Special Report on Diseases of Cattle Part 33

The surroundings of the calf are powerful influences. Calves kept indoors suffer to a greater extent than those running in the open air and having the invigorating influences of sunshine, pure air, and exercise; close, crowded, filthy, bad-smelling buildings are especially causative of the complaint. The presence in the air of carbon dioxid, the product of breathing, and of the fetid, gaseous products of decomposing dung and urine diminish by about one-fourth of their volume the life-giving oxygen and in the same ratio hinder the aeration of the blood and the maintenance of vigorous health. Worse than this, such fetid gases are usually direct poisons to the animal breathing them; for example, sulphureted hydrogen (hydrogen sulphid 2 SH_{2}) and various alkaloids (ptomaines) and toxins (neutral poisonous principles) produced in the filth fermentations. These lower the general health and stamina, impair digestion, and by leading to the acc.u.mulation in stomach and bowels of undigested materials they lay the foundation for offensive fermentations within these organs and consequent irritation, poisoning, and diarrhea. They further weaken the system so that it can no longer resist and overcome the trouble.

The condition of the nursing cow and her milk is another potent cause of trouble. The feed of the cow is important. The influence of this is shown in the following tables:

_Influence of feed on milk._ (_From Becquerel and Vernois._)

+--------------------------+--------+----------+--------+--------+--------+ | | | Casein | | | |Character of feed. | Water. | and | Milk | | | | |extractive| sugar. | b.u.t.ter.| Salts.

| | | matter. | | | +--------------------------+--------+----------+--------+--------+--------+ | |_Parts |_Parts |_Parts |_Parts |_Parts | |in 1,000_ in 1,000_|in 1,000_in 1,000_in 1,000_ |Cows on winter feed: | | | | | | Trefoil or lucern, 12-13| | | | | | pounds; oat straw, 9-10 | | | | | | pounds; beets, 7 pounds;| | | | | | water, 2 buckets | 871.26 | 47.81 | 33.47 | 42.07 | 5.34 |Cows on summer feed: | | | | | | Green trefoil, lucern, | | | | | | maize, barley, gra.s.s, | | | | | | 2 buckets water | 859.56 | 54.70 | 36.38 | 42.76 | 6.80 |Goat's milk on different | | | | | | feed: | | | | | | On straw and trefoil | 858.68 | 47.38 | 35.47 | 52.54 | 5.93 | On beets | 888.77 | 33.81 | 38.02 | 33.68 | 5.72 |Normal mean | 844.90 | 35.14 | 36.90 | 56.87 | 6.18 | | | | | | +--------------------------+--------+----------+--------+--------+--------+

In these examples the deterioration of the milk in casein on the less nutritious winter feeding is very marked, although the relative quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter remains almost unchanged. In the case of the goat the result is even more striking, the beet diet giving a very large decrease of both casein and b.u.t.ter and an increase of milk sugar.

The second table following, condensed from the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin, gives the results in b.u.t.ter and total solids when the same cows were fed on different rations in succession. Each cow was fed a daily ration of 12 pounds corn fodder and 4 pounds clover hay, besides the test diet of (1) 12-1/4 pounds corn-and-cob meal, and (2) 10 pounds sugar meal--a product of the glucose manufacture. This special feed was given seven days before the commencement of each test period to obviate the effects of transition. The a.n.a.lyses of the special rations are given below:

_a.n.a.lyses of special rations._

------------------------------+--------------+-----------+ Const.i.tuents. | Corn-and-cob | Sugar | | meal. | meal. | ------------------------------+--------------+-----------+ | _Per cent._ |_Per cent._| Moisture | 13.37 | 6.10 | Salts | 1.43 | 1.17 | Fat | 2.81 | 11.16 | Carbohydrates (heat formers). | 65.99 | 52.66 | Woody fiber | 8.03 | 8.64 | Proteids (flesh formers) | 8.37 | 20.27 | ------------------------------+--------------+-----------+

The great excess of fat and nitrogenous or flesh-forming principles in the sugar meal is very evident.

_Influence of feed on milk._ (_Iowa station._)

------------------------+-------+----+-------+------+-------+------------ | | | | | |Ratio of fat Animal. | Milk. |Fat.|Solids.| Fat. |Solids.|to solids | | | | | |not fat.

------------------------+-------+----+-------+------+-------+------------ _Pounds__Pct_| _Pct_ _Pounds_Pounds_| Grade Shorthorn cow: | | | | | | First period, 21 days,| | | | | | corn-and-cob meal | 631.25|3.43| 11.57 |21.67 | 73.02 |422.0:1,000 Second period, 21 days| | | | | | sugar meal | 641.50|4.04| 12.53 |25.93 | 83.38 |476.2:1,000 Third period, 21 days,| | | | | | corn-and-cob meal | 559.00|3.22| 11.86 |17.97 | 66.32 |371.7:1,000 Grade Shorthorn cow: | | | | | | First period, 21 days,| | | | | | corn-and-cob meal | 604.75|3.57| 11.95 |21.56 | 72.28 |425.1:1,000 Second period, 21 days| | | | | | sugar meal | 582.00|3.91| 12.37 |22.74 | 72.57 |456.3:1,000 Third period, 21 days,| | | | | | corn-and-cob meal | 527.00|3.37| 12.05 |17.78 | 63.48 |389.1:1,000 Grade Shorthorn cow: | | | | | | First period, 21 days,| | | | | | sugar meal | 753.50|3.97| 12.43 |29.94 | 93.67 |469.8:1,000 Second period, 21 days| | | | | | corn-and-cob meal | 601.50|3.15| 11.45 |18.97 | 68.89 |380.0:1,000 Third period, 21 days,| | | | | | sugar meal | 560.50|3.85| 12.16 |21.58 | 68.16 |463.3:1,000 Grade Holstein cow: | | | | | | First period, 21 days,| | | | | | sugar meal | 487.50|4.15| 13.27 |20.25 | 64.69 |455.6:1,000 Second period, 21 days| | | | | | corn-and-cob meal | 379.00|3.51| 12.69 |13.30 | 48.09 |382.3:1,000 Third period, 21 days,| | | | | | sugar meal | 374.50|3.72| 13.01 |13.95 | 48.74 |401.0:1,000 ------------------------+-------+----+-------+------+-------+------------

Here we see in every instance a marked relative increase of the b.u.t.ter, and to a less extent of the other milk solids whenever the sugar meal--rich in fat and alb.u.minoids--was furnished. The opposite theory having been largely taught, it becomes needful thus to sustain the old and well-founded belief of the dairymen.

Not only does the richness of the milk vary with the nature of the food, but it varies also according to the time of the day when it is drawn, the morning milk giving 7-1/2 per cent of cream and the evening milk 9-1/2 per cent (Ha.s.sall). Boedecker found that the morning milk had 10 per cent of solids, while the evening milk had 13 per cent. Again, the milk first drawn at any milking is always poorer than the last drawn. The first may have only one-half, or in extreme cases one-fourth, the cream of the last. Once more, when the cow is in heat the milk becomes richer in solids (casein and b.u.t.ter), and contains granular and white blood cells like the colostrum, and often disagrees with the young animal living on it. Now, while these various modifications in the amount of solid matters may prove harmless to a strong and vigorous calf, they can easily be the occasion of intestinal disorder in a weaker one, or in one with health already somewhat impaired by sickness, exposure, or unwholesome buildings. The casein of the cow's milk coagulates in one solid ma.s.s, and is much less easily penetrated by the digesting fluids than the fine, flaky coagula of woman's or mare's milk. An excess of casein, therefore, thrown on an already overtaxed stomach can all the more readily induce disorder. So it is with b.u.t.ter fat.

While a most important element in nutrition, it may be present in the stomach in such quant.i.ty as to interfere with the action of the gastric juice on the casein, and with the interruption of the natural stomach digestion the fats themselves undergo decomposition with the production of offensive and irritating fatty acids.

The milk of the very young cow is usually more watery than that of the mature animal, and that of the old cow has a greater liability to become acid. It varies much with the breed, the Channel Island cattle being notorious for the relatively large quant.i.ty of cream, while the Holsteins, Ayrshires, and Shorthorns are remarkable rather for the quant.i.ty of casein.

The milk of cows fed on potatoes and gra.s.s is very poor and watery; that from cows fed on cabbage or Swedish turnips has a disagreeable taste and odor (from the former an offensive liquid has been distilled).

Cows fed on overkept, fermented, and soured rations have acid milk, which readily turns and coagulates. Thus old, long-kept brewer's grains, swill, the refuse of glucose factories, and ensilage which has been put up too green all act in this way. The same may come from disease in the cow's udder, or any general disease of the cow with attendant fever, and in all such cases the tendency is to rapid change and unwholesomeness. If the milk is drawn and fed from a pail, there is the added danger of all sorts of poisonous ferments getting into it and multiplying; it may be from the imperfect cleansing and scalding of the pail; from rinsing the pails with water that is impure; from the entrance of bacterial ferments floating in the filthy atmosphere of the stable, or from the entrance of the volatile chemical products of fermentation.

In addition to the dangers coming through the milk, the calf suffers in its digestive powers from any temporary illness, and among others from the excitement attendant on the cutting of teeth, and impaired digestion means fermentations in the undigested ma.s.ses and the excessive production of poisonous ptomaines and toxins.

Whatever may be the starting or predisposing cause of this malady, when once established it is liable to perpetuate itself by contagion and to prove a veritable plague in a herd or a district.

_Symptoms._--The symptoms of a diarrhea may appear so promptly after birth as to lead to the idea that the cause already existed in the body of the calf, and it usually shows itself before the end of the second week. It may be preceded by constipation, as in retained meconium, or by fetid eructations and colicky pains, as in acute indigestion. The tail is stained by the liquid dejections, which are at first simply soft and mixed with mucus with a sour odor, accompanied with a peculiar and characteristic fetor (suggesting rotten cheese), which continually grows worse. The quant.i.ty of water and mucus steadily increases, the normal predominance of fatty matters becoming modified by the presence of considerable undigested casein, which is not present in the normal feces, and in acute cases death may result in one or two days from the combined drain on the system and the poisoning by the absorbed products of the decomposition in the stomach and bowels. When the case is prolonged the pa.s.sages, at first 5 or 6 a day, increase to 15 or 20, and pa.s.s with more and more straining, so that they are projected from the animal in a liquid stream. The color of the feces, at first yellow, becomes a lighter grayish yellow or a dirty white (hence the name white scour), and the fetor becomes intolerable.

At first the calf retains its appet.i.te, but as the severity of the disease increases the animal shows less and less disposition to suck, and has lost all vivacity, lying dull and listless, and, when raised, walking weakly and unsteadily. Flesh is lost rapidly, the hair stands erect, the skin gets dry and scurfy, the nose is dry and hot, or this condition alternates with a moist and cool one. By this time the mouth and skin, as well as the breath and dung, exhale the peculiar, penetrating, sour, offensive odor, and the poor calf has become an object of disgust to all that approach it. At first, and unless inflammation of the stomach and bowels supervenes (and unless the affection has started in indigestion and colic), the belly is not bloated or painful on pressure, symptoms of acute colicky pains are absent, and the bowels do not rumble; neither are bubbles of gas mingled with the feces. The irritant products of the intestinal fermentations may, however, irritate and excoriate the skin around the a.n.u.s, which becomes red, raw, and broken out in sores for some distance. Similarly the r.e.c.t.u.m, exposed by reason of the relaxed condition of the a.n.u.s, or temporarily in straining to pa.s.s the liquid dejection, is of a more or less deep red, and it may be ulcerated. Fever, with rapid pulse and increased breathing and temperature, usually comes on with the very fetid character of the feces and is more p.r.o.nounced as the bowels become inflamed, the abdomen sore to the touch and tucked up, and the feces more watery and even mixed with blood.

_Prevention._--The prevention of these cases is the prevention of constipation and indigestion, with all their varied causes as above enumerated, the selection of a strong, vigorous stock, and, above all, the combating of contagion, especially in the separation of the sick from the healthy, and in the thorough purification and disinfection of the buildings. The cleansing and sweetening of all drains, the removal of dung heaps, and the washing and sc.r.a.ping of floors and walls, followed by a liberal application of chlorid of lime (bleaching powder), 4 ounces to the gallon, are indicated. Great care must be exercised in the feeding of the cow to have sound and wholesome feed and water, so apportioned as to make the milk neither too rich nor too poor, and to her health, so that the calf may be saved from the evil consequences of poisonous principles that may be produced in the body of the cow. The calves should be carefully kept apart from all calving cows and their discharges. Similarly each calf must have special attention to see that its nurse gives milk which agrees with it, and that this is furnished at suitable times. If allowed to suck, it should either be left with the cow or be fed three times a day. If it becomes hungry twice a day, it is more liable to overload and derange the stomach, and if left too long hungry it is tempted to take in unsuitable and unwholesome feed, for which its stomach is as yet unprepared. So, if fed from the pail, it is safer to do so three times daily than twice. There should be the utmost cleanliness of feeding dishes, and the feeder must be ever on the alert to prevent the strong and hungry from drinking the milk of the weaker in addition to their own. In case the cow nurse has been subjected to any great excitement by reason of travel, hunting, or carrying, the first milk she yields thereafter should be used for some other purpose and only the second allowed to the calf. Indeed, one and all of the conditions indicated above as causes should be judiciously guarded against.

_Treatment._--Treatment varies according to the nature and stage of the disease. When the disease is not widespread, but isolated cases only occur, it may be a.s.sumed to be a simple diarrhea and is easily dealt with. The first object is to remove the irritant matter from stomach and bowels, and for this 1 or 2 ounces of castor oil may be given, according to the size of the calf. Reduce the milk by one-half or two-thirds. If the stools smell particularly sour, the milk may be replaced by 1 ounce calcined magnesia, and in any case a tablespoonful or two of limewater must be given with each meal. Great harm is often done by giving opium and astringents at the outset. These serve merely to bind up the bowels and retain the irritant source of the trouble; literally, "to shut up the wolf in the sheep-fold."

When the offending agents have been expelled in this way, carminatives and demulcent agents may be given--1 dram of anise water, 1 dram nitrate of bis.m.u.th, and 1 dram of gum arabic, three times a day. Under such course the consistency of the stools should increase until in a day or two they become natural.

If, however, the outbreak is more general and evidently the result of contagion, the first consideration is to remove all sources of such contamination. Test the milk of the cow with blue litmus paper; if it reddens, reject the milk until by sound, dry feeding, with perhaps a course of hyposulphite of soda and gentian root, the milk is made alkaline. The castor oil or magnesia will be demanded to clear away the (now infecting) irritants, but they should be combined with antiseptics, and, while the limewater and the carminative mixture may still be used, a most valuable addition will be found in the following: Calomel, 10 grains; prepared chalk, 1 ounce; creosote, 1 teaspoonful; mix, divide into 10 parts, and give one four times a day. Or the following may be given four times a day: One dram Dover's powder, 6 grains powdered ipecacuanha; mix, divide into 10 equal parts. Injections of solutions of gum arabic are often useful, and if the a.n.u.s is red and excoriated, one-half dram of copperas may be added to each pint of the gummy solution. All the milk given must be boiled, and if that does not agree, eggs made into an emulsion with barley water may be subst.i.tuted. As the feces lose their watery character and become more consistent, tincture of gentian in doses of 2 teaspoonfuls may be given three or four times a day. Counter-irritants, such as mustard, ammonia, or oil of turpentine, may be rubbed on the abdomen when it becomes tender to the touch.

ACUTE CONTAGIOUS SCOURING IN THE NEWBORN.

The most violent and deadly form of diarrhea in the newborn calf deserves a special mention. This may appear immediately after birth, and shows itself almost invariably within the first or second day. The most intense symptoms of white scour are complicated by great dullness, weakness, and prostration, sunken eyes, retracted belly, short, hurried breathing, and very low temperature, the calf lying on its side, with the head resting on the ground, lethargic and unconscious or regardless of all around it. The bowel discharges are profuse, yellowish white, and very offensive. As a rule death ensues within 24 to 36 hours.

A marked characteristic of this form of illness is that it attacks almost every calf born in the herd, or in the building, rather, and if the calf escapes an attack in the first two or three days of its life it usually survives. Those that recover from an attack, however, are liable one or two weeks later to suffer from an infective inflammation of the lungs. The infection clings to a stable for years, in many cases rendering it impossible to preserve and raise the calves. It has frequently coincided with abortions and failures to conceive in the same herd, so that it has been thought that the same infective germ produces one type of abortion. On the other hand, the removal of the calving cow from the herd to calve in a separate building, hitherto unused and therefore uninfected, usually effects the escape and survival of the offspring.

The disease has been traced by Nocard and Lignieres to a small bacillus having the general characters of those that produce hemorrhagic septicemia, which is usually combined with a variety of others, but is in some cases alone and in pure culture, especially in the joints. The theory of Lignieres is that this bacillus is the primary offender, and that once introduced it so depresses the vital powers of the system and tissue cells that the healthy resistance to other bacteria is impaired or suspended, and hence the general and deadly invasion of the latter.

Inoculations with this bacillus killed guinea pigs or rabbits in 6 to 18 hours, and calves in 30 hours, with symptoms and lesions of hemorrhagic septicemia, including profuse fetid diarrhea.

The predominance of the early and deadly lesions in the alimentary tract would seem to imply infection through the feed, and the prompt.i.tude of the attack after birth, together with the frequent coincidence of contagious abortion in the herd, suggest the presence of the germ in the cow; yet the escape of the calf when the cow calves in a fresh building is equally suggestive of the infection through germs laid up in the building. This conclusion is further sustained by the observation that the bacillus evidently enters by the raw, unhealed navel, that it is diffused in the blood, and that a very careful preservation of the navel against infection gives immunity from attack.

_Prevention._--The disease is so certainly and speedily fatal that it is hopeless to expect recovery, and therefore prevention is the rational resort.

When a herd is small, the removal of the dam to a clean, unused stable a few days before calving and her retention there for a week usually succeeds. It is in the large herd that the disease is mainly to be dreaded, however, and in this it is impossible to furnish new and pure stables for each successive group of two or three calving cows. The thorough disinfection of the general stable ought to succeed, yet I have seen the cleanest and purest stable repeatedly disinfected with corrosive sublimate without stopping the malady. It would appear as if the germ lodged on the surface or in the bowels of the cow and tided the infection over the period of stable disinfection. Though insufficient of themselves, the supply of separate calving boxes and the frequent thorough cleaning and disinfection of both these and the stables should not be neglected. The most important measure, however, is the disinfection of the navel.

The cow should be furnished with abundance of dry, clean bedding, sprinkled with a solution of carbolic acid. As soon as calving sets in the tail and hips and a.n.u.s and v.u.l.v.a should be sponged with a carbolic-acid solution (one-half ounce to the quart), and the v.a.g.i.n.a injected with a weaker solution (2 drams to the quart). Fresh carbolized bedding should be constantly supplied, so that the calf may be dropped on that and not on soaked litter nor manure. The navel string should be at once tied with a cord that has been taken from a strong solution of carbolic acid. The stump of the cord and the adjacent skin should then be washed with the following solution: Iodin, one-half dram; iodid of pota.s.sium, one-half dram; water, 1 quart. When dry it may be covered with a coating of collodion or tar, each containing 1 per cent of iodin.

Whenever a calf shows any sign of scouring it should be instantly removed to another pen and building, and the vacated one should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Different attendants should take care of the sound calves and the infected ones, and all utensils, litter, etc., kept scrupulously apart.

After one week the healthy calves may usually be safely herded together, or they may be safely placed in the cow stable.

OTHER AILMENTS OF THE CALF.

Among these may be named several congenital imperfections, such as imperforate a.n.u.s, v.u.l.v.a, or prepuce, which are to be recognized by the inability to pa.s.s dung or urine, in spite of straining, and the formation of swellings in the a.n.u.s, v.u.l.v.a, or sheath. Each must be carefully incised with the knife, taking care not to injure the muscles which circ.u.mscribe the respective openings; also tongue-tie, in which the thin, flaccid, mucous membrane pa.s.sing from the median line of the lower surface of the tongue binds the latter too closely to the floor of the mouth and renders the tongue unfit for gathering in the food in after life. This must be cut with knife or scissors, so as to give the tongue a reasonable degree of liberty.

APHTHA, or THRUSH, is another trouble of the sucking calf, showing itself as a white, curdy elevation on the tongue, lips, cheeks, or gums, and when detached leaving a raw, red, angry surface. It is due to the growth of a vegetable parasite long recognized as the _Odium albicans_ (_Saccharomyces albicans_). It is easily removed by rubbing with powdered borax, but inasmuch as other colonies are liable to start either in the mouth or in the pharynx, gullet, or stomach, it is well to give a dose of one-half dram of hyposulphite of soda in water day by day for several days.

RICKETS is not a common disease in calves, and comes on, if at all, later than those we have been considering. It consists in softening and friability of the bones from a deficiency of lime salts, and appears to be mainly connected with an inherited weakness of const.i.tution, unsuitable feeding, cold, close, damp buildings, microbian infection, and other conditions inimical to health. The prevention and treatment of rickets consists essentially in the improvement of the digestion and general health; hence sunshine, open air, exercise, nourishing food, and tonics are indicated. (See p. 267.)

BONES: DISEASES AND ACCIDENTS.

By V. T. ATKINSON, V. S.

[Revised by John R. Mohler, V. M. D.]

Some knowledge of the skeleton is advisable to facilitate the study of diseases of bones and the accidental injuries to which they are exposed.

The skeleton of the adult ox is made up of the following number of bones:

Spinal column 45 Head 28 Chest 27 Shoulder 2-- 1 on each side.

Arm 2-- 1 on each side.

Forearm 4-- 2 on each side.

Forefoot 40--20 on each side.

Pelvis 2-- 1 on each side.