CATTLE— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



H7 



has long continued, and the animal is be- 

 oinning to become thin and weak, the 

 practitioner must begin with physic. There 

 is probably some lurking cause of intes- 

 tinal irritation. He should give the quan- 

 tity of Epsom salts just recommended, or 

 perhaps he will more prudently give from 

 half a pint to a pint of castor oil. It will 

 usually be a good practice to give a rather 

 smaller dose on the following day, and 

 after that he may safely have recourse to 

 the astringents. The animal should be 

 brought into a cow-house or enclosed 

 yard, where it can be sheltered from the 

 weather, and kept partly or altogether on 

 dry meat. 



It is of great consequence that diarrhoea 

 or simple purging should be distinguished 

 from another disease with which it is too 

 often confounded. They are both char- 

 acterized by purging. That which has 

 been just considered, is the discharge of 

 dung in too great quantity, and in too 

 fluid a form ; but that which will form the 

 subject of another chapter, dysentery, is 

 the evacuation of the dung, mingled with 

 mucus, or mucus and blood. In diarrhoea 

 the dung is voided in large quantities, and 

 in a full stream; it has sometimes an 

 offensive smell, and is occasionally bloody; 

 but dysentery is often accompanied by a 

 peculiar straining; the dung is not so great 

 in quantity, and it is more offensive, and 

 more highly charged with blood. 



The one is an accidental thing — not 

 always to be considered as a disease — and 

 often ceasing of itself when the purpose 

 for which nature set it up — the expulsion 

 of some acrid or injurious matter from the 

 alimentary canal — has been accomplished; 

 the other is an indication of an inflam- 

 matory affection of the larger intestines, 

 difficult to be controlled, often bidding 

 defiance to all means, and speedily de- 

 stroying the animal. Diarrhoea occurs at 

 all times of the year, and particularly after 

 a sudden and great change of pasture; 

 dysentery is a disease almost peculiar to 

 the spring and autumn alone. It must be 

 confessed, however, that diarrhoea is some- 

 times the precursor of dysentery in its 

 worst form. 



CATTLE, Stone in the Urinary Passa- 

 ges, or Bladder. — There seems to be a 

 greater disposition to the formation and 

 retention of calculi, or stones, in the uri- 

 nary passage of the ox than of the horse. 



The manner in which cattle gather then- 

 food, the half-cutting, and half-tearing, by 

 which the roots of a portion at least of the 

 herbage are taken into the mouth and 

 swallowed, and the propensity which al- 

 most all cattle have to swallow earth in 

 order to prevent the acid fermentation of 

 the food in the paunch — these things ac- 

 count for the more frequent collection of 

 sand and gravel in the bladder of cattle 

 than of horses. 



This sand and gravel is the foundation 

 of, or the preparation for, the future for- 

 mation of stone in the bladder; and when 

 the stone begins to form it is far more 

 likely to be detained, and to accumulate 

 in size, in the bladder of the ox than that 

 of the horse, because the urethra is very 

 much smaller and more curved in its 

 course. 



Stone in the bladder may be suspected 

 when there is much fever, accompanied 

 by a frequent turning of the head and 

 earnest gaze on the flanks; when the hind 

 limbs tremble, and there are ineffectual 

 endeavors to pass urine, or it is evacuated in 

 small quantities, and mingled with blood. 



The suspicion may very easily be 

 reduced to certainty, by examining 

 the bladder with the hand intro- 

 duced into the rectum, or last gut. The 

 bladder of the ox, as has already been 

 described, lying so much more in the 

 pelvis than the bladder of the horse does, 

 the stone cannot fail of being felt if there 

 is one. 



The presence of stone in the bladder 

 having been thus proved, that farmer will 

 pursue the most judicious course who 

 sends the beast immediately to the butch- 

 er, for no medicine will dissolve it, and 

 the animal will lose condition every day. 



The retention of a small calculus in 

 some part of the urethra occurs much of- 

 tener than is generally suspected. The 

 symptoms would be nearly the same as 

 those of stone in the bladder, except that 

 the stoppage of urine would be more 

 complete. On examination, the stone 

 will be easily felt, and generally in the 

 double curvature ot the penis. An in- 

 cision may be made upon it, and it may 

 be thus easily extracted. Two or three 

 sutures, according to the size of the cal- 

 culus, having been passed through the 

 edges of the wound, it will usually heal 

 in a few days. 



