90 DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, ETC. 



of the fourth stomach produces considerable nervous disorder of the 

 rumen and sometimes vomiting, or an attempt to vomit. 



Treatment. Easily digested food and plenty of water should 

 be given. Fear and excitement, chasing, or hurrying animals after 

 eating heartily are apt to bring on an attack. In order to overcome 

 irritation which may produce vomiting, the following draft should 

 be given: Hydrate of chloral, half an ounce; whisky, 8 ounces; 

 water, 1 pint. The dose must be repeated when the condition of the 

 animal seems to require it. As a rule, treatment is not successful. 



Depraved Appetite (Pica). Cattle suffering from this disease 

 have a capricious and variable appetite as regards their ordinary 

 food, but evince a strong desire to lick and eat substances for which 

 healthy cattle show no inclination. Alkaline and saline-tasting 

 substances are especially attractive to cattle having a depraved ap- 

 petite, and they frequently lick lime, earth, coal, gravel, and even 

 the dung of other cattle. Cows in calf and young cattle are espe- 

 cially liable to develop these symptoms. Animals affected in this 

 way lose condition, their coat is staring, gait slow, and small vesicles 

 containing yellow liquid form under the tongue ; the milk given by 

 such cows is thin and watery. Such animals become restless and 

 uneasy, as is indicated by frequent bellowing. The disease may 

 last for months, the animal ultimately dying emaciated and ex- 

 hausted. Depraved appetite frequently precedes the condition in 

 which the bones of the cattle become brittle and fracture easily, 

 which is known as osteomalacia. 



Causes. It is generally believed, from the fact that this disease 

 is largely one of regions, that some condition of the soil and water 

 and of the local vegetation is responsible for it. It is more prevalent 

 some years than others, and is most common in old countries where 

 the soil is more or less depleted. Cattle pastured on low, swampy 

 land become predisposed to it. It occasionally happens, however, 

 that one individual in a herd suffers though all are fed alike; in 

 such cases the disease must arise from an imperfect assimilation by 

 the affected animal of the nutritive elements of the food which is 

 supplied to it. 



Treatment. The aim in such cases must be to improve the 

 process of digestion and to supply the animal with a sufficiency 

 of sound and wholesome food. The following should be given to 

 the cow three times a day, a heaped tablespoonful constituting a 

 dose: Carbonate of iron, 4 ounces; finely ground bone or bone 

 flour, 1 pound; powdered gentian, 4 ounces; common salt, 8 ounces; 

 powdered fenugreek, 4 ounces ; mix. In addition to this, 3 ^able- 

 spoonfuls of powdered charcoal may be mixed with the animal's 

 food three times a day, and a piece of rock salt should be placed 

 where the animal can lick it at will. German veterinarians have 

 had brilliant results from the treatment of this disease with sub- 

 cutaneous injections of apomorphine in doses of 1% to 5 grains 

 daily for three or four days. 



Hair Concretions. These concretions, or hair balls, result from 

 the habit which cattle have of licking themselves or other animals. 



