114 DISEASE AMONG SWiNE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



Mr. JA]MES T. D0NAI.DSON, Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky, 

 says : 

 Hog-cholera is the only devastating disease our farm-auimals are afflicted with. 



Dr. K. BuCKHAM, Phelps City, Atcliison County, ^Missouri, says : 



Our loss in hogs by what is improperly called cholera has been very great. In the 

 winter of ^18G5-'6G the losses amounted to at least $;I00,000. The symptoms are gen- 

 erally stupor, indisposition to move, stiffness of the joints, eyes weak and watery, 

 sometimes red ; constipation of the bowels ; discharges black and hard at first. In 

 some cases diarrhea sets in with bloody discliargesand vomiting ; high lover and great 

 thirst; occasional bleeding from the nose; in some cases they have cough, in others 

 none ; the skin turns a dark purple on the sides, abdomen, and throat. Tlie duration 

 of the attack varies from one day to a month. I think about SO per cent, of those 

 attacked die. Those that recover iieel off like a child with scarlet fever. Fast mor- 

 tem examinations reveal the following diversity of phenomena: Congestion of the kid- 

 neys ; blood in the ureters and bladder. In other cases these organs appear healthy, 

 and the bowels contain a green, degenerate bile of an acid character; in other cases 

 the liver is black in a state of decomposition with empty gall bladder ; again the spleen 

 is congested and distended to three times its normal condition. In some cases the lungs 

 showiutlammation, with dark spots interspersedthroughthem; and again, in some cases, 

 the stomach contained a green acid fluid, the action of which had destroyed the 

 nmcous coating of the walls of the stomach, rendering it not thicker than brown paper. 

 It will be seen from this that different organs are affected in different hogs afHicted 

 with the same disease. I have paid particular attention to the progress of the disease, 

 and I am satisfied it is contagious. In all cases where healthy hogs have come in con- 

 tact with diseased ones they have been infected. I know of no remedy. We have tried 

 everything recommended, but without sticcess. The only safety is in preventives, and 

 the surest preventive is to keep sick hogs away from tne well ones. 



A few cattle have been lost, in pens, by a disease which seems not to be understood 

 here. I am told by those who have made examinations that after death dark congested 

 blood is found about the joints. There is no cure that I know of. 



Cholera exists among fowls, and it is quite fatal. About .')0 per cent, of those 

 attacked die. Smart-weed, cut fine and mixed with dough or given in strong tea, is a 

 good remedy. 



Mr. J..E. Gray, BrenLam, Wasliington County, Texas, says: 



A fatal disease commonly called cholera exists among fowls here. The symptoms are 

 first a drooping appearance and disposition to remain on the roost until late in the 

 morning ; indifference about food ; the wings droop or fall ; great thirst, as they drink 

 frequently. Sometimes they show signs of gapes. These symptoms continue from two 

 to three days, when death ensues. When the disease strikes a llock it carries <iff from 

 50 to 80 per cent. This season one liock of seventy had but seven left. My wife 

 has used the following remedies with apparent success, but more as a preventive than 

 a cure, viz., red-pepper, sulphur, alum, copperas, turpentine, or rosin, with lime-water 

 to drink. I dissected one that died suddenly, and found the liver in almost a state of 

 decomposition. This leads me to the belief that the liver is greatly implicated in this 

 disease. 



Mr. George A. Hyde, Keating, Pennsylvania, says: 



There is no disease among farm-animals in my neighborhood except garget among 

 cows. The remedy is soft-soap and milk of equal parts, one quart every other day 

 until there are sigus of improvement. Others give four ounces per day of saltpeter, 

 mixed with pale molasses. These remedies, if properly used, generally effect a cure. 

 Saltpeter and sulphur is a preventive, or in fact anything that will cleanse the blood, 



Mr. J. D. Smith, Greig, Lewis County, New York, says: 



A disease made its appearance among cattle in this county in July, 1877, where it still 

 exists. It attacks old and young. TLe first symptoms are manifested by stiffness and 

 great pain, as the animal moans continually and so loud that it may be heard some dis- 

 tance, loses its apnetite and cud, and has no action of the bowels ; manure, if any, is as 

 l)lack as ink ; if a fresh cow, the milk dries up entirely within three hours, and the ani- 

 mal almost invariably dies within forty-eight hours. On opening the animal blood is 

 found in bunches in the veins, the fiesh is bloodshotten on the stomach, and iuffanima- 

 tion of the bowels is revealed. No very close examination has been made here. Vari- 

 ous remedies have been tried, and I have succeeded in curing one of my own cows that 



