The American Reformed Cattle Doctor Part 10

Then the question arises, What are the indications to be fulfilled?

_First._ Restore the lost function.

_Secondly._ Equalize the circulation, and maintain an equilibrium between nervous and arterial action.

_Thirdly._ Support the powers of life.

_Fourthly._ If locked-jaw arise from a wound, then apply suitable remedial agents to the part, and rescue the nervous system from a pathological state.

To fulfil the fourth indication, we commence the treatment as follows:--

Suppose the foot to have been p.r.i.c.ked or wounded. We make an examination of the part, and remove all extraneous matter. The following poultice must then be applied:

Powdered skunk cabbage, } " lobelia, } equal parts.

" poplar bark, } Indian meal, 1 pint.

Make it of the proper consistence with boiling water. When sufficiently cool, put it into a flannel bag, and secure it above the pastern. To be renewed every twelve hours. After the second application, examine the foot, and if suppuration has commenced, and matter can be felt, or seen, a small puncture may be made, taking care not to let the knife penetrate beyond the bony part of the hoof.

In the mean time, prepare the following drink:--

Indian hemp or milkweed, (herb,) 1 ounce.

Powdered mandrake, 1 table-spoonful.

Powdered lobelia seeds, 1 tea-spoonful.

" poplar bark, (very fine,) 1 ounce.

Make a tea, in the usual manner--about one gallon. After straining it through a cloth, add the other ingredients, and give a quart every two hours.

A long-necked bottle is the most suitable vehicle in which to administer; but it must be poured down in the most gradual manner. The head should not be elevated too high.

A liberal allowance of camomile tea may be resorted to, during the whole stage of the disease.

Next stimulate the external surface, by warmth and moisture, in the following manner: Take about two quarts of vinegar, into which stir a handful of lobelia; have a hot brick ready, (_the animal having a large cloth, or blanket, thrown around him_;) pour the mixture gradually on the brick, which is held over a bucket to prevent waste; the steam arising will relax the surface. After repeating the operation, apply the following mixture around the jaws, back, and extremities: take of cayenne, skunk cabbage, and cypripedium, (lady's slipper,) powdered, each two ounces, boiling vinegar two quarts; stir the mixture until sufficiently cool, rub it well in with a coa.r.s.e sponge; this will relax the jaws a trifle, so that the animal can manage to suck up thin gruel, which may be given warm, in any quant.i.ty. This process must be persevered in; although it may not succeed in every case, yet it will be more satisfactory than the blood-letting and poisoning system. No medicine is necessary; the gruel will soften the faeces sufficiently; if the r.e.c.t.u.m is loaded with faeces, give injections of an infusion of lobelia.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] This is a narcotic vegetable poison; and although large quant.i.ties have been occasionally given to the horse without apparent injury, experience teaches us that poisons in general--notwithstanding the various modes of their action, and the difference in their symptoms--all agree in the abstraction of vitality from the system. Dr. Eberle says, "Opiates never fail to operate perniciously on the whole organization."

Dr. Gallup says, "The practice of using opiates to mitigate pain is greatly to be deprecated. It is probable that opium and its preparations have done seven times the injury that they have rendered benefit on the great scale of the civilized world. Opium is the most destructive of all narcotics."

[9] This is a perfect seesaw between efforts to kill and efforts to cure.

[10] Then it ought not to be used.

INFLAMMATORY DISEASES.

INFLAMMATION OF THE STOMACH, (GASTRITIS.)

Such a complicated piece of mechanism is the stomach of the ox, that organ is particularly liable to disease. Inflammation, being the same as local fever, (or a high grade of vital power, concentrated within a small s.p.a.ce,) may be produced by over-feeding, irritating and indigestible food, or acrid, poisonous, and offensive medicines. The farmer must remember that a small quant.i.ty of good, nutritious food, capable of being easily penetrated by the gastric fluids, will repair the waste that is going on, and improve the condition with more certainty than an abundance of indifferent provender.

_Cure._--The first indication will be to allay the irritability of the stomach; this will moderate the irritation and lessen the fever. Make a mucilaginous drink of slippery elm, or marshmallows, and give half a pint every two hours. All irritating food and drink must be carefully avoided, and the animal must be kept quiet; all irritating cordials, "including the popular remedy, gin and mola.s.ses," must be avoided. These never fail to increase the malady, and may occasion death. If there is an improper acc.u.mulation of food in the viscera, the remedies will be, relaxing clysters, abstinence from food, and a tea of sa.s.safras and mandrake, made thus:--

Sa.s.safras, (_laurus sa.s.safras_,) 1 ounce.

Mandrake, (_podophyllum peltatum_,) 4 drachms.

Boiling water, 2 quarts.

Let the mixture stand until quite cool, and give a pint every four hours.

Almost all animals, when suffering under acute symptoms, require diluting, cooling drinks. This at once points out the use of water, or any weak gruel of which water is the basis; the necessity of diluting liquors is pointed out by the heat and dryness of the mouth, and rigidity of the coat.

When the thirst is great, the following forms a grateful and cooling beverage: Take lemon balm, (_melissa officinalis_,) two ounces; boiling water, two quarts; when cool, strain, and add half a tea-spoonful of cream of tartar. Give half a pint at intervals of two hours.

If the stomach continues to exhibit a morbid state, which may be known by a profuse discharge of saliva from the mouth, then administer camomile tea in small quant.i.ties: the addition of a little powdered charcoal will prove beneficial.

_Remarks._--Gastritis cannot be long present without other parts of the system sharing the disturbance: it is then termed gastric fever. This fever is the result of the local affection. Our object is, to get rid of the local affection, and the fever will subside. Authors have invariably recommended destructive remedies for the cure of gastritis; but they generally fail of hitting the mark, and always do more or less injury.

A light diet, rest, a clean bed of straw in a well-ventilated barn, will generally perfect the cure.

INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS, (PNEUMONIA.)

_Causes._--Errors in feeding, over-exertion, exposure in wet pastures, or suffering the animal, when in a state of perspiration, to partake too bountifully of cold water, are among the direct causes of a derangement of vital equilibrium. Want of pure air for the purpose of vitalizing the blood, the inhalation of noxious gases, and filth and uncleanliness, may produce this disease in its worst form; yet it must be borne in mind that the same exciting causes will not develop the same form of disease in all animals. It altogether depends on the amount of vital resistance, or what is termed the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the animal. On the other hand, several animals often suffer from the same form of disease, from causes varying in their general character. Hence the reader will see that it would be needless, in fact impossible, to point to the direct cause in each grade of disease. The least obstruction to universal vital action will produce pneumonia in some animals, while in others it may result in disease of the bowels.

_Cure._--No special treatment can be successfully pursued in pneumonia; for the lungs are not the only organs involved: no change of condition can occur in the animal functions without the nervous system being more or less deranged; for the latter is essential to all vital motions.

Hence disease, in every form, should be treated according to its indications. A few general directions may, however, be found useful. The first indication to be fulfilled is to equalize the blood. Flannels saturated with warm vinegar should be applied to the extremities; they may be folded round the legs, and renewed as often as they grow cold.

Poultices of slippery elm, applied to the feet, as hot as the animal can bear them, have sometimes produced a better result than vinegar. If the animal has shivering fits, and the whole surface is chilled, apply warmth and moisture as recommended in article "_Locked-Jaw_." At the same time, endeavor to promote the insensible perspiration by the internal use of diaph.o.r.etics--_lobelia or thoroughwort tea_. A very good diaph.o.r.etic and anti-spasmodic drink may be made thus:--

Lobelia, (herb) 2 ounces.

Spearmint, 1 ounce.

Boiling water, 2 quarts.

Let the above stand for a few minutes; strain, then add two table-spoonfuls of honey. Give half a pint every hour, taking care to pour it down the oesophagus very gently, so as to insure its reaching the fourth or true digestive stomach. The following clyster must be given:--

Powdered lobelia, 2 ounces.

Boiling water, 3 quarts.

When sufficiently cool, inject with a common metal syringe.

These processes should be repeated as the symptoms require, until the animal gives evidence of relief; when a light diet of thin gruel will perfect the cure. It must ever be borne in mind that in the treatment of all forms of disease--those of the _lungs more especially_--the animal must have pure, uncontaminated atmospheric air, and that any departure from purity in the air which the animal respires, will counteract all our efforts to cure.

INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS, (ENTERITIS,--INFLAMMATION OF THE FIBRO-MUSCULAR COAT OF THE INTESTINES.)

_Character._--Acute pain; the animal appears restless, and frequently turns his head towards the belly; moans, and appears dull; frequent small, hard pulse; cold feet and ears.

_Causes._--Plethora, costiveness, or the sudden application of cold either internally or externally, overworking, &c.