130 THE VETERINAEIAN 



mation of the lining membranes of the eye. The eye is 

 partially or completely closed. 



Treatment : If due to a foreign body, remove it. In 

 order to accomplish this, the animal must be placed in 

 a stanchion, the head twisted and the eyelid turned back. 

 Do not use burned alum as this will only make the condi- 

 tion worse. Use Boracic Acid, thirty grains; distilled 

 water, one ounce. Apply to the eye three or four times 

 daily, using an ordinary eye-dropper. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE HEART SACK 



(Pericarditis) 



Cause : Cattle being ruminants, therefore, not mas- 

 ticating their food finely before swallowing, consequently 

 foreign bodies, such as nails, wire, etc., are picked up 

 with the food and taken into the rumen or paunch. These 

 sharp objects penetrate the walls of the paunch, rumen 

 or first stomach and pierce the membrane or sack sur- 

 rounding the heart, which produces an inflammation 

 of the heart sack, or Pericarditis. 



Symptoms : Symptoms develop very slowly or indica- 

 tions of indigestion will be present as th.e appetite is 

 variable, temperature elevated, breathing labored, the 

 animal avoids walking down hill as it causes pain 

 from the stomach and intestines pressing the lungs 

 against the heart. The symptoms, however, are so slight 

 that they may easily escape the notice of a casual ob- 

 server. The animal eventually becomes poor, emaciated 

 and dies. If you open the heart sack, it will be found full 

 of watery pus. 



Treatment: Unsuccessful, as this disease is seldom 

 diagnosed correctly, and if it is an operation is neces- 

 sary and this does not prove successful in the majority 

 of cases. 



