The Veterinarian Part 20

WARBLES OR GRUBS

CAUSE: By the heel-fly or warble-fly. They deposit their eggs on the legs of cattle during the fall. The animal, licking the parts, takes the eggs into its mouth. These eggs gradually migrate into the gullet, where they hatch and burrow through the tissues, and in the early spring will be found in the region of the back in the form of small lumps under the skin.

SYMPTOMS: Warbles are frequently seen under the skin in the region of the back and over the loins, and are very tender to the touch. When they are fully developed they work their way through the skin, which usually occurs in the early part of the summer. Examine your cattle in the winter and spring for the presence of grubs. They can be easily found by running the hand over the loins, by abrupt swellings or bunches on the skin. Pressure on the swellings will perhaps cause the grubs to pop out.

TREATMENT: Remove the grubs by making a small incision with a clean, sharp knife in the center of the swelling. Then press them out and into each cavity from which the grub has been extracted, or squeezed out, should be injected a five per cent solution of Carbolized Sweet Oil to prevent any further development of flies or grubs. Cattle sprayed with fly repellants during the spring and summer are very seldom bothered with warbles or grubs. However, this is not practical in range cattle; dipping instead should be resorted to, and it is surprising what results will be derived from fly repellants in a year or two. They will practically exterminate the pest, and consequently the cattle are thrifty and look much better.

WARTS

CAUSE: Warts may appear on various parts of the body, and are due to an abnormal growth of cells growing upon the outer surface of healthy skin, or they may grow upon skin that is deprived of the proper blood supply.

TREATMENT: If the wart is located where there is hair surrounding it, cut away the hair, then wash the wart and surrounding parts with a five per cent solution of Carbolic Acid and clip the wart off with a sharp pair of scissors or knife. After the wart is removed, cauterize the cut surface with a hot iron. Caustic Potash or Silver Nitrate should be applied two or three times at the intervals of two or three days to insure the entire extermination of the wart. This same treatment applies to all cla.s.ses of warts located in various places.

WHITES

(Leucorrhea)

CAUSE: Continual chronic inflammation of the womb, or due to irritations from a retained afterbirth. Injuries or wounds inflicted by hands or instruments in difficult calving, diseases of the ovaries, etc.

SYMPTOMS: A glarish, white discharge from the womb. When cow is lying down it flows more abundantly, soiling the tail, etc. The general health may not be much affected at first, but if the discharge continues and is putrid, the health fails, the milk shrinks, and there is a great loss of flesh. In some cases heat is more frequent or intense than natural, but the animal rarely conceives when served, and if she does, is likely to abort.

TREATMENT: Feed nitrogenous food. Wash the womb out with a solution consisting of five grains of Permanganate of Potash to one quart of water. This should be repeated once or twice a day. If the animal is constipated, give two drams of Aloin, three drams of Ginger. Place in gelatin capsule and give with capsule gun. Also place Pota.s.sium Iodide one dram, Hyposulphite of Soda one ounce in the drinking water two or three times a day. This not only diminishes the discharge, but has a good effect on the blood, particularly where there is more or less decomposition of the flesh.

WOLF IN THE TAIL

This condition is imaginary, although the muscles of the tail relax or soften, especially those of its extremity, due to ill health; consequently the condition of the cow should be treated, and not the tail.

TREATMENT: Remove the cause. Perhaps the animal has indigestion, or a cold, etc. Determine the malady by careful examination and treat the disease under its special heading.

It has been a custom among the so-called cow doctors to split the tail with a sharp knife, then fill the wound with salt and pepper and bandage with a cloth. This is a fallacy, and should not be tolerated.

DISEASES OF SWINE

Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photograph of pig with numbers referring to the parts named below.]

Location of Parts of Swine 1. Mouth 2. Nostrils 3. Face 4. Eyes 5. Ears 6. Jaws 7. Jowl 8. Neck 9. Shoulder 10. Fore flanks 11. Chest Floor 12. Pasterns 13. Dew Claw 14. Sheath 15. Belly 16. Side or ribs 17. Heart girth 19. Loin 20. Rump 21. Coupling 22. Rear flanks 23. Tail 24. Thighs 25. Hocks

CHAPTER III

HOG REGULATOR AND TONIC

Nux Vomica, one pound; Hardwood Charcoal, two pounds; Sulphur, two pounds; Common Salt, three pounds; Sulphide of Antimony, one and one-half pounds; Glauber Salts, two pounds; Bicarbonate of Soda, four pounds; Hyposulphite of Soda, four pounds; Nitrate of Potash, one pound; Qua.s.sia, one-half pound; Gentian Root, one pound; Iron Sulphate, one pound; pulverize and mix well.

To everyone hundred pounds of hog weight, give one tablespoonful in feed or swill once or twice daily. For hogs weighing two hundred pounds, the dose would be two tablespoonfuls; for a hog weighing fifty pounds, one-half tablespoonful.

Hogs, like other animals, require tonics, bowel regulators and worm expellers. For these purposes, I have prescribed under a number of the diseases of hogs, which I cover in this chapter, the above general tonic and regulator which I have used in my personal practice with marked success, especially serving the purpose of aiding hogs in their convalescence from debilitating diseases and in their recovery from a general run-down condition.

Aside from its general tonic and regulative effect, this prescription contains nerve tonics, intestinal antiseptics, laxatives, worm expellers, and aids digestion, etc.

If regularly given to hogs, and sanitary conditions are maintained, this tonic and regulator will largely fortify them against contagious diseases.

ABORTION

CAUSE: Sows may abort at any state of pregnancy by slipping, falling, receiving kicks, or by being caught while crawling through or under fences. Sows may also abort when allowed to crawl into quarters where there are other hogs. Contagious diseases, such as Cholera and Pleuropneumonia also produce abortion. There is also a contagious form of abortion in sows, but this is very uncommon, as the disease spreads very slowly.

SYMPTOMS: There is no warning given, as a rule; the sows expel their pigs before any signs of abortion are noticed.

In other cases the sows refuse to eat, become uneasy, shivering and trembling of the muscles, and straining or labor pains are noticed. As a rule, when a sow aborts, she will not prepare a bed, as she would normally.

TREATMENT: Preventive is the only safe and sure treatment, although when the first sign of abortion appears, and there are no signs of the membranes coming away, remove the sow to quiet, warm, clean quarters by herself, and if straining, give one dram of Chloral-Hydrate in her drinking water every two or three hours.

When a sow aborts, burn the pigs and afterbirth, and disinfect the pens with a Coal Tar disinfectant. Keep this up for several days, and do not breed until all discharges from the v.a.g.i.n.a have ceased flowing.

ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICINE TO HOGS

To administer medicine to hogs may seem easy, but, nevertheless, it is a difficult task. Never lay a hog on his back to drench him, as in so doing there is great danger of strangling. The proper method is to stand or set him on end, holding him up by the ears, and by the use of a bottle with a piece of hose drawn over its neck, give the medicine very slowly, so as not to allow a large quant.i.ty to acc.u.mulate in the mouth or throat at one time. There is always danger of some of the liquid escaping into the lungs and causing the hog to strangle, and thus it may produce pneumonia. However, this is the best method of giving hogs medicine by force.

Hogs will generally take medicine in their feed or drinking water, unless they are very sick, or the medicine is extremely disagreeable to the taste.

BAG INFLAMMATION

CAUSE: Injuries, obstructed teats, acc.u.mulation of milk in the sow's bag after the loss of part of or all of her litter. Difficult birth, slight wounds in the bag permit invasion of germs, which is frequently the common cause of bag inflammation.

SYMPTOMS: Heat, pain and swelling in one or more teats. The general body temperature is elevated one or two degrees above normal. The sow perhaps refuses her feed, although she will drink water in large quant.i.ties.

TREATMENT: Feed soft, sloppy food and vegetables. Give Epsom Salts, two to four ounces, in milk or feed. It is also well to milk the sow by hand, relieving her of the milk three or four times a day. This is very necessary. Camphorated Oil is very soothing, and I would recommend its use freely only over affected teats.