SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK —PART VIII. 621 



EYE DISEASE OF CATTLE. 



BREEDERS G.\ZETTE. 



So-called pink-ej-e — properly termed contagious ophthalmia — presents 

 the following effects: 



Symptoms. — Adult, young cattle and calves first show swelling of the 

 eyelids acompanied by weeping. Redness of membranes of eyelids and 

 "haw" becomes apparent, creamy discharge follows and in three or four 

 days a clouded spot shows in center- of eye and gradually spreads until 

 sight of eye becomes milk-colored. Changing from milk-color to pearl 

 tint the eye may become yellow, bulge, show bloodshot streaks, form an 

 abscess and burst, leaving a ragged ulcer, or commence to clear up and 

 finally recover. Slight ulcers may heal by granulation, but extensive rup- 

 tures and ulcers often lead to loss of sight. Fever and some loss of 

 appetite are present, especially in j'oung cattle, for a week or more from 

 time of first attack and dairy cows may shrink in milk production. 



Treatment. — TTie disease being "catching" and doutbless due to a germ 

 which leads to its spread from one animal to another, affected cattle 

 should be separated from unaffected. The eyes of the latter should be 

 washed once or twice a week with a solution of two drams of boracie acid 

 in a pint of water as a possible preventive, and pastures bordering on 

 rivers, ponds and sloughs should be abandoned as the disease seems most 

 liable to attack cattle grazing on such low wet ground. 



Place affected cattle in a darkened shed or stable. Give each adult ani- 

 mal a one-pound dose of epson salts with one ounce of saltpeter and one 

 ounce of ground ginger root in two quarts of warm water as one dose and 

 follow with a tablespoonful of saltpeter twice daily in drinking water or 

 soft food. Younger cattle should have the same medicine in smaller doses 

 according to age' and size. While under treatment do not feed grain but 

 give soft and green food; allow all the cold water animals will take. 



At the commencement of an attack puff between eyelids by means of a 

 clean insect powder bellows a mixture of equal parts of finely powdered 

 calomel and boracie acid; or cover eyes with soft cloth to be kept wet 

 with a 1-2000 solution of bichloride of mercury (corrosive sublimate.) 

 This treatment may prove sufficient in a majority of cases, but should the 

 disease persist and aggravate, substitute for above lotion one consisting 

 of a dram each of sulphate of zinc and fluid extract of belladonna leaves, 

 with 20 drops of carbolic acid in a quart of clean, soft water, with which 

 to keep cloth over eyes continually wet. 



When inflammation subsides should the eye remain milky-appearing 

 paint once daily with 1-1000 solution of bichloride of mercury or 3 per 

 cent solution of boracie acid. In bad cases which are tardy in respond- 

 ing to treatment give (except to pregnant cows) one dram of iodide 

 of potash twice daily for adult animal and from ten to twenty grains 

 for calves and yearlings, continuing its use for one week. Ragged 

 ulcers may with benefit be painted with a solutionn of three grains of 

 nitrate of silver in an ounce of distilled water two or three times a 

 week. Lastly, quarantine animals bought at stockj-ards shipped in or 

 from infected herds. 



