20 DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, ETC. 



a most valuable instrument in diagnosing diseases. It is advisable 

 that a tested instrument be procured, as some thermometers in the 

 market are inaccurate and misleading. The proper place to insert 

 the thermometer is in the rectum. The instrument should be 

 rested against the walls of the cavity for about three minutes. The 

 normal temperature of the bovine is 101 to 102 F., which is 

 higher than that of the horse. A cow breathes faster, her heart 

 beats faster, and her internal temperature is higher than that of the 

 horse. Ordinary physiological influences such as exercise, diges- 

 tion, etc. give rise to slight variations of internal temperature; 

 but if the temperature rises two or three degrees above the stand- 

 ard, some diseased condition is indicated. 



Pulse. The pulse in a grown animal of the bovine species in 

 a state of good health beats from forty-five to fifty-five times per 

 minute. Exercise, fright, fear, excitement, overfeeding, pregnancy, 

 and other physiological conditions, as well as disease, may affect the 

 frequency and character of the pulse. It assumes various charac- 

 ters according to its rapidity of beat, frequency of occurrence, re- 

 sistance to pressure, regularity, and perceptibility. Thus we have 

 the epick and slow, frequent and infrequent, hard and soft, full 

 and imperceptible, large and small pulses, the characters of which 

 may be determined from their names; also the form known as the 

 intermittent, either regular or irregular. We may have a dicrotic, 

 or double, pulse; a thready pulse, which is extremely small and 

 scarcely perceptible; the venous, or jugular, pulse; the running 

 down pulse, and so on. 



In cattle the pulse is conveniently felt over the submaxillary 

 artery where it winds around the lower jawbone, just at the lower 

 edge of the flat muscle on the side of the cheek. If the cow is lying 

 down the pulse may be taken from the metacarpal artery on the 

 back part of the fore fetlock. The pulsations can be felt from any 

 superficial artery, but in order to ascertain the peculiarities it is 

 necessary to select an artery that may be pressed against a bone. 

 There is a marked difference in the normal or physiological pulse 

 of the horse and that of the cow, that of the horse being full and 

 rather tense, while in the cow it is soft and rolling. The pulse is 

 faster in young and in old cattle than it is in those of middle age. 



Auscultation. Auscultation and percussion are the chief meth- 

 ods employed to determine the various pathological changes that 

 occur in the respiratory organs. Auscultation is the act of listening 

 and may be either mediate or immediate. Mediate auscultation is 

 accomplished by aid of an instrument known as the stethoscope, one 

 extremity of which is applied to the ear and the other to the chest of 

 the animal. In immediate auscultation the ear is applied directly 

 to the part. Immediate auscultation will answer in a large major- 

 ity of cases. Auscultation is resorted to in cardiac and certain ab- 

 dominal diseases, but it is mainly employed for determining the 

 condition of the lungs and air passages. Animals can not give the 

 various phases of respiration on demand, as can the patients of the 

 human practitioner. The organs themselves are less accessible than 



