The American Reformed Cattle Doctor Part 23

Steep in half a gallon of boiling water. When cold, strain and administer.

Suppose the animal to be in poor condition; then put her on a nourishing diet, and give tonics and stimulants, as follows:--

Powdered gentian, 1 ounce.

" sa.s.safras, 1 ounce.

Linseed or flaxseed, 1 pound.

Mix. Divide into six portions, and give one, night and morning, in the food, which ought to consist of scalded meal and shorts. A sufficient quant.i.ty of hay should be allowed; yet gra.s.s will be preferable, if the season permits.

Suppose the animal to have received an injury; then rest and a scalded diet are all that are necessary. As a means of prevention, see article _Feeding_, page 17.

COW-POX.

This malady makes its appearance on the cow's teats in the form of small pustules, which, after the inflammatory stage, suppurate. A small quant.i.ty of matter then escapes, and forms a crust over the circ.u.mference of each pustule. If the crust be suffered to remain until new skin is formed beneath, they will heal without any interference. It often happens, however, that, in the process of milking, the scabs are rubbed off. The following wash must then be resorted to:--

Pyroligneous acid, a wine-gla.s.s.

Water, 1 pint.

Wet the parts two or three times a day; medicine is unnecessary. A few meals of scalded food will complete the cure.

MANGE.

"Mange may be generated either from excitement of the skin itself, or through the medium of that sympathetic influence which is known to exist between the skin and organs of digestion. We have, it appears to me, an excellent ill.u.s.tration of this in the case of mange supervening upon poverty--a fact too notorious to be disputed, though there may be different ways of theorizing on it."

Mr. Blanie says, "Mange has three origins--filth, debility, and contagion."

_Treatment._--Rid the system of morbific materials with the following:--

Powdered sa.s.safras, 2 ounces.

" charcoal, a handful.

Sulphur, 1 ounce.

Mix, and divide into six parts; one to be given in the feed, night and morning. The daily use of the following wash will then complete the cure, provided proper attention be paid to the diet.

_Wash for Mange._

Pyroligneous acid, 4 ounces.

Water, a pint.

The mange is known to be infectious: this suggests the propriety of removing the animal from the rest of the herd.

HIDE-BOUND.

This is seldom, if ever, a primary disease. The known sympathy existing between the digestive organs and the skin enables us to trace the malady to acute or chronic indigestion.

_Treatment._--The indications to be fulfilled are, to invite action to the surface by the aid of warmth, moisture, friction, and stimulants, to tone up the digestive organs, and relax the whole animal. The latter indications are fulfilled by the use of the following:--

Powdered balmony, (snakehead,) 2 ounces.

" sa.s.safras, 1 ounce.

Linseed, 2 pounds.

Sulphur, 1 ounce.

Mix together, and divide the ma.s.s into eight equal parts, and give one night and morning, in scalded shorts or meal; the better way, however, is, to turn it down the throat.

A few boiled carrots should be allowed, especially in the winter season, for they possess peculiar remedial properties, which are generally favorable to the cure.

LICE.

_Treatment._--Wash the skin, night and morning, with the following:--

Powdered lobelia seeds, 2 ounces.

Boiling water, 1 quart.

After standing a few hours, it is fit for use, and can be applied with a sponge.

IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THE SKIN OF ANIMALS IN A HEALTHY STATE.

This is a subject of great importance to the farmer; for many of the diseases of cattle arise from the filthy, obstructed state of the surface. This neglect of cleansing the hide of cattle arises, in some cases, from the absurd notion (often expressed to the author) that the hide of cattle is so thick and dense that they never sweat, except on the muzzle! For the information of those who may have formed such an absurd and dangerous notion, we give the views of Professor Bouley. "In all animals, from the exterior tegumentary surface incessantly exhale vaporous or gaseous matters, the products of chemical operations going on in the interior of the organism, of which the uninterrupted elimination is a necessary condition for the regular continuance of the functions. Regarded in this point of view, the skin may be considered as a dependency of the respiratory apparatus, of which it continues and completes the function, by returning incessantly to the atmosphere the combusted products, which are water and carbonic acid.

"Therefore the skin, properly speaking, is an expiratory apparatus, which, under ordinary conditions of the organism, exhales, in an insensible manner, products a.n.a.logous to those expired from the pulmonary surface; with this difference, that the quant.i.ty of carbonic acid is very much less considerable in the former than in the latter of these exhalations; according to Burbach, the proportion of carbonic acid, as inhaled by the skin, being to that expired by the lungs as 350 to 23,450, or as 1 to 67.

"The experiments made on inferior animals, such as frogs, toads, salamanders, or fish, have demonstrated the waste by general transpiration to be, in twenty-four hours, little less than half the entire weight of the body."

The same author remarks, "Direct experiment has shown, in the clearest manner, the close relation of function existing between the perspiratory and respiratory membranes."

"M. Fourcault, with a view of observing, through different species of animals, the effect of the suppression of perspiration, conceived the notion of having the skins of certain live animals covered with varnish.

After having been suitably prepared, some by being plucked, others by being shorn, he smeared them with varnish of variable composition; the substances employed being tar, paste, glue, pitch, and other plastic matters. Sometimes these, one or more of them, were spread upon parts, sometimes upon the whole of the body. The effects of the operation have varied, showing themselves, soon or late afterwards, decisively or otherwise, according as the varnishing has been complete or general, or only partial, thick, thin, &c. In every instance, the health of the animal has undergone strange alterations, and life has been grievously compromised. Those that have been submitted to experiment under our eyes have succ.u.mbed in one, two, three days, and even at the expiration of some hours." (See _London Veterinarian_ for 1850, p. 353.)