150 Management of Breeding Cattle. 



in any way out of order ; this simple dose can do no harm under 

 any circumstances, and its early application tends to prevent 

 serious illness. 



The infantine disorders of cattle should have the attention of the 

 breeder, with a view to their prevention. The first malady to 

 which a calf is liable is a scour, which comes on when two or 

 three days old, and is often very fatal : it arises from great 

 acidity of stomach. In the post-mortem examination, the milk 

 will be found formed into a hard mass, which can only with dif- 

 ficulty be cut with a knife, and unless this can be dissolved and 

 passed off by the influence of alkalies and other medicines, death 

 will speedily ensue. I have restored calves suffering from this 

 complaint by giving them magnesia and rhubarb, of each a tea- 

 spoonful, and twenty grains of grey powder, repeated every six 

 hours. In this affection, as in most others, prevention is better 

 than cure, and accordingly I have of late given to each calf, as 

 soon as dropped and before sucking the cow, rhubarb, magnesia, 

 and castor oil, of each a teaspoonful, repeating it if necessary : 

 giving the cow at the same time a cleansing drench, which is too 

 well known to every druggist to need any description. Since I 

 liave adopted this mode of treatment I have not lost a calf from 

 this disease. Scour will attack calves at a more advanced age ; 

 it is generally the consequence of cold, and, if taken in time, 

 four to six ounces of salts, a quarter of an ounce of nitre, and the 

 same of ginger, will remove the cause, which is generally some 

 obstruction in the stomachs or bowels. 1 believe the astringent 

 applications used in this complaint are often injurious. 



Calves are not unfrequently attacked with the " husk," so 

 called from the constant short cough which accompanies this 

 complaint. It makes its appearance in the autumn, when they 

 are eight or ten months old. It is caused by living animals at- 

 tached to the windpij)e, and extending, if not checked, to the 

 lungs. My calves have never, with the exception of one year, 

 suffered from this disease, and then only slightly, and it disap- 

 peared after a daily application of tar to their noses, the imbibing 

 the effluvia of which is said to destroy the worms : this receipt is 

 quite insufficient in severe cases. There are many modes of 

 treatment which may prove successful if taken in time. I am 

 assured by men of experience that the most certain cure is half a 

 teaspoonful of chopped savin, with half-a-pint of strong decoction 

 of wormwood, given to each calf for three successive mornings 

 after fasting the night, then waiting three mornings, and then 

 repeating this treatment, suspending the doses again for the same 

 time, then giving three more, making in the whole nine doses ; 

 which, it is said, will relieve the poor animals from their suffer- 

 ings. I think this affection is often occasioned by the calves not 



