212 ENTERITIS. 



(2.) In successively isolating cows which are ahout to calve in a 

 small specially detached stable ; 



(3.) In carefully disinfecting the genital organs of cows which have 

 aborted, firstly with boiled water at a temperature of 100° Fahr., and 

 then with 1 per cent, iodine solution. 



Calves which are infected when born cannot be saved, but abortion 

 can be prevented and dysentery so stamped out. 



DIARRHCEIC ENTERITIS IN CALVES. 



This disease is usually called " simple sporadic diarrhoea." It may 

 appear at any time before weaning, and can usually be cured if treated 

 early before the patients show bodily wasting. 



Causation. Indigestion from failure of the abomasum to deal with 

 the milk usually precedes diarrhoeic enteritis ; it may terminate without 

 complications, but very often is followed by diarrhoea. Anything which 

 produces milk indigestion, therefore, favours the occurrence of enteritis. 

 Such predisposing influences include over-distension of the abomasum, 

 milk of bad chemical composition, milk tainted by keeping or by storage 

 in dirty and infected pails, etc. The addition to the milk of nutritive 

 substances which the abomasum and intestine are not yet capable of 

 digesting, such as wheat, rye, barley, or maize meals, very often produces 

 diarrhoea even when the meal is well cooked. 



Chills, privations, irregular feeding, and badly-managed weaning 

 may facilitate its development, but none of these causes, however impor- 

 tant they may be, seem to play any other part than that of favouring tlie 

 multiplication of the numerous varieties of microbes to be found in the 

 intestinal tract. Vascular disturbance occurs, either as a result of direct 

 irritation of the intestinal mucous membrane or of the action of toxic 

 products contained in milk which has served as a culture medium for 

 these microbes ; this is followed by secretory disturbance, and the 

 intestinal contents being modified in character, the microbes normally 

 present undergo changes in number and quality. Inoffensive organisms 

 assume pathogenic qualities and secrete toxic principles, normal digestion 

 is disturbed, the intestinal defence becomes less perfect, toxic principles 

 which the liver is incapable of destroying are absorbed, and diarrhceic 

 enteritis is set up. 



Symptoms. Diarrhceic enteritis appears during the second week of 

 life, towards the end of the first month, or even later. It is characterised 

 by the passage of faeces consisting of mucus and containing little clots 

 of milk. 



This is the first stage of alimentary diarrhoea, also termed " white 

 diarrhoea" or "white scour." It may prove unimportant; it may last a 



