DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 57 



infected auiraal ; in the secoud case it was at least four months. I regard this as the 

 ■worst feature of the disease — it remains dormant in the system of the animal for so 

 long a time before it is imparted to otliers. 



During the past few years this terrible disease has caused great loss to farmers in 

 this section of the State. Many have had to contend with it, and numbers have suf- 

 fered heavier losses than I have. 



Farmers in this locality are also suffering great losses from chicken-cholera. The 

 fowl is taken with diarrhea and sits moping about for a few days and dies. But few 

 of those attected recover. Many preventives have been tried. I believe cayenne pep- 

 per, asafetida and composition powders, used freely in the feed, are useful as such. 

 Cleanliness in roosts, gas-tar, carbolic acid, »fec., are useful; but the i)reventive or 

 remedy remains to be discovered which will give absolute security. 



Mr. James H. Swindells, Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas, says : 



We have not been troubled with diseases among any of the lower animals except 

 among hogs and chickens, both of which were, and now are, aftected with what is 

 termed cholera. Until a year ago the hogs in this locality were not attected with 

 cholera. The disease was brought here by the importation of stock from Wise, Mon- 

 tague, Parker, and Johnson Counties, a tier of counties lying in the lower Cross Tim- 

 bers, west of this point. When they arrived they were herded with hogs raised here. 

 In less than a week the imported hogs became diseased and commenced dying rapidly. 

 The attected ones were separated from the others and various remedies were made use 

 of to check the disease and, if possible, cure it. None of the remedies used seemed to 

 be of any benefit, and nine-tenths of those attected died. The disease soon spread to 

 the native stock, and since then (last fall) there has been more or less of the disease 

 present. 



The symptoms observed are as follows: Indisposition to move about or to cat ; ly- 

 ing down most of the time ; .diarrhea, with excrements first of a natural character, 

 but gradually getting darker until the evacuations became almost black ; fever, the 

 temperature in some cases ruuuiug up to 10d° F., liut generally to about 102°. Before 

 death the animal would vomit a dark-green or black fluid, swell up, and the odor 

 emitted would be very ofi"ensive. 



The only ett'ective way of checking the disease would seem to be to separate the 

 diseased animals and put them into a clean lot having running water in it. I had a 

 few hogs which were taken sick with this diarrhea. In a day or two the discharges 

 became of a light-green color, and very thin. I relieved all of them but one (I believe 

 seven were attacked) by the administration of calomel. For a hog weighing one hun- 

 dred pounds 1 would mix one dram of calomel with a handful of meal and a little 

 milk, and let them have that much in the course of twenty-four hours. They would 

 generally eat a little at a time until the whole is disposed of. The calomel did not 

 seem to purge. On the contrary, the bowels would check up, and in from one to two 

 days the animal "would commence eating corn and would get well without any further 

 trouble. The one which died, would not eat the meal in which the calomel was mixed. 



Mr. W. DuNLEY, Hennepin, Putnam County, Illinois, says : 



A disease called cholei'a has prevailed to a great extent among hogs in this locality 

 during the past few years. Many of our farmers have at difterent periods, and within 

 a very short time, lost most of their stock by the ravages of the disease. No positive 

 remedy has as yet been discovered. 



During the past summer I lost about eighty hogs by the disease. I used all the 

 diff'erent remedies recommended, but they continued to die daily until I was told that 

 oats was a specific. I at once commenced feeding dry oats, and no more died. Three 

 were sick when I commenced feeding the oats, but they recovered, and I have lost 

 none since. 



A great many fowls have died in our vicinity of a disease also called cholera. No 

 remedy or sure preventive has been discovered for this malady. 



Messrs. Daniel A. and Jacob Millek, Farmiugton, Davis County, 

 Utah TeiTitory, -write as follows : 



Sheep are the principal stock product of this locality. Among this class of animals 

 a disease prevails called scab, for which the following remedy is used : One peck of 

 unslaked lime and twenty-five pounds of sulphur dissolved in water. A tank or hogs- 

 head is tilled with the water in which these ingredients have been dissolved, into which 

 the sheep are dipped. These dippings are generally required once or twice a year. 

 Another remedy is to make a solution by adding to water sufficient for the purpose 

 one pound of tobacco, one-fourth iiound of gunpowder, and two ounces of arsenic. 



