The Countty Gentleman! s Magazine 



63 



Wcit Veterinarian. 



GARGET IN COWS. 



IN every species of animals we have abun- 

 dant evidence that causes frequently- 

 operating produce in each special forms of 

 disease. There is no doubt, whatever, that 

 habit, temperament, and peculiarity of sex 

 and species differ in each variety, and the 

 liability to suffer under similar influences thus 

 becomes modified, and productive of dissimi- 

 lar results and signs. In horses, for instance, 

 exposure to wet and cold creates a liability 

 for sore throat and influenza ; the same causes 

 produce in dogs the so-called distemper; 

 while in cows the special manifestation is in 

 the form of garget, or, as it is variously known, 

 Mammitis, inflammation of the udder, down- 

 fall of the udder, sore udders, &c. 



In proportion, also, as organs are unduly 

 exercised in their functions is the liability to 

 disease influenced, for by reason of a great 

 influx of blood requisite for their support as 

 well as maintenance in function, the material 

 for congestion and inflammation is already 

 there. Thus, when the cow has calved, the 

 activity of the udder is greatly increased and 

 betrays a very great susceptibility to all causes 

 of disorder. Garget is therefore common in 

 cows after parturition, particularly when they 

 are subject to want of care, exposure, &c. If 

 the cow gets wet and cold, or is allowed to lie 

 upon cold and damp stone, ground, &c., gar- 

 get is almost safe to follow, and, when added 

 to such, the system of feeding is in-egular and 

 defective otherwise, causing indigestion, the 

 results are frequently more severe. 



Besides such causes, injuries exert a serious 

 influence upon the secreting structure of the 

 land, and the practices of leaving milk in 

 the udder, instead of milking effectually, as 

 well as allowing the animal to go too long, 

 are likewise causes that must not be over- 

 ooked. 



A large organ like the udder, receiving so 

 much blood, and performing an extensive and 

 most important function, cannot be involved 

 in acute disease without causing serious con- 

 stitutional disturbance. It is, therefore, worse 

 than useless to think of alleviating such a 

 state by local remedies alone. Young cows 

 usually suffer most severely in their first 

 attacks, but when these succeed each 

 other periodically, they are likely to grow less- 

 intense on each occasion, and eventually as- 

 sume a chronic or slow character, but the 

 final result — obliteration, or loss of secreting 

 power of one or more quarters — is not less 

 certain. At the time of each parturition^ 

 when blood rushes with great force and 

 quantity to the udder, that result is likewise 

 hastened in a manner totally independent of 

 the operation of physical or other causes. The 

 first effect of disorder in the udder is to pro- 

 duce milk of an improper degree of con- 

 sistency ; it probably contains an excess of 

 caseine or cheesy principle, in other words 

 fibrin, in which the excess of blood in dis- 

 order abounds. It thus coagulates more 

 speedily, and within the milk ducts, render- 

 ing it impossible for it to come away by ordi- 

 nary means ; and while it remains great irri- 

 tation and pain are set up, which of course 

 augments the original disease. The string of 

 curd, which may be sometimes extracted 

 by careful manipulation, is the coagulated 

 milk having assumed the form of the tube in 

 which it has been confined. . 



One of the direct objects in the treatment 

 of garget in the acute stages is to reduce the 

 quantity of blood going to the udder, and for 

 this purpose purgatives are usually employed. 

 But when the chronic stages are present it is 

 not wise to use too much medicine of that 

 nature, but to endeavour by means of continu- 



