824 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



fever. It is rare indeed that the veterinarian is called at this stage of the 

 trouble. Were he present in time he might possibly abort the attack by 

 the immediate administration of stimulants and alternate doses of tinc- 

 ture of aconite and fluid extract of belladonna (poisons that we could not 

 advise farmers to administer), but as a rule the cow is down and probably 

 unconscious before he arrives, or the attack is noticed by the owner. 

 Unless an experienced veterinary surgeon can be called in at once the 

 owner should proceed to treat the case in the following manner: The 

 first point to be attended to is to place the cow upon her breast bone 

 (sternum), for if allowed to lie for any length of time upon her side she 

 will bloat and die from suffocation or wilt regurgitate food, which often 

 gets into the windpipe and lungs. When this occurs such an accident 

 usually leads to fatal pneumonia even if recovery from milk fever appar- 

 ently follows treatment. The cow should be propped up in the position 

 mentioned by means of sacks filled with straw or hay, and a similar sack 

 should be placed under his chin to keep it fairly level. Medical treatment 

 consists in injecting into the udder a solution of two to two and one-half 

 drams of iodide of potash in one quart of freshly boiled and filtered water. 

 Boil and filter the water first, then stir in the iodide of potash, and when 

 milk-warm infuse it into the udder as follows: Have on hand for the 

 purpose five feet of small rubber hose in one end of which has been fitted 

 a glass funnel, and in the other end a large milking tube. Wash the udder 

 thoroughly with warm water, soap and carbolic acid (3 per cent solution) 

 and place it upon a rubber sheet. The udder should have been first 

 milked out, and when this has been done it will be found an easy matter 

 to insert the milking tube into each teat in succession to infuse an equal 

 amount of the iorlide of potash solution into each teat by pouring it into 

 the funnel from a bottle and allowing it to gravitate into the teat gradu- 

 ally. Tiie udder should afterwards be massaged thoroughly, and tins 

 should be repeated every hour until the solution is no longer noticed to 

 "gurgle" in the udder. In addition to this simple treatment the cow 

 should be given copious injections of soapy warm water, per rectum, 

 every two hours. No medicine should be given by the mouth. In such 

 cases the patient has lost the power of swallowing, and when a drench 

 consisting of two or three quarts of warm water, containing Epsom salts 

 or other medicines, is poured into the mouth a large portion of it goes 

 into the trachea, although the cow may seem to swallow. The urine 

 should be withdrawn by means of a catherer every six hours if the cow 

 is unable to stand. If she is "not up in the twelve hours after the first 

 infusion of iodide solution repeat the dose — two drams for medium cow, 

 two and one-half drams for large cow, in one quart of warm water. Hypo- 

 dermic injections of strychnine may be given by a veterinarian in addition 

 to the above treatment. 



