FOG-SICKNESS, OR HOVEX. 481 



FOG-SICKNESS, OR HOVEN. 



Cause. — This unpleasant, and frequently troublesome 

 malady is caused by cattle being removed from house or 

 yard-feeding to rich pastures of meadow-grass or young 

 clover, on which they feed so voraciously, that the stomach 

 being overloaded with succulent food, fermentation takes 

 place, a quantity of air is generated, which descending 

 into the bowels, produces a general swelling of the 

 belly. The cause is the animal taking in too great a 

 quantity at once, without performing the necessary act of 

 chewing the cud, by which the food is reduced into a more 

 solid consistence, and prepared for its passage from the 

 paunch into the other stomachs. It not unfrequently ha.p- 

 pens that the stomach is so distended with food and air, 

 that it bursts, unless relief be timously afforded. It would 

 seem tliat the great accumulation of air causes constriction 

 of the gullet, so that it cannot escape upwards ; and the 

 same constriction produces spasmodic contraction in the 

 openings of the different stomachs, by the unusual disten- 

 tion, and thus the air is checked in its progress downwards. 

 It must be obvious that it is better to guard against the 

 direness of this malady, than to remedy the evil. Care 

 should be taken not to turn cattle into rich pastures when 

 they are hungry ; but if it is absolutely necessary that they 

 should be turned out, they ought only to be allowed a limited 

 time for feeding, and then return to their former situation, 

 10 chew the cud ; and thus, by a little caution, the evil 

 may be avoided. This should be repeated daily, until the 

 animals are habituated to the change. The sudden gorging 

 of the paunch, and the evolution of air, creates such a dis- 

 tention in it, that the function of chewing the cud is en- 

 cirely prevented, and consequently it is seldom that Nature 

 works its own cure, as is the case with other com.plaints. 



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