130 DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, ETC. 



be injected with a syringe into the rectum every three or four hours. 

 It is best to keep the animal in a quiet, sheltered place, where it will 

 be free from noise or other cause of excitement. All the cold water 

 the animal will drink should be allowed, but food must be withheld, 

 except bran slops occasionally in small quantities, or grass, if in sea- 

 son, which may be cut and carried fresh to the patient. 



The skull must be examined and if sign of injury is found ap- 

 propriate surgical treatment should be given. 



During the convulsions all possible efforts should be made to 

 prevent the animal injuring itself. The head should be held down 

 on the ground and straw kept under it. Cold water may be contin- 

 uously poured on the head, or bags filled with ice broken in small 

 pieces may be applied to the head. Different authors recommend dif- 

 ferent remedies to allay the convulsions, but for two reasons it will 

 te found extremely difficult to administer medicines during the con- 

 vulsions: (1) While the animal is unconscious the power to swallow 

 is lost, and therefore the medicine is more liable to go down the 

 windpipe to the lungs than it is to go to the paunch; (2) The con- 

 vulsions are often so violent that it would be utterly useless to at- 

 jempt to drench the animal; and furthermore it must be borne in 

 mind that during this stage the functions of digestion and absorp- 

 tion are suspended, and as a consequence the medicine (provided it 

 finds its way to the paunch) is likely to remain there unabsorbed and 

 therefore useless. 



A blistering compound, composed of mustard, 1 ounce ; pulver- 

 ized cantharides, one-half ounce ; hot water, 4 ounces, well mixed to- 

 gether, may be rubbed in over the loins, along the spine, and back 

 of the head on each side of the neck. This is occasionally attended 

 with beneficial effect, and especially so in those cases when paralysis 

 is present. 



If the purgative acts and the animal shows signs of improve- 

 ment in the course of two or three days, 2 drams of iodid of potas- 

 sium may be given every night and morning, dissolved in a half 

 bucketful of drinking water, if the animal will drink it, or it may be 

 dissolved in a half pint of water and given as a drench. Great care 

 must be observed in regard to the food, which should be nutritive, 

 but not coarse, and at first in small quantities, gradually increased as 

 the patient improves. After some progress is made toward recovery 

 ~L l /2 drams of pulverized nux vomica may be given twice a day, added 

 to the iodid of potassium drench. This should be administered so 

 long as a staggering gait continues. 



In those rare cases when recovery takes place it is only partial 

 as a rule, as there is generally a sequel which remains, such as partial 

 paralysis. However, this is but a slight drawback in cattle, because 

 when it is seen to persist the medicine should be stopped and the 

 animal fattened for butchering. 



Postmortem examinations discover congestion of the brain and 

 its membranes. In those cases which have exhibited much paralysis 

 of the hind legs before death the cord may be congested in the lum- 

 bar regions (loins). When the disease has been caused by injury to 



