DISEASES OF CATTLE 89 



Loss of Cud. It is very common among fanners, when a cow 

 or ox is ailing to say that the sick animal has lost its cud. If it ia 

 meant that the animal does not ruminate or chew the cud, and that 

 it consequently must be sick, no fault can be found with the ex- 

 pression. In most cases, however, the remark is intended to convey 

 the idea that the loss of cud is a disease in itself. Such is not the 

 case. It is simply a cessation of rumination, and frequently the first 

 indication of some form of sickness, since ruminants stop chewing 

 the cud when feeling much out of condition. Loss of cud is a symp- 

 tom of a great many diseases, and when its existence is detected it 

 should lead the observer to try to discover other symptoms upon 

 which to base a correct opinion as to the nature of the disease from 

 which the animal suffers. No local treatment is required. 



Wolf in the Tail. The so-called wolf in the tail is most gen- 

 erally treated by those who are possessed of this fallacious belief by 

 splitting the end of the tail with a knife, filling the cut with salt, 

 and binding with a cloth. This imagined trouble is nothing more 

 than a debilitated condition of the system, resulting in a relaxed 

 or softened condition of the tail, especially at its extremity. It is 

 evident that it is the constitutional disorder which requires treat- 

 ment and not the relaxed tail. 



When the immense volume and complicated arrangement of 

 the gastric pouches of the cow are considered, together with the 

 great quantities of aliment required in the elaboration of milk and 

 for the animal's nutrition, it is small wonder, in view of the care- 

 lessness so often apparent as to both the kind and quality of food, 

 that disease of the digestive organs in these animals is of more fre- 

 quent occurrence than other diseases. And it is believed that a rec- 

 ognition of the facts contained in the foregoing statements will 

 not only tend to dissipate any remaining belief in these old fallacies, 

 but to a more humane and rational treatment of the various forms of 

 indigestion or dyspepsia, of which those manifestations giving rise 

 to impressions of hollow horn, loss of cud, and wolf in the tail are 

 but symptoms. 



Vomiting. This is not to be confounded with rumination, 

 though some writers have advanced the opinion that vomiting is 

 merely a disordered and irregular rumination. It is not of com- 

 mon occurrence in cattle, though it sometimes occurs. ^ 



Symptoms. Animals which vomit are frequently in poor con- 

 dition. After having eaten tranquilly for some time the animal 

 suddenly becomes uneasy, arches the back, stretches the neck and 

 head, and then suddenly ejects 10 or 12 pounds of the contents of 

 the rumen. After having done this the uneasiness subsides, and in 

 a short time the animal resumes eating as if nothing had happened. 



Cause. The cause of this disordered state of the digestive sys- 

 tem in cattle is usually obscure, but has in some cases been traced 

 to a partial closure of the opening into the second stomach or to a 

 distention of the esophagus. It has been found to occur when there 

 was cancerous disease of the fourth stomach, and experimentally it 

 has been shown that a suspension of digestion or great derangement 



