DIARRHCEA. 749 



against, and if the animal is being reared artificially, great care must be 

 paid to the diet. If at the teat, the food and water of the mother should 

 be attended to ; and if the milk is too rich, this may be remedied by giv- 

 ing less stimulating food. With Mares which are worked during the 

 suckling period, the milk is often retained for a long time in the udder, 

 and becomes altered ; on returning to the foal, the latter is ravenously 

 hungry, and over-gorges itself with this unhealthy fluid. The preventive 

 measures are obvious in such a case. Indigestion may be due to an 

 insufficiency of oily matters in the milk of the mother ; here, the diet of 

 the latter must be altered. 



The curative measures in mild cases are simple. Some French and 

 Italian veterinarians recommend the administration of barley-water or 

 very weak beef-tea, and if there is not speedy amendment, they prescribe 

 a spoonful of rennet, which, they assert, readily effects a cure. 



When the indigestion is due to acidity, alkaline agents — as carbonate 

 of potass or soda, lime-water, calcined magnesia, etc. — and afterwards 

 castor-oil — are generally effective. A mild purgative — such as castor-oil, 

 manna, cream of tartar, olive-oil, or a dose of glycerine in albuminized 

 water — is very useful, even when diarrhoea has set in. Manna has proved 

 an excellent remedy for lambs, and even calves. When constipation is 

 present, enemata of soap and water may prove serviceable. Vegetable 

 bitters — as tincture of gentian — and mild stimulants, are often beneficial ; 

 and much success has attended the administration of a spoooful of very 

 finely-powdered vegetable charcoal, given twice a day, mixed with water 

 in which an Q.gg has been beaten up. 



When there is pain and uneasiness, chlorodyne will be found an ex- 

 cellent medicine, particularly if diarrhoea has persisted for some time. 

 Of course, a change of regime is generally necessary. In chronic indi- 

 gestion of calves, Philippi omits all medical treatment, which he asserts 

 is usually found to be inefficacious in these cases, and puts them to be 

 suckled by Cows which have newly calved, dieting them carefully at the 

 same time. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Diarrhoea. 



The peculiar diarrhoea which attacks young animals while at the teat, 

 has for very many years attracted particular attention because of its 

 specific nature, its almost incurable character, and the great mortality 

 which attends it. Known by various names in different animal-rearing 

 countries (as "White Scour" in England — the "Weisse Ruhr" of the 

 Germans, and the " Diarrhee des Jeunes Animaux " of the French), it is 

 generally acknowledged that calves are far more frequently attacked than 

 other animals ; though it is also an extremely fatal disease among foals. 

 Brugnone {La Mascalcia, Turin, 1774) long ago asserted, that it is one 

 of the maladies which cause most destruction among the foals in breed- 

 ing establishments ; and to our own knowledge, it is a most serious 

 scourge among the young thorough-bred stock in England. It is also 

 a fatal malady among young lambs \ and it is observed in piggeries and 

 kennels as a very destructive disorder. It appears to be much more 



