NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 493 
Symptoms. — The symptoms are dullness', indisposition to move, un- 
easiness, eructations of gas from the stomach, sour breath, entire loss of 
appetite, lying down and rising as if in pain, fullness of the abdomen, 
which gives out a drumlike sound when tapped with the fingers. The 
costiveness may be marked at first, but soon it gives place to diarrhea, 
by which the offensive matters may be carried off and health restored. 
In other cases it becomes aggravated, merges into inflammation of the 
bowels, fever sets in, and the calf graduaUy sinks. 
Prevention. — Prevention consists in avoiding the causes above enume- 
rated or any others that may be detected. 
Treatment. — Treatment consists in first clearing away the irritant pres- 
ent in the bowels. For this purpose 1 or 2 ounces of castor oil with 20 
drops of laudanum may be given, and if the sour eructations are marked 
a tablespoonful of limewater or \i ounce calcined magnesia may be given 
and repeated two or three times a day. If the disorder continues after 
the removal of the irritant, a large tablespoonful of rennet, or 30 grains 
of pepsin, may be given at each meal along with a teaspoonful of tincture 
of gentian. Any return of constipation must be treated by injections of 
warm water and soap, while the persistence of diarrhea must be met as 
advised under the article following this. In case of the formation of 
loose hair balls inclosing milk undergoing putrid fermentation temporary 
benefit may be obtained by giving a tabelespoonful of vegetable charcoal 
three or four times a day, but the only real remedy for these is to cut 
open the paunch and extract them. At this early age they may be found 
in the third or even the fourth stomach; in the adult they are confined 
to the first two, and are comparatively harmless. 
DIARRHEA (sCOURING) IX CALVES (SIMPLE AND CONTAGIOUS). 
As stated in the last article, scouring is a common result of indiges- 
tion, and at first may be nothing more than an attempt of nature to re- 
lieve the stomach and bowels of offensive and irritating contents. As the 
indigestion persists, hov/ever, the fermentation going on in the undigested 
masses become steadily more complex and active, and what was at first 
the mere result of irritation or suspended digestion comes to be a genuine 
contagious disease, in which the organized ferments (bacteria) propagate 
the affection from animal to animal and from herd to herd. More than 
once I have seen such epizootic diarrhea start on the headwaters of a 
creek, and, traveling along that stream, follow the watershed and attack 
the herds supplied with water from the contaminated channel. In the 
same way the disease, once started in a cow stable, is liable to persist for 
years, or until the building has been thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. 
It may be carried into a healthy stable by the itroduction of a co\y 
brought from an infected stable w^hen she is closely approaching calving. 
Another method of its introduction is by the purchase of a calf from a 
herd where the infection exists. 
In enumerating the other causes of this disease w^e may refer to those 
noted above as inducing indigestion. As a primary consideration, any 
condition which low^ers the vitality or vigor of the calf must be accorded 
a prominent place among the factors which, apart from contagion, con- 
