DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS- 99 



given. Bran raasbes and other laxatives to keep the bowels open, with a little extra 

 care, have restored them to ordinary health. 



Sheep are affected with foot-rot, scab, and what is known as grub in the head. A 

 good many remedies are used, sometimes with success and again without any apparent 

 effect. » 



We sometimes hear of a few cases of thumiis and cough among hogs, and now and 

 then a case of blind staggers, but few deaths are reported. Charcoal, ashes, salt, and 

 even soft-soap, are used as remedies, especially when cholera i)revails among hogs. 



Thousands of chickens die annually from diseases incident to fowls. Many fami- 

 lies lose large flocks entire. Wild-cherry and white-oak bark, dog fennel, and red and 

 black pepper are used as preventives and remedies. The most successful treatment 

 of late is a small quantity of assafetida in water, blue mass in very small pills, and a 

 little blue ointment on the head. 



Mr. Jamijs M. Bubt, West La Fayette, Coslioctou County, Ohio, says : 



I can say that, during a residence of near half a century as a farmer in this county, 

 with few exceptions the cause of disease among and loss of farm-animals has been the 

 result of neglect aud improper treatment. Notwithstanding the best of treatment, 

 however, the epizootic prevailed for a time among horses ; and what is known here as 

 "colt distemper" frequently prevails, which, if not properly treated, terminates in 

 glanders, an incurable disease. My treatment, which proved effectual, was saltpeter 

 dissolved in hot water, mixed witli wheat-bran mash and fed warm with oats or chop 

 feed — one ounce per dose every third day. 



No contagious or fatal disease has prevailed among cattle in this vicinity. Feeding 

 at regular hours in winter, with free access to water and salt at all seasons, has been 

 my system, and I have lost none from disease. 



Grub in the head has prevailed among sheep. The disease is incurable, but it may 

 be effectually prevented by giving them salt mixed with dry wheat bran as often as 

 once a week during the summer and fall months, when the fly abounds which causes 

 the disease. The same treatment will prevent the disease commonly called " rot," or 

 cure a cold contracted by exposure or sudden changes of the weather. I am not 

 familiar with the foot-rot or scab, as it has not appeared in this vicinity. 



The cholera, kidney-worm, and other diseases that hogs are liable to in some local- 

 ities are effectually jirevented by giving them free access to the slack or waste from 

 our bituminous-coal mines, which abound in this vicinity. Copperas and sulphur are 

 its component parts. I have never lost a hog from disease. 



In-and-in breeding is believed to be the cause of all the diseases that fowls are 

 liable to. Since we have annually marketed or exchanged all our own raising of 

 males and kept our hennery cleanly whitewashed and the floors covered with lime, we 

 have lost no chicks or grown fowls from cholera or any other disease. 



Mr. J. S. Elder, Darlington, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, says : 



Sheep are the only class of farm-animals subject to any specific disease, and the most 

 troublesome one is that known as " pales." The remedies are turpentine and copperas 

 mixed with salt and placed in boxes in their feeding places. But I find they never 

 recover their former health. They dwindle away for a year or two and then die. I 

 find it almost useless to try to save them. Foot-rot also prevails to some extent among 

 sheep. About the only remedy used is sulphate of copper. 



Two horses died in this neighborhood a few days ago. They were sick but a few hours, 

 and during this time walked around with their heads down and ears drooped until they 

 fell down dead. We have no veterinary surgeon in this vicinity, and therefore I can 

 furnish you with no diagnosis of the disease. 



A great many cows annually die here with puerperal fever. There seems to be no 

 remedy for the disorder. 



Mr. KiCHARD Wray, Eichmond, McHenry County, Illinois, says : 



I have been breeding stock in a small way for forty years, and during that period 

 have had diseases among my hogs three or four times, but fortunately they did not do 

 much damage. Four years ago my hogs showed symptoms of disease. When first dis- 

 covered two of them could not walk. The place where they slept I foimd to be damp 

 and wet. Several of the animals were stiff in their joints, aud in addition were cough- 

 ing. I bled the two that were the most seriously affected, iu the mouth, aud put them 

 in a hole in the horse-manure pile. I covered them all over, with the exception of the 

 nose, with the hottest manure iu the heap and then poured two bucketf uls of cold water 

 over them. This was in the morniTig, and I left them there to steam until night. I 

 then took them out and they appeared to be well. I had to leave home that day, and 

 was absent for several days thereafter. I ordered my men to do the same thing with 



