The Veterinarian Part 26

CAUSE: This condition is produced by animals eating various foliage (Gra.s.s or Shrubbery) at a time when the peculiar poisonous principles are developed in it, as appears to happen in certain seasons. The disease is liable to affect a large proportion of animals which are under the same grazing conditions.

SYMPTOMS: Generally takes two or three days to develop. The animal gradually becomes more or less unconscious and paralyzed, staggers when forced to walk, and it may have great difficulty in keeping on its feet, it is extremely averse to going down, and leans for support against any convenient object. It breathes in a snorting manner. The mucous membranes are tinged with yellow, and the bowels constipated. In other cases severe diarrhoea follows, and the animal becomes very weak and dies in convulsions or spasms. Recovery may be expected in cases that are not marked by severe symptoms.

TREATMENT: Endeavor to find out the true cause and remove it if possible. Change range or pasture for a short time; this has successfully eradicated this malady. The animal showing the above symptoms should receive four to eight ounces of Castor Oil regardless of whether there is diarrhoea or constipation. In either case the irritation will be relieved by its laxative effect. In cases where diarrhoea becomes chronic, after administering the Castor Oil, the following will be found very efficient in its control: Protan, three ounces; Ginger, one ounce; Gum Catechu, two ounces. Make into sixteen powders and place one powder well back on the tongue every four or six hours. Feed clean, wholesome food and supply clean, fresh water to drink. Provide shelter for the animal if the weather is hot.

GARGET

(Congestion and Inflammation of the Udder)

CAUSE: As a rule, in Garget or Congestion of the Udder in heavy milking ewes, just before and after lambing, the glands of the udder enlarge, become hot, tense and tender and a slight pasty swelling extends forward from the glands on the lower surface of the abdomen. This physiological condition is looked upon as a matter of course and disposed of in two or three days when the secretions of milk have been fully established.

General breaking up of the udder may be greatly hastened by the sucking of a hungry lamb and the kneading it gives the udder with its nose is beneficial. The above mentioned congestion or Garget may emerge into active inflammation resulting from continued exposure to cold weather, standing in cold drafts or injury to the udder from stone, clubs, feet of other animals, overfeeding or rich food, like cotton seed or soy bean, sore teats or a ewe losing her lamb in the period of full milking; serious disturbances of the animal's health is liable to fall upon the udder.

SYMPTOMS: The symptoms and mode of attack vary in different cases.

Following exposure to cold drafts or cold, wet weather, there is usually severe chilling with cold ears and limbs and general dryness and brittleness of the wool. This is followed by a flush of heat, the ears and limbs become unnaturally warm and the glands swell up and become firm and solid in one or both sides of the udder. The muzzle is hot and dry, temperature elevated two or three degrees above normal, pulse firm and quick, excited breathing, appet.i.te and rumination suspended, bowels constipated, urine scanty and the yield of milk may be entirely suppressed in the affected side.

TREATMENT: Determine the cause and remove it if possible. Move the affected animal to comfortable quarters, supply liberal quantifies of bedding for the animal to lie upon. Give two to six ounces of Glauber Salts dissolved in a pint of hot water. Permit it to cool. Place the ewe on her haunches and drench carefully. Feed laxative foods as hot bran mashes, steamed rolled oats and vegetables, supplying the animal with pure water to drink, to which add two drams of Hyposulphite of Soda, two or three times a day. In some cases it is advisable to apply Camphorated Ointment to the udder once or twice a day.

GID

(St.u.r.dy)

CAUSE: Gid is produced by a bladder worm, a larva or an egg of the tapeworm infesting the intestines of dogs, wolves and coyotes. The eggs of these tapeworms are scattered over the range or pastures in the droppings of infested dogs, wolves or coyotes, and these when swallowed in the food or water by the sheep, hatch out and the embryos migrate to the brain, spinal cord, etc., where they develop into cysts, bladder worms or water bags, etc. When the organs of sheep, thus infested, are eaten by dogs, wolves or coyotes, the cyst worms are also likely to be swallowed and then develop into mature tapeworms.

SYMPTOMS: In case a large number of embryos become lodged in the brain of sheep, the first signs will be shown in about eight to twelve days.

Bladder worms produce a congestion of the brain which causes dullness, dizziness, indicating an affection of the brain, walking or turning in circles. If the left side of the brain is affected they will turn to the left; if the right side is affected, they will turn to the right. The head eventually droops, the eyes become red and the vision is impaired, the head very hot over the affected region, the affected sheep become separated from the flock. Sometimes the sheep are partially or completely paralyzed.

PREVENTION: Prevention is the only method by which this disease can be eradicated. Prevent the sheep from becoming infected with these parasites. Stray dogs, wolves or coyotes should be killed whenever found, and dogs too valuable to kill should be kept free from tapeworm.

Meat should not be fed to dogs unless cooked or known to be free from tapeworm cysts.

GRUBS IN THE HEAD

(Head Maggot)

CAUSE: Grubs in the head of sheep are produced by the Sheep Gadfly which is yellowish-gray in color with five well divided rings around its body, covered over with fine hair and the lower portion of the head white.

This fly is somewhat larger than the ordinary house fly. It attacks sheep and goats during the Summer and Fall and deposits its larva about the sheep's and goat's nostrils. This larva attaches itself to the mucous membrane of the nostrils with two hooklets by which it gradually works into the air cavities of the head, remaining there for about ten months. Then it again pa.s.ses from the nostrils, burrows into the ground and becomes a fully matured Gadfly in six or eight weeks, which completes its life cycle, the head of the sheep or goat being its intermediate host where the newly born Gadfly again attaches its larva.

SYMPTOMS: When sheep or goats are attacked by this Gadfly, they run, strike at the nose with their front feet, rub the nose on the ground or against other sheep. In case only three or four larvae gain entrance to the sinuses of the head, they produce very little, if any, ill effects, but where they become numerous, they cause the animal to cough and sneeze continually, discharge from the nose, which is occasionally tinged with blood. The appet.i.te becomes impaired, the animal shows signs of emaciation, becomes very weak, raises the nose in the air, but eventually becomes so weak it reels when walking and finally lies down.

It becomes so weak it cannot toss the head or rise, and dies.

PREVENTION TREATMENT: Very successful. Paint the sheep's or goat's nose with Pine Tar, or better still, place salt in a trough, covering it with boards, with holes bored in them just large enough for the animal to insert its nose. Smear Pine Tar about the holes once or twice a week.

This treatment has proven very efficient in localities where sheep Gadflies are numerous.

MEDICAL TREATMENT: After the animal once becomes infected with these grubs, bore holes (trephine) through the skull with a sharp instrument made for this purpose and remove the grubs. This requires considerable amount of skill and should be attempted only by a competent Veterinarian.

HOVEN

(Bloating--Acute Tynpanitis--Acute Indigestion)

CAUSE: Hoven is caused by various kinds of food which produce indigestion or fermentation and resultant gases in the rumen or paunch.

When sheep are first turned into young clover, they eat so greedily of it that bloating frequently results. Turnips, potatoes and cabbage may also produce it. Middlings and corn meal also frequently give rise to it. In this connection it may be stated that an excessive quant.i.ty of any food, before mentioned, may bring on this disorder, or it may not be due to excessive eating but to eating too fast. Sometimes the quality of food is at fault. Gra.s.s, clover or alfalfa, when wet with dew or rain soaked, frequently produce digestive disorders and bloating follows.

Frozen roots or potatoes covered with white frost should be regarded as dangerous. When food has been eaten too hastily or when it is cold and wet, the digestive process is imperfectly performed and the food contained in the paunch ferments, during which process large quant.i.ties of gas are formed. This same result may follow when a sheep is choking, as the obstruction in the gullet prevents the eructation or pa.s.sing of gas from the stomach so that the gas continues to acc.u.mulate until severe bloating results.

SYMPTOMS: The swelling of the left flank is very characteristic, as in well marked cases the flank at its upper part rises above the level of the backbone and when struck with the tips of the fingers emits a drum-like sound. The animal has an anxious expression, moves uneasily and is evidently distressed. If relief is not obtained in time the sheep breathes with difficulty, reels in walking or standing and in a short time falls down and dies from suffocation. The distention of the stomach or rumen may become so great that it pushes the diaphragm (the membrane separating the lung and intestinal cavity) forward against the lungs, so as to squeeze and stop their movements, thus preventing the animal from breathing and in some instances the case may be complicated by a rupture of the stomach.

TREATMENT: Do not waste any time. Puncture about three inches downward and forward from the point of the hip bone with a clean sharp knife, or any instrument that is clean and sharp. A special instrument made for this purpose, the trocar, is a very useful instrument on the farm.

Sometimes bloating becomes chronic, and if such is the case dissolve two teaspoonfuls of Turpentine in one-half pint of milk and drench the animal very carefully, as some of this drench may escape into the lungs and produce fatal pneumonia. Set a sheep upon its haunches to give the medicine; if it coughs let it down quickly to prevent strangulation.

INDIGESTION

(Dyspepsia)

CAUSE: Irritant food, damaged food, overloaded paunch or sudden change of diet may produce this disease. Want of exercise predisposes an animal to it and it is caused by woody or indigestible food. Food which possesses astringent (drying) properties tends to check the digestive secretions and may also act as an exciting cause. Food in excessive quant.i.ty may lead to disorders of the digestion and to this disease. It is very likely to appear towards the end of the protracted season of draught, therefore a deficiency of water must be regarded as one of the conditions which favors its development.

SYMPTOMS: Appet.i.te diminished; rumination, or chewing the cud, irregular; tongue coated, mouth slimy, feces pa.s.sed apparently not well digested and offensive in odor, dullness and fullness of the flanks.

This disease may, in some cases, a.s.sume a chronic character, for in addition to the above mentioned symptoms, slight bloating of the left flank may be observed. The animal breathes with great difficulty and grunts with each respiration. The ears and legs alternately become hot and cold. The rumination, or cud chewing, at this stage ceases and the usual rumbling sound in the stomach is not audible. The pa.s.sage of feces is entirely suspended and the animal pa.s.ses only a little mucus occasionally. Sometimes constipation and diarrhoea alternate; there is a rise in temperature in many cases. The disease continues for a few days or a week in this mild form, while the severe form of the disease may last for several weeks. In the severe form the emaciation and loss of strength may be very great. There is no appet.i.te, no rumination or rumbling sound in the stomach or intestines. The mouth is hot and sticky, the eyes have retracted in their sockets and the milk secretion has ceased. In such cases the outlook for recovery is unfavorable. The affected animals fall away in flesh and become very weak, which is shown by the fact that one finds the animal lying down.

On examination of sheep or goats which have died of this disease, it is found that the lining membranes of the fourth stomach and intestines, particularly the small intestines, are red, swollen, streaked with deep red or blushed lines or spotted. The lining of the third stomach is more or less softened and may be easily pealed off. The third stomach contains dry, hard food ma.s.ses, closely adhering to its walls. In some cases the brain appears to become affected, probably from the pain endured and weakness and absorption of poisons generated in the digestive ca.n.a.l. In such cases there is weakness and a staggering gait; the sheep or goats do not appear to see, and will consequently run against obstacles. After a time it falls down and gives up to a violent disordered struggle. This delirious condition is succeeded by stupor and death.

TREATMENT: Successful; if fed in its first stages on small quant.i.ties of roots, sweet silage or select gra.s.ses or hay. This should be offered several times daily. Very little food should be allowed if the animal is constipated, in which case give two to four ounces of Glauber Salts dissolved in a pint of hot water. When it cools, set the animal on its haunches and pour slowly and carefully. If they strangle or cough let them down, as some of the drench may escape into the lungs and produce lung complications. After the Glauber Salts have acted and if there is a lack of appet.i.te and the animal does not chew the cud regularly, the following tonic will be found beneficial: Pulv. Gentian Root, one ounce; Pulv. Nux Vomica, one ounce; Pulv. Anise Seed, two ounces. Mix thoroughly and make into thirty-two powders. Give one powder two or three times a day well back on the tongue. The food must be rather laxative and of a digestible character. After an attack of this form of indigestion, ice cold water should be avoided. Food should be given in moderate quant.i.ties, as any excess by overtaxing the digestive functions may bring on a relapse.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photograph of sheep.]

CHAMPION SHROPSHIRE RAM.

Owned by McKerrow & Son, Pewaukee, Wis.

JAUNDICE

(Liver Congestion--Inflammation of the Liver)

CAUSE: Jaundice or Liver Congestion is due to constipation where there is an inactive or torpid condition of the bowels and the bile which pa.s.ses into the intestines is absorbed and produces a yellow staining of Jaundice. Jaundice is merely a symptom of a disease and ought to direct attention to ascertain if possible the cause or causes which give rise to it. Inflammation of the liver usually occurs as a complication of infectious diseases. It may also occur as a complication of intestinal catarrh, or in hot weather from overheating, eating decomposed or irritating food or from drinking stagnant water.

SYMPTOMS: The signs are sometimes obscure and their real significance is frequently overlooked. The most prominent symptoms are the yellowness of the white of the eyes and of the mucous membranes lining the mouth, appet.i.te poor, body presents an emaciated appearance, the feces is light in color, while the urine is likely to be unusually dark and there is great thirst present. The gait is weak and the animal lies down more than usual and while doing so frequently has its head around resting on the side of its chest. Temperature is slightly elevated above normal and breathing is somewhat hurried.

TREATMENT: Remove the cause if possible. Give Glauber Salts in three to four ounce doses, diluted in a pint of hot water permitted to cool and give at one dose. When drenching be very careful, as some of the liquid may escape into the lungs and produce severe complications. Feed green food or hot bran mashes and supply them with a liberal quant.i.ty of pure water to drink.