178 EVERY MAN HIS OWN FARRIER 



DIARRHCEA, LOOSENESS, SLIMY FLUX, OR 

 SCOURING ROT. 



This disorder consists in a frequent discharge of 

 dung, of an unusual colour, thin and slimy. The ani- 

 mal gradually looses flesh, but continues for some time 

 to feed well and ruminate. At length the excrements 

 become of a darker color, and frothy, and in the latter 

 stages have the appearance of half-chewed food, the 

 digestive power being entirely lost. It is said that 

 when animals have been long affected with this dis- 

 ease, they feel a great degree of pain and distress when 

 grasped on each side of the backbone, just below the 

 shoulders ; and this is sometimes considered, by deal- 

 ers in cattle, as a mark of a beast's being tainted with 

 the scouring rot. 



The fatal symptoms are the dew-lap hanging down 

 and having a flabby appearance ; the dung running 

 off*, with a putrid and offensive smell, and as it falls 

 to the ground, rising up in bubbles ; the hair all over 

 the body appearing pin-feathered, or ereot, as if the 

 animal was enduring a severe cold. 



The causes of this complaint are exposure to cold 

 and rain, particularly when the animal has been over 

 driven or heated by working immediately before such 

 exposure. Drinking plentifully of water, under simi- 

 lar circumstances, will also produce this disease. 

 Want of nourishment, particularly in cows that are 

 constantly milked, often causes this disease. Perspi- 

 ration suppressed by any cause ; putrescency of the 

 aliments may also bring on this complaint. It often 

 attacks cattle which have been kept short during the 

 winter, and when they are out to grass in the spring, 



