72 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



times haYo distemper or throat disease, bnt in a majority of cases tliey require little 

 or HO treatment, as a very small percentage die, perLaps not one in a hundred. 



Hogs are extensively raised in this locality, and I verily believe that no particular 

 disease has ever prevailed here bnt what it could be traced to improper treatment and 

 care. If a man loses many hogs it is attributable to hog-cholera, simply because they 

 do not know what else to call it. I would here state that if the disease ever has pre- 

 vailed to any extent in this locality there is no known remedy. I have neA'er seen a 

 case of hog-cholera that I know of since I have been a resident of this county, yet I 

 have heard of cases attributed to that disease, and some farmers have been known to 

 lose a heavy percentage. There are cases of intluenza or pneumonia, caused by im- 

 proper treatment and care in the colder part of the season. This is frequentl.v brought 

 on by keeping too many hogs together, and allowing them warm straw bedding, caus- 

 ing them to steam and sweat fieely. In leaving their bods they cool olt' suddenly and 

 take cold, which often produces congestion of the lungs, for which there is no known 

 remedy. 



Fowls are subject to chicken-cholera, but all the numerous remedies that have been 

 applied have proved unsuccessful. 



Mr, Geokge Stocks, Daltou Citj', ^Moultrie Couuty, Illinois, says : 



In regard to diseases among horses I will say that I have had more than my share of 

 losses, but as I employed a veterinary surgeon, who, I think, rendered good service, I 

 will not attempt a description of the disease, as I hardly feel competent to do so. 



Hog-cholera is the scourge of Central Illinois. I have had some experience Avith it; 

 I think it was in 18(57, when I lost from thirty to forty head, all I had but one. The 

 majority of my neighbors lost in about the same proportion. The disease was admitted 

 by all to be the true hog-cholera. The animal would first commence to cough, would 

 get off its feed, and its feet would seem to become very tender. It would creep to its 

 bed with nose and tail down, and generally die within from one to three days. One 

 widow woman near by lost none, and on inquiry I found that she kept a few ounces 

 of asafcEtida inclosed in a sack and suspended in the slop-barrel. I adopted the same 

 preventive, and occasionally gave coal ashes, copperas, and sulphur, and for three 

 years lost none. Early in 1871 I met with a report of a stock-grower's convention 

 held, I think, in Lexington, Kentucky, at which one of the delegates stated that he 

 put on the market every year from five hundred to six hundred head of hogs, averag- 

 ing four hundred pounds in weight, and claimed that he could either prevent or cure 

 the hog-cholera with the following prescription, viz : Four ounces of crystallized car- 

 bolic acid dissolved in one-half pint of rain-water. Dose, twenty-five droj)S to each 

 Log, or one teaspoouful to four hogs, given in a little slop or milk. 



On my place I generally have from forty to seventy hogs, large and small, and have 

 used the above remedy for seven years with success. During that time I have lost 

 only one, I think, and it did not have the cholera. Although this county has lost 

 heavily we are not alone, as I yesterday heard of one gentleman residing near Daltou 

 City who had lost twenty-three of a herd of twenty-six large hogs within the past few 

 days. 



I have given the above receipt to many persons, but often on inquiry have found 

 that they failed to use it. Since using it I have had six or seven hogs so bad that they 

 would neither eat nor drink, and I had to pour the medicine down their throats. In 

 every case they recovered. 



Mr. James Lilly, Monticello, Wliite County, Indiana, says: 



Last fall my hogs were afflicted with a dreadful cough. Sometimes it was spasmodic 

 with very difficult l>reathing. Matter was freely discharged from the nose and mouth, 

 which was seemingly brought up by coughing. I itsually fed them about the fourth 

 or fifth day soft soap, and placed strong wood ashes in the trough from which they 

 drank swill. With this treatment they recovered in from two to four weeks. 



My neighbors' hogs had the cholera this fall, and they all died, that is, all that were 

 afflicted. There is no remedy for this disease, so far as I know, that can be relied on 

 with any certainty. It is believed that wood-ashes and soft-soap — in other words 

 alkalies — are good as preventives. Probably this is owing to their tendency to cleanse 

 the intestines of parasites. This would seem to indicate that the disease was caused 

 by parasites. 



Chicken-cholera prevails extensively and fatally at times, but I know of no pre- 

 ventive or remedy. 



Mr. P. D. EowLES, Evergreen, Coneculi Connty, Alabama, says : 



The disease known as hog-cholera is characterized first by the aniraial refusing to 

 eat, accompanied with slight dullness and sleepiness, which continues to increase from 



