296 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



mouth. So acute was the disease that each animal was dead in less than ten hours. 

 No other symptoms were observed. These steers were in good condition. One was 

 raised on the farm, and the other bought in Chicago in November last. 



Later, on February 25, Mr. Powers again wrote the Department giv- 

 ing additional information in regard to the progress of this disease^ 

 He says : 



I have since lost auother vei\y fine animal with symptoms identical with the others. 

 Death ensued within tweuty-tbur hours. Tliese cattle were all in line condition, have 

 been well cared for and had access to water, and were fed on corn-fodder and wheat- 

 straw. In fact, the management has been the same that I have given my stock 

 cattle in the winter months for thirty years. The dititiculty seems to be that no evi- 

 dence of disease or ailment appears which is noticeable until the animal is in extremis 

 mortis, when all remedies would seem unavailing. A farmer living some ten miles 

 from me in this county has lost, I understand, some seventeen head this winter. As 

 soon as I can ascertain the facts I will report them. 



On receipt of Mr. Powers' first letter, he was informed by the veteri- 

 narian of the Department that his cattle were suffering with impaction 

 or obstruction of the manifolds from eating too much dry food, and ad- 

 vised to give full (loses of purgatives combined with stimulants. 



The following deaths described by Mr. J. B. Warren, statistical cor- 

 respondent of Rooks County, Kansas, no doubt occurred from acute 

 indigestion or impaction: 



One of my neighbors has lost six head of cattle within the past ten daj's. They died 

 within from one to three hours after the first symptoms were observed. I opeued 

 four of them, but found nothing wrong with any of the organs except the stomach 

 and bowels. The inside coatings of these seemed as tliongh badly eaten with lye or 

 some other strong substance. There was very little blood, and around the stomach 

 it was settled in black clots. A foamy froth, resembling thick, slimy soap-suds, passed 

 from the animal's mouth while sutfering from the disease. Before death thej' bloat 

 badly. All the animals attacked were in apparent good health and excellent condi- 

 tion up to the time the first symptoms were observed. 



Cattle poisoned by vegetation. — Mr. George W. Carleton, 

 Gayoso, Pemiscot County, Missouri, writes under recent date as fol- 

 lows : 



Since the February overtiow of the Mississipi^i Eiver, a great many cattle have 

 died, especially cows. They are affected with weakness in the loins, break down, 

 drag their hind legs, fall down and cannot rise, thrash their heads upon the ground, 

 and die within two hours after being attacked. I assisted in the dissection of a two- 

 year-old heifer that died within an hour after showing symptoms of the malady. 

 Upon opening the stomach we found a quantity of an undigested root of a vine that 

 grows in great abundance here, known in the country as "cow itch," trumpet-flower, 

 or cow-vine — Biynonia radicans. Near the bank of the Mississippi River, where the 

 current in the "back-water" runs very strong, the soil has been washed oft' and the 

 roots of this vine left exposed, and, being very tender, cattle eat them ravenously. 

 All the inner coating of tlie stomach was of a A'ery dark ])urph; color ; on the spleen 

 were found a few parasitic worms ; about two inches square of the spleen was inllauied 

 and appeared to have been perforated. In all piobability these parasites had caused 

 the damage. Upon removing the skull we found a great pressure of blood, serum, and 

 water on the brain. This was no doubt caused by the action of the poisonous roots 

 found in the stomach, and was the immediate cause of the animals' death. Within 

 the last ten days several farmers have lost valuable cows, and all of them have eaten 

 of the root of the Bujnonia radicans." 



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