268 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



be overcome. Still, however, there are eases which require 

 the gullet to be opened over the place of obstruction ; a safe 

 operation requiring only a simple cut through the skin and 

 outer surface of the gullet, which will readily heal without 

 much trouble, by bringing the lips of the wound together, 

 with a stitch or two of strong, but small twine or saddler's 

 silk, by means of a small packing needle. Feed the cow 

 or ox, for a week or more, upon soft or prepared food till 

 the wound has healed. When cows or oxen remain long 

 in a choked condition, the throat is apt to swell from the 

 accumulation of gas in the first stomach, which will have 

 to be treated as for hoven or tympanitis — occurring usually 

 from eating clover or rank and wet grass. (See Hoven.) 



Colic. — Colic in cattle is more rarely seen than in the 

 horse, but occurs in the form of hoven, (which see.) 



Consumption. — This disease is not so common in 

 domestic animals as in the human family, nor is it as 

 frequent in any of the animals as it is in the milch cow. 

 Consumption in cows is usually exhibited in the tubercular 

 form. These tubercles are from the size of a pin head 

 to that of a hickory nut, flattened, ov^al and round, and are 

 not confined to the lungs, but are seen underneath the 

 pleura costalis lining the ribs — over the diajDhragm, peri- 

 toneum, and the omentum or caul. 



Causes. This is considered one of the hereditary diseases 

 of cattle, or rather milch cows. As is elsewhere stated in 

 regard to hereditary disease — in the first part of this book 

 — it does not necessarily follow that a cow should be con- 

 sumptive, because its mother was so. No. But rather 

 because it has inherited the great milking qualities of its 

 ancestors, whereby the animal is reduced in flesh, condition 

 and vitality, the fibrous, serous tissue of the body becoming 



