44 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

 Prof. E. F. EiPLEY, V. S., Portland, Cumberland County, Maine, says: 



lu regard to the diseases of farm animals I am bappy to inform you that we have 

 had no epizootic maladies the past two years. I have had quite a number of cases of 

 pneumonia (of a low typhoid character) among horses, but the majority of the animals 

 recovered. I treated them with stimulants, carbonate of ammonia, camphor, and 

 capsicum. Occasionally I have a case that will bear a sedative. To some affected 

 with extreme nervous prostration I gave assafetida and ergot. I have successfully 

 treated fifty-odd cases of spinal and cerebro-spinal meningitis, mostly the former, 

 where there were no brain complications. Treatment, one-half ounce of aloes, two 

 drachms of carbonate of ammonia in bolus, followed with extract of belladonna and 

 ergot and bromide of potassium. Some I treated with stimulants, applied mustard to 

 the spine, and supported those with slings that were not able to rise without help. I 

 treated six others (more severe cases, some of them down and unable to stand) that 

 died. I have treated twenty horses suffering with pupa horaeragicu. I gave them 

 chloride of potassium, iron, quinine, and matico, mixed with one gallon of milk and 

 six eggs, administered once a day. Most of them would drink with avidity. With 

 an abundance of pure air and good nursing they soon recovered. We have more or 

 less sore throat here among horses during the fall and spring seasons. Some neglected 

 cases run into glanders. 



Diseases among horned-cattle increase as the country grows older. More especially 

 is this the case among milch-cows. Puerperal fever is the most common disease among 

 this class of stock, and proved fatal in more than half the cases reported. Some cows 

 die within an hour after the first symptoms of the disease are observable. I successfully 

 treated six cases this season by giving one pound of sulphate of magnesia, twenty 

 drops of croton oil, two drachms of Jamaica ginger, in three pints of warm water. 

 Their milk and urine should be drawn, and mustard applied to the spine. If injections 

 of physic do not act in six hours give half-pound doses of magnesia and ginger every 

 six hours until the bowels move. Within two hours from the first cathartic give two 

 ounces of spirits of nitre and four ounces of acetate of ammonia. Repeat every six 

 hours until the animal is able to rise. I have had many cases of congestive fevers in 

 cows and oxen, most of which have recovered. I give one pound snlphate of mag- 

 nesia, two drachms ginger, and one drachm tincture of aconite. If the bowels are 

 constipated, after the fever subsides, I give half-drachm doses of nnx vomica. 



I have successfully treated a few cases of entritic fever in swine with calomel and 

 muriate of ammonia, alternated with belladonna. 



Mr. S. H. Logan, Grreensburg, Decatur County, Indiana^ says : 



The disease known as hog-cholera is now and has been prevalent for several years in 

 this county. I was a feeder of hogs for several years in distilleries in Cincinnati and 

 at Lawrenceburg, in this State. The average loss of hogs by death from this disease at 

 distilleries I think is fully one-half. The loss among hogs in the country from the same 

 cause, of one year old and over, will average about the same ; those of six months old 

 and under about all die, or perhaps one out of ten may live. 



The remedies used here are sulphur, coppera.s, black antimony, saltpeter, and assa- 

 fetida. These remedies have been given separately and in different combinations. 

 Several patent medicines have also been used, but I have never known any benefit de- 

 rived from any of them. The first symptoms of the disease seen in a lot of hogs is a 

 drooping appearance of the animals ; they refuse to eat ; the hair looks dry and has a 

 dirty appearance : they have a hoarse cough ; the bowels are sometimes costive, but 

 generally the animal is affected with a diarrhea, perhaps always toward the last stages 

 of the disease. The duration of the disease, as near as I can judge, is from five to fif- 

 teen days. In cases which I have dissected I find the lungs, liver, spleen, and bowels 

 all more or less diseased. Some cases bleed at the nose ; some go blind ; some swell in 

 the legs and break out in sores. A few of the latter get well ; but none of those that 

 bleed at the nose or go blind ever recover. There seems to be fever in every case. 



I have also seen a great many hogs have a chill, as if aft'ected with the ague. This 

 disease is very fatal ; indeed it is certain death. 



Mr. John M. Liley, TaylorsAille, Spencer County, Kentucky, says : 



W^e have been visited in this and the adjoining county of Nelson by a disease among 

 swine called " hog-cholera." It commenced a year ago this fall, and continued up to 

 August last. During that time about two-thirds of the hogs and almost all the pigs 

 died, so that there are only two or three small lots left for sale in this neighborhood. 

 Those that I observed seemed to be attacked with inflammation of the lungs, accom- 

 panied with fever, which, if not resulting in death in a few days, continued as a slow 

 pulmonary disease, with cough and very poor appetite, until the patient dwindled away 

 to skin and bone, when death would ensue. Most of them died in this way on my farm. 



