15* 



CATTLE— DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



astringents may then be administered 

 with safety. 



The safest and the most effectual astrin- 

 gent mixture for the scouring rot is that 

 which was recommended for diarrhoea. 

 It may be given once or twice in the day, 

 according to the violence of the com- 

 plaint. 



Ale should never be given in these 

 cases. The astringents may be com- 

 menced twenty-four hours after the pur- 

 gative has been administered. 



If the disease does not speedily yield 

 to this treatment, it will not be prudent to 

 continue the use of such large quantities 

 of astringent medicines for any consider- 

 able time. The astringent drink, with 

 mutton suet (see No. 18 Domestic Ani- 

 mals, Medicines for) may then be given, 

 and continued morning and night for five 

 or six days. 



When the dysentery is stopped, the 

 beast should very slowly and cautiously 

 be permitted to return to his former geeen 

 food. Either during the night or the day, 

 according to the season of the year, he 

 should be confined in the cow-house, and 

 turned out twelve hours only out of the 

 twenty-four. Water should be placed 

 within reach of the animal, in the cow- 

 house, and, if possible, in the field ; for 

 there are few things more likely to bring 

 on this disease, or more certain to aggra- 

 vate it, than the drinking of an inordinate 

 quantity of water after long-continued 

 thirst. 



These precautionary measures should 

 be continued for a considerable time ; for 

 there is something very treacherous in 

 this malady, and it will often suddenly 

 return several weeks after it has been ap- 

 parently subdued. 



In those cases, and they are much too 

 numerous, which totally resist the influ- 

 ence of the medicines already recom- 

 mended, other means should be tried. 

 The Alum Whey has sometimes suc- 

 ceeded. (See No. 19 Domestic Ani- 

 mals, Medicines for.) 



This may be administered twice every 

 day. 



The disease may not yield even to this. 

 It will then be evident that it is the con- 

 sequence of some other disease, and, prob- 

 ably, of the liver, the vitiated bile secreted 

 by which is keeping up the purging. It 

 is almost a forlorn hope to attack such a 



case; but the beast maybe valuable, and, 

 at all events, we cannot be worse off. 

 The only medicine that can have power 

 here is mercury, for it seems to exert its 

 chief influence on the liver and the dis- 

 charge of bile. The mildest, and at the 

 same time the most effectual, form in 

 which it can be administered, is that of 

 the blue pill, half a scruple of which may 

 be given morning and night, rubbed down 

 with a little thick gruel. There is very 

 little danger of salivation : yet it may be 

 prudent to give half a pound of Epsom 

 salts every fifth or sixth day; and most 

 certainly to give them every second day, 

 and discontinue the blue pill, if the mouth 

 should become sore, or the breath stink- 

 ing, or there should be a more than usual 

 discharge of saliva from the mouth. 



In many cases there is found a schirr- 

 ous state of the third and fourth stom- 

 achs in cattle that have died of, or been 

 destroyed for this disease. 



CATTLE, Red-water in The nature 



of this disease has been very much mis- 

 understood. It consists of a discharge of 

 high-colored urine, and therefore has been 

 attributed to an inflammatory affection of 

 the kidneys. It will generally be found 

 to begin in another organ, the liver, and 

 to be connected, in the first stage at least, 

 far more with disease of that gland than 

 of the kidney. 



There are evidently two distinct species 

 of red-water. 



One, but which occurs most seldom, 

 begins with decided symptoms of fever. 

 There is shivering, succeeded by increased 

 heat of the body ; the muzzle dry ; work- 

 ing of the flanks ; urine of a red color, 

 evidently tinged with blood, and occasion- 

 ally consisting almost entirely of blood, 

 discharged in small quantities, and fre- 

 quently with considerable pain; loss of 

 appetite. As the disease proceeds, the 

 animal loses strength ; the bowels become 

 constipated or very loose; and the urine 

 of a dark color, approaching to black. 



Very early in the complaint the loins 

 become exceedingly tender, and the ani- 

 mal shrinks when they are pressed upon ; 

 some heat is likewise felt there, showing 

 evidently the seat and nature of the dis- 

 ease. It sometimes proceeds from cold, 

 particularly when beasts are turned into 

 low pasture grounds at the spring of the 

 year. It also frequently seizes young cattle 



