DYSENTERY, &C. 63 



The hair all over the body soon appears pen-feathered or staring. 

 Feverish symptoms also accompany the complaint: the eyes become 

 dull and inflamed, there is much working- of the flanks, and the pulse 

 is quick. 



The causes of this dreadful malady are — taking- cold at the time 

 of calving; long journeys; exposure to sudden vicissitudes of the 

 weather; and, after being over-heated in travelling, being turned into 

 damp pastures, &c. Poor keep is a very frequent cause, and espe- 

 cially when connected with exhaustion from constant milking; and 

 it is more especially the consequence of the cows being badly fed in 

 the winter. Some cold wet lands are particularly liable to give the 

 rot; yet where the land and treatment are similar it prevails more in 

 some dairies than in others, depending much on the breed of the 

 cattle. Old cows that are fed on sanded pastures are very subject to 

 this complaint. 



In all cases the animals should be taken from grass, and put into a 

 large cow-house, or an open yard, where they can be sheltered from 

 the weather, and kept on dry food, such as good hay, ground oats, 

 barley, and beans. An equal proportion of each of the three last 

 articles and of linseed cake will make an excellent food for cattle 

 labouring under dysentery. A quantity proportionate to the size and 

 appetite of the patients should be given two or three times a day, or 

 if they are much reduced and their appetite is quite gone, a thick 

 gruel should be made of these ingredients, and administered three or 

 four times a day. 



This disease consists in inflammation of the lining membrane of 

 the large intestines. It will then be evident that bleeding, propor- 

 tioned to the suddenness and violence of the attack, and the apparent 

 degree of fever, should be first resorted to. 



If the eyes are inflamed, with heaving of the flanks, and painful 

 twitchings of the belly, accompanied by severe straining and appa- 

 rent gripings in the expulsion of the excrement, the abstraction of 

 blood is indispensable. 



The purgative drink (No. 2, p. 47) should precede the use of every 

 other medicine, in whatever state the bowels may be. It will prepare 

 for the safer use of astringents. In ftmost every case there will be 

 something in the bowels, which, if it did not cause the disease, con- 

 tributes to keep it up. Tlie proprietor of cattle, and he who professes 

 to treat their diseases, should know that there can be nothing more 

 dangerous than to attempt suddenly to stop a violent purging, espe- 

 cially one that assumes the character of dysentery. Let that which 

 oflfends in the bowels be first got rid of, and the disease will some- 

 times cease ofitself, or, if it does not, astringents may then be admi- 

 nistered with safety. 



The safest and the most eflfectual astringent n\ixture for the scour- 

 ing rot is that which was recommended in page 61. It may be given 

 once or twice in the day, according to the violence of the complaint. 

 , Ale should never be given in these cases. The astringents may be 



