46 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



Beed-oil given in small doses twice a day until relief is found. Two drachms of sul- 

 phur to one ounce of oil is the proportion I use. 



Chicken-cholera is first observed by a moping or stupid condition of the fowl. Post- 

 mortem examinations show an enlarged condition of the liver. I have relieved fowl* 

 affected with the disease with a strong butternut-bark ooze mixed with thin feed. 

 Small doses of calomel also relieve them. 



Mr. George Yirgin, Little Indian, Cass County, Illinois, says : 



There has been no prevailing disease here among farm animals for the past threer 

 years except the much talked of hog-cholera, which has killed about one-fourth of the 

 hogs of the county. The first symptoms are a severe hacking cough, constipation of 

 the bowels, and loss of appetite. The hair of the animal almost stands on end, a high 

 fever is manifested, which is soon followed by mortification and death. So far no very 

 effectual remedy has been discovered. A good preventive is found in charcoal and 

 copperas mixed with a little sulxjhur, common salt, and saltpeter. One pound of calo- 

 mel sprinkled over some wet oats and placed in troughs for about fifty hogs, followed 

 on the second day with a large spoonful of turpentine for each animal, is the best rem- 

 edy yet discovered here. The turpentine should be given in slop, and the hogs kept 

 away from water a day or two before giving the medicine, in order to give them an 

 api)etite. 



Mr. Ind. Smith, Wellsburg, Chemung County, New York, says : 



I have not had a great deal of experience with the disease among cattle known as 

 the " western fever." Cattle shipped from the West to the Buffalo yards, in apparent 

 good health when they started, have died of this disease soon after their arrival at the 

 above-named point. I am of the opinion that in such cases the disease was contracted at 

 the pens along the lines of the railroads. A neighbor who recently bought a car-load 

 of these western cattle has already lost four by this disease. No doubt the cattle were 

 in good health when they left home. 



A good many stock-hogs purchased at Buffalo have died of some disease, perhaps of 

 cholera. One gentleman has lost one hundred out of a herd of 22.5 head, while others 

 with smaller herds have lost in about the same proportion. If these stock-yards were 

 changed or thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, the ravages of the various diseases to 

 which farm animals are subject might be greatly lessened. 



;Mr. William T. Holt, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado, 

 says: 



As to diseases of domestic animals in this State, I reply briefly that cattle here are 

 pretty uniformly healthy. Out of a herd of over four thousand, owned by myself, I 

 have not lost half a dozen head from sickness in the past four years. 



There is, however, a poisonous plant growing here, and fast extending over the best 

 stock-grazing portions of the State, which kills annually a good many horses, and 

 threatens to put an end to the breeding of horses here at no distant day, unless some 

 efficient antidote be speedily found. Already there are large areas of what was a few 

 years ago the best grazing portions of the State (in the counties of El Paso, Bent, and 

 Elbert) where it is now unsafe to turn out a horse or mule at any season of the year, 

 and almost sure death to the animal to do so in winter when the grasses are brown and 

 dry and this poisonous weed brilliantly green in color and full of juice. It is known 

 here among ranchmen as the " loco weed," so named, I think, because its first effect 

 when eaten is to make the animal crazy. Thousands of dollars' worth of horses are 

 ruined every year in this State from the effects of this poisonous plant. It has not, so 

 far, killed many cattle, for the reason that owing to the vast numbers of this class of 

 animals it is rarely that any one of the number gets sufficient to kill him, and being 

 apparently less susceptible to its peculiar influence than horses. It has been observed 

 that the more valuable a horse is, i. e., the more highly organized, the less " loco " it 

 takes to intoxicate and finally kill him. No antidote has yet been discovered, and 

 if you can set on foot an investigation which will result in determining a sure cure 

 for a " locoed " horse, you will confer a great benefit upon the stock-growing interests 

 of this community. While this weed has not yet spread abundantly enough to kill 

 many cattle, it is believed to be only a question of time when it will do so, if not checked. 

 The use of horses being indispensable to cattle-raising on the plains, this noxious weed 

 indirectly imposes a heavy loss upon the cattle-grower. It also affects our rams, some- 

 times killing them outright, but oftener rendering them emaciated, crazy, and useless, 

 hut this far less frequently than in the case of horses. 



The only diseases to which sheep are liable here are scab and "sore mouth," this last, 

 so far as I know, affecting only lambs before weaning. Out of a flock of ten thousand 

 fiheep, owned by myself, these are the only diseases I have had to contend with, and I 



