The Veterinarian Part 24

ROUND WORMS

CAUSE: Is undoubtedly due to filth or hogs eating food or drinking water contaminated with well developed eggs or embryos of roundworms, thus taking them into their digestive ca.n.a.l, where they multiply rapidly and set up considerable irritation. This worm varies in length from three to thirteen inches, and is of a reddish-brown color.

SYMPTOMS: The Roundworm is generally pa.s.sed with the feces, and can be readily seen with the naked eye. A hog infested with a large number of these worms is generally restless, appet.i.te varied. When these worms develop in large numbers, they obstruct the intestines. In other cases they irritate and inflame the intestines causing inflammation and diarrhoea, and death may be due to either obstruction or inflammation of the bowels.

TREATMENT: Treatment is very satisfactory. Withhold all food from eighteen to twenty-four hours. Then place in one pint of finely ground feed, Calomel and Santonin, each five grains to every one hundred pounds of hog weight. For instance, if the hog affected with round worms weighs two hundred pounds, double the dose by giving ten grains of each of the above, but if the hog only weighs fifty pounds, give one-half the dose mentioned, or two and one-half grains of each. This treatment should be repeated in a week or ten days to a.s.sure the expulsion of worms that might have survived the first dose. Feed sparingly on laxative food, as bran mashes and vegetables, for a few days following each treatment.

RUPTURE

(Scrotal or Inguinal)

DEFINITION: In the male the intestines pa.s.s through the wide Inguinal Ca.n.a.l, through which the cord of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e pa.s.ses. It is not difficult to recognize this form of rupture, as the s.c.r.o.t.u.m that normally retains only the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es is usually enlarged by the bowels entering it. Sometimes the s.c.r.o.t.u.m almost reaches the ground, and in this case, both sides of the s.c.r.o.t.u.m, or the sack which contains the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, also contains intestines. If the pig is held up by the hind parts, the intestines will gravitate back into the abdominal cavity, but as soon as a pig lies down or stands they again return into the s.c.r.o.t.u.m.

The t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es can be located at the bottom of the enlargement.

CAUSE: Hereditary tendencies predisposes them to rupture; pigs having large Inguinal Ca.n.a.ls through which the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e pa.s.ses; by pigs being crowded, injured, squeezed at troughs, or pa.s.sing through narrow doorways. Weakness and severe straining from constipation also produce rupture.

SYMPTOMS: An enlargement of the sack containing the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es. Sometimes there may be a strangulation of the intestines where they fold or twist.

They become inflamed and produce death. The pig dies in great pain, but fortunately, strangulated ruptures in pigs are very rare, as the s.c.r.o.t.u.m and ca.n.a.l which the intestines occupy relax and become very roomy.

TREATMENT: Operation is the only method of relieving or curing Inguinal or Scrotal Rupture. My advice is to operate as soon as possible. When the pigs are small, there is less danger. The pig to be operated on should be fasted for at least twenty-four hours, as it is easier on both the operator and pig when the intestines are empty, or nearly so.

The operation which I have found to be very successful is as follows: Have an a.s.sistant hold the pig up by its hind legs. Prepare an antiseptic solution of Carbolic Acid five per cent, or Bichloride of Mercury, one in one-thousandths, in a pan. Have a needle threaded with a medium sized absorbent silk or cat-gut suture. Prepare a clean, sharp knife; wash the seat of operation with either antiseptic solution. Now, proceed to locate the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e by having the hind parts elevated. The intestines must be pressed back into the abdominal cavity. The t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e will remain in the sack or s.c.r.o.t.u.m; now grasp the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e between the fingers and make the incision through the s.c.r.o.t.u.m and to the lower portion. It may be necessary to insert two fingers to withdraw the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e. When the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e is located, withdraw it. Before cutting it off it is well to run a needle containing a thread through the last covering of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e so as to prevent the membrane from returning.

After this is securely done, remove the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e and sew the inner membranes that envelop the rupture and t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e with what is called a "tobacco pouch suture." Draw it together firmly and tie and cut off suture about one-half inch from the knot. Your operation is now complete. Do not sew the outer incision in the s.c.r.o.t.u.m, as it would have a tendency to acc.u.mulate dirt and hold pus. It should have a free drainage. Wash with one of the above mentioned antiseptics twice daily until thoroughly healed. Also feed laxative foods that are easily digested.

SORE FEET

CAUSE: Filth; especially common in large hogs when confined to hard floors or driven over rough, hard roads, or continually kept in filthy pens. The tissues of the feet become softened, especially those between the claws. Irritation is set up by germs entering the abrasions.

SYMPTOMS: The hogs will be noticed going very lame and if closely examined the above named conditions will be found.

TREATMENT: Remove the hogs to clean, dry pens containing plenty of clean bedding, and wash the affected parts with some good disinfectant, as five per cent solution of Carbolic Acid. Repeat this treatment at least once a day. In case the feet are badly inflamed, I would advise the application of hot Flaxseed Meal poultices to the feet. Feed easily digested food, as it aids materially in the treatment of infectious wounds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photograph of a pig.]

CHAMPION BERKSHIRE BOAR LONGFELLOW'S SUCCESSOR.

Hood Farm, Lowell, Ma.s.s.

SORE MOUTH

CAUSE: Decomposed foods. Also slops or stagnant water, washing powders, broken gla.s.sware, etc., from the tables, fed in slops, barley or wheat beards, etc.

SYMPTOMS: Difficulty in eating, or refusal to eat at all. Stringy secretions of saliva continually oozing from the mouth. The mouth gives off very offensive odor.

TREATMENT: In this form of sore mouth, remove the cause. Feed soft, wholesome food, such as wheat bran mashes and vegetables. In cases where it is due to the lodging of beards of wheat or barley, gag the hog's mouth with a piece of wood and remove the beards with forceps. Keep clean, cool water before them at all times and avoid feeding dry, hard food.

SOWS EATING THEIR YOUNG

CAUSE: Insufficient lime or mineral matter fed prior to farrowing; constipation is also a fruitful cause.

PREVENTION: Careful feeding for a few days prior to farrowing of slops, free from soap or washing powders; cool food, such as wheat bran mashes, with hog tonic and regulator as prescribed on the first page of this chapter. This is loosening to the bowels and also contains mineral matter and blood purifiers which are very valuable in the above mentioned condition.

SUN OR HEAT STROKE

CAUSE: Hogs that are very fat, and driven, hauled or shipped to market when the weather is warm, are frequently stricken with heat or sun-stroke. Sometimes when hogs are overcrowded and not protected from the rays of the sun, or from heat, they may become victims of heat or sunstroke.

SYMPTOMS: First they stagger when walking, then they become very weak and temperature elevates three or four degrees higher than normal.

Prostration or extreme depression, or sometimes involuntary spasms or contractions of muscles occur.

TREATMENT: Prevention. Do not drive, haul or ship during the hottest part of the day, hogs that are not accustomed to exercise or extreme heat. Do not crowd hogs in small pens or sheds during the hot months, as their bodies give off considerable heat in addition to that of the sun.

See that they are protected from the sun. When hauling or shipping hogs, wet them occasionally with water. It prevents heat stroke. In case a hog is suffering from heat or sun-stroke, place it in a cool, shady place and apply ice or cold water to the head only. Also give Saltpeter in teaspoonful doses every six hours diluted in one ounce of water. Also give Alcohol, one teaspoonful, every three hours in one ounce of water.

Good recovery is often obtained from the above treatment.

THORN-HEADED WORMS

CAUSE: A white grub that is found in old manure heaps, straw stacks and hog lots carries eggs containing embryos of the Thorn-headed Worm. The white grub is eaten by the hog. The larvae of the Thorn-headed Worm is liberated by the process of digestion and becomes a parasite in the intestines of the hogs, where it develops into a fully matured worm.

Large numbers of hogs quickly become infested with this parasite, as they multiply very rapidly. These worms vary from two to twelve inches in length, and have a whitish color.

SYMPTOMS: As a general rule, a worm can be seen in the feces. Other signs are that the hog loses flesh, appet.i.te irregular, constipation, and then again there may be diarrhoea, especially where there are large numbers of worms present.

TREATMENT: First of all, burn all manure or decomposed vegetation that the hogs are liable to come in contact with. Withhold all food from eighteen to twenty-four hours and give one teaspoonful of Oil of Turpentine to everyone hundred pounds of hog weight, or if the hog weighs less than one hundred pounds, doses should be given in proportion. Follow this treatment for three or four consecutive days.

Turpentine is easily given to hogs, as they will drink it in milk when well mixed. Perhaps it is advisable, where a large number of hogs are affected, to divide them into pens of five or ten hogs, as they are thus less likely to get an overdose. Feed laxative food. Clean and disinfect troughs and feeding floors. Also give prescription on first page of this chapter.

THUMPS

CAUSE: Disorders of the digestive system from overloading the stomach and causing irritation of the nerves leading to the diaphragm, which is the membrane that separates the lungs and heart from the intestines, stomach, liver and spleen. It is a spasm of this membrane that causes a hog or pig to have "Thumps." Insufficient exercise; a large number of pigs may become affected at the same time when closely confined.

SYMPTOMS: Jerking of the flanks; the pig or hog becomes very weak and stunted in a very short time.

TREATMENT: Remove the cause. In pigs, when first affected, careful feeding and exercise will generally effect a cure. In some cases, where the pigs are very small, it is well to take them away from the mother, permitting them to nurse very little. Give them Castor Oil in teaspoonful doses, and compel them to exercise. It may be necessary to give them Chloral Hydrate ten to fifteen grains two or three times a day diluted in a teaspoonful of water. Where the pigs will not eat mashes or drink milk, give them medicine by force with a teaspoon.

AFTER TREATMENT: Give hog regulator and tonic as prescribed on first page of this chapter.