FOG-SICKNESS, OR HOVEN 441 



it is better to guard against the direness of this 

 malady, than to remedy the evil. Care should be 

 taken not to turn cattle into rich pastures when they 

 are hungry ; but if it is absolutely necessary that they 

 should be turned out, they ought only to be allowed a 

 limited time for feeding, and then return to their 

 former situation, to chew the cud ; and thus, by little 

 caution, the evil may be avoided. This should be 

 repeated daily, until the animals are habituated to 

 the change. The sudden gorging of the paunch, and 

 the evolution of air, creates such a distention in it, 

 that the -function of chewing the cud is entirely 

 prevented, and consequently it is seldom that Nature 

 works its own cure, as is the case with other com- 

 plaints. 



Tympany or hoven may not be due so much to the 

 condition of the food, as to general debility and im- 

 paired digestion. Foreign bodies, e.g., hair balls, 

 portions of an old leather shoe, parasites, etc., etc., 

 may and generally set up indigestion and evolution of 

 gases. Hoven is a marked symptom in most of those 

 cases of traumatic heart disease, due to a hairpin or 

 sharp body having become fixed in the heart. 

 Dairymaids should be careful in preparing the food 

 of cattle, and if they must wear hairpins, see that they 

 do not fall into the animal's food, for if they do, they 

 will find their way through the walls of the stomach 

 and become fixed in the heart. 



REMEDIES. Where there is very great swelling, 

 the most speedy way of affording relief, in the absence 

 of a trochar and cannula, is to make an incision with 

 a sharp penknife, a scalpel, or other instrument, 

 beneath the short ribs, and insert a quill so as to 

 allow the air to escape. The exact point to puncture 

 is midway betwixt the last rib and the prominent 



