphere, the animal being at the same time in a state of debility, unable to resist external agencies.

_Treatment._--Support the powers of the system through the means of nutritious diet, in the form of flour gruel, scalded meal and shorts, bran-water, &c.

Give tonics, relaxants, and antispasmodics, in the following form:--

Powdered capsic.u.m, 1 tea-spoonful.

" bloodroot, 1 ounce.

" cinnamon, half an ounce.

Thoroughwort or valerian, 2 ounces.

Boiling water, 1 gallon.

When cold, strain, and give a quart every two hours.

Remove the contents of the r.e.c.t.u.m by injections of a stimulating character, and invite action to the extremities by rubbing them with stimulating liniment, (which see.) A drink of camomile tea should be freely allowed; if diarrhoea sets in, add half a tea-spoon of bayberry bark to every two quarts of the tea.

These few examples of the treatment of fever will give the farmer an idea of the author's manner of treating it, who can generally break up a fever in a few hours, whereas the popular method of "smothering the fire," as Mr. Youatt terms the blood-letting process, instead of curing, will produce all forms of fever. Here is a specimen of the treatment, in fever of a putrid type, recommended by Dr. Brocklesby. He says, "Immediately upon refusing fodder, the beast should have three quarts of blood taken away; and after twelve hours, two quarts more; after the next twelve hours, about three pints may be let out; and after the following twelve hours, diminish a pint of blood from the quant.i.ty taken away at the preceding blood-letting; lastly, about a single pint should be taken away in less than twelve hours after the former bleeding; so that, when the beast has been blooded five times, in the manner here proposed, the worst symptoms will, it is hoped, abate; but if the difficulty and panting for breath continue very great, I see no reason against repeated bleeding." (See Lawson's work on cattle, p. 312.) The author has consulted several authorities on the treatment of typhus, and finds that the use of the lancet is invariably recommended. We do not expect to find, among our American farmers, any one so reckless, so lost to the common feelings of humanity, and his own interest, as to follow out the directions here given by Dr. B.; still blood-letting is practised, to some extent, in every section of the Union, and will continue to be the sheet-anchor of the cattle doctor just so long as the influential and cattle-rearing community shall be kept in darkness to its destructive tendency. Unfortunately for the poor dumb brute, veterinary writers have from time immemorial been uncompromising advocates for bleeding; and through the influence which their talents and position confer, they have wielded the medical sceptre with a despotism worthy of a better cause. It were a bootless task to attempt to reform the disciples of allopathy; for, if you deprive them of the lancet, and their _materia medica_ of poisons, they cannot practise.

They must be reformed through public opinion; and for this purpose we publish our own experience, and that of others who have dared to a.s.sail allopathy, with the moral certainty that they would expose themselves to contempt, and be branded as "medical heretics."

No treatment is scientific, in the estimation of some, unless it includes the lancet, firing-iron, setons, boring horns, cramming down salts by the pound, and castor oil by the quart. The object of this work is to correct this erroneous notion, and show the _farming community_ that a safer and more efficient system of medication has just sprung into existence. When the principles of this reformed system of medication are understood and practised, then the veterinary science will be a very different thing from what it has heretofore been, and men will hail it as a blessing instead of a "curse." They will then know the power that really cures, and devise means of prevention. And here, reader, permit us to introduce the opinions of an able advocate of reform in human practice:[13] the same remarks apply to cattle; for they are governed by the same universal laws that we are, and whether we prescribe for a man or an ox, the laws of the animal economy are the same, and require that the same indications shall be fulfilled.

"A little examination into the consequences of blood-letting will prove that, so far from its being beneficial, it is productive of the most serious effects.

"Nature has endowed the animal frame with the power of preparing, from proper aliment, a certain quant.i.ty of blood. This vital fluid, subservient to nutrition, is, by the amazing structure of the heart and blood-vessels, circulated through the different parts of the system. A certain natural balance between what is taken in and what pa.s.ses off by the several outlets of the body is, in a state of health, regularly preserved. When this balance, so essential to health and life, is, contrary to the laws of the animal const.i.tution, interrupted, either a deviation from a sound state is immediately perceived, or health from that moment is rendered precarious. Blood-letting tends artificially to destroy the natural balance in the const.i.tution." (For more important information on blood-letting, see the author's work on the Horse; also page 58 of the present volume.)

FOOTNOTE:

[13] Dr. Beach.

HORN AIL IN CATTLE.

On applying the hand to the horn or horns of a sick beast, an unnatural heat, or sometimes coldness, is felt: this enables us to judge of the degree of sympathetic disturbance. And here, reader, permit us to protest against a cruel practice, that is much in fas.h.i.+on, viz., that of boring the horns with a gimlet; for it does not mend the matter one jot, and at best it is only treating symptoms. The gimlet frequently penetrates the frontal sinuses which communicate with the nasal pa.s.sages, and where mucous secretion, if vitiated or tenacious, will acc.u.mulate. On withdrawing the gimlet, a small quant.i.ty of thick mucus, often blood, escapes, and the interested operator will probably bore the other horn. Now, it often happens that after the point of the gimlet has pa.s.sed through one side of the horn and bony structure, it suddenly enters a sinus, and does not meet with any resistance until it reaches the opposite side. Many a "mare's nest" has been found in this way, usually announced as follows: "The horn is hollow!" Again, in aged animals, the bony structure within the horn often collapses or shrinks, forming a sinus or cavity within the horn: by boring in a lateral direction, the gimlet enters it; the horn is then p.r.o.nounced hollow!

and, according to the usual custom, must be doctored. An abscess will sometimes form in the frontal sinuses, resulting from common catarrh or "hoose;" the gimlet may penetrate the sac containing the pus, which thus escapes; but it would escape, finally, through the nostrils, if it were let alone. Here, again, the "horns are diseased;" and should the animal recover, (which it would, eventually, without any interference,) the recovery is strangely attributed to the boring process. An author, whose name has escaped our memory, recommends "cow doctors to carry a gimlet in their pocket." We say to such men, Lead yourselves not into temptation! if you put a gimlet into your pocket, you will be very likely to slip it into the cow's horn. Some men have a kind of instinctive impulse to bore the cow's horns; we allude to those who are unacquainted with the fact that "horn ail" is only a symptom of derangement. It is no more a disease of the horns than it is of the functions generally; for if there be an excess or deficiency of vital action within or around the base of the horn, there must be a corresponding deficiency or excess, as the case may be, in some other region.

"Horn ail," as it is improperly termed, we have said, may accompany common catarrh, also that of an epidemic form; the horns will feel unnatural if there be a determination of blood to the head: this might be easily equalized by stimulating the external surface and extremities, at the same time giving antispasmodic teas and regulating the diet. The horns will feel cold whenever there is an unnatural distribution of the blood, and this may arise from exposure, or suffering the animal to wallow in filth. The author has been consulted in many cases of "horn ail," in several of which there were slow fecal movements, or constipation; the conjunctiva of the eyes were injected with yellow fluid, and of course a deficiency of bile in the abomasum, or fourth stomach; thus plainly showing that the animals were laboring under derangement of the digestive organs. Our advice was, to endeavor to promote a healthy action through the whole system; to stimulate the digestive organs; to remove obstructions, both by injection, if necessary, and by the use of aperients; lastly, to invite action to the extremities, by stimulating liniments. Whenever these indications are fulfilled, "horn ail" soon disappears.

ABORTION IN COWS.

Cows are particularly liable to the accident of "slinking the calf." The common causes of abortion are, the respiration and ultimate absorption of emanations from putrid animal remains, over-feeding, derangement of the stomach, &c. The filthy, stagnant water they are often compelled to drink is likewise a serious cause, not only of abortion, but also of general derangement of the animal functions. Dr. White, V. S., tells us that "a farm in England had been given up three successive times in consequence of the loss the owners sustained by abortion in their cattle. At length the fourth proprietor, after suffering considerably in losses occasioned by abortion in his stock, suspected that the water of his ponds, which was extremely filthy, might be the cause of the mischief. He therefore dug three wells upon his farm, and, having fenced round the pond to prevent the cattle from drinking there, caused them to be supplied with the well water, in stone troughs erected for the purpose; and from this moment the evil was remedied, and the quality of the b.u.t.ter and cheese made on his farm was greatly improved. In order to show," says the same author, "that the accident of abortion may arise from a vitiated state of the digestive organs, I will here notice a few circ.u.mstances tending to corroborate this opinion. In 1782, all the cows of the farmer D'Euruse, in Picardy, miscarried. The period at which they warped was about the fourth or fifth month. The accident was attributed to the excessive heat of the preceding summer; but, as the water they were in the habit of drinking was extremely bad, and they had been kept on oat, wheat, and rye straw, it appears to me more probable, that the great quant.i.ty of straw they were obliged to eat, in order to obtain sufficient nourishment, and the injury sustained by the third stomach in expressing the fluid parts of the masticated or ruminated ma.s.s, together with the large quant.i.ty of water they drank, while kept on this dry food, were the real causes of the miscarriage.

"A farmer at Chariton, out of a dairy of twenty-eight cows, had sixteen slip their calves at different periods of gestation. The summer had been very dry; they had been pastured in a muddy place, which was flooded by the Seine. Here the cows were generally up to their knees in mud and water. In 1789, all the cows in a village near Mantes miscarried. All the lands in this place were so stiff as to be, for some time, impervious to water; and as a vast quant.i.ty of rain fell that year, the pastures were for a time completely inundated, on which account the gra.s.s became bad. This proves that keeping cows on food that is deficient in nutritive properties, and difficult of digestion, is one of the princ.i.p.al causes of miscarriage." Mr. Youatt says, "It is supposed that the sight of a slipped calf, or the smell of putrid animal substances, are apt to produce warping. Some curious cases of abortion, which are worthy of notice, happened in the dairy of a French farmer.

For thirty years his cows had been subject to abortion. His cow-house was large and well ventilated; his cows were in apparent health; they were fed like others in the village; they drank the same water; there was nothing different in the posture; he had changed his servants many times in the course of thirty years; he pulled down the barn and cow-house, and built another, on a different plan; he even, agreeably to superst.i.tion, took away the aborted calf through the window, that the curse of future abortion might not be entailed on the cow that pa.s.sed over the same threshold. To make all sure, he had broken through the wall at the end of the cow-house, and opened a new door. But still the trouble continued. Several of his cows had died in the act of abortion, and he had replaced them by others; many had been sold, and their vacancies filled up. He was advised to make a thorough change. This had never occurred to him; but at once he saw the propriety of the counsel.

He sold every beast, and the pest was stayed, and never appeared in his new stock. This was owing, probably, to sympathetic influence: the result of such influence is as fatal as the direst contagion."

My own opinion of this disease is, that it is one of nervous origin; that there is a loss of equilibrium between the nerves of voluntary and involuntary motion. The direct causes of this pathological state exist in any thing that can derange the organs of digestion. Great sympathy is known to exist between the organs of generation and the stomach: if the latter be deranged, the former feels a corresponding influence, and the sympathetic nerves are the media by which the change takes place.

It invariably follows that, as soon as impregnation takes place, the stomach from that moment takes on an irritable state, and is more susceptible to the action of unfavorable agents. Thus the odor of putrid substances cases nausea or relaxation when the animal is in a state of pregnancy; otherwise, the same odor would not affect it in the least.

Professor Curtis says, "The nervous system const.i.tutes the check lines by which the vital spirit governs, as a coachman does his horses, the whole motive apparatus of the animal economy; that every line, or pencil, or ganglion of lines, in it, is antagonistic to some other line or ganglion, so that, whenever the function of one is exalted, that of some other is depressed. It follows, of course, that to equalize the nervous action, and to sustain the equilibrium, is one of the most important duties of the physician."

In addition to the causes of abortion already enumerated, we may add violent exercise, jumping dikes or hedges, sudden frights, and blows or bruises.

_Treatment._--When a cow has slipped her foetus, and appears in good condition, the quant.i.ty of food usually given should be lessened. Give the following drink every night for a week:--

Valerian, (herb,) 1 ounce.

Powdered skunk cabbage, 1 tea-spoonful.