No. 9. 



Treatment of Domestic Jlnimah. 



277 



Treatment of Domestic Animals. 



Editors of the Cabinet, — The proper 

 treatment of the diseases of domestic ani- 

 mals, is probably less understood than any 

 other department of rural economy ; and so 

 long as no efforts are made to class it 

 among the professions, and one worthy too, 

 of the attention of scientific and educated 

 men, must there be losses sustained of val- 

 uable animals, from injudicious or danger- 

 ous remedies. In England there is more 

 than one veterinary school, where the anato- 

 my, physiology and diseases of animals are 

 regularly studied, as in our schools of medi- 

 cine ; and there is no doubt that in our own 

 countiy, a well qualified person in any good 

 farming district, would receive ample en- 

 couragement as a veterinarian. Is it not 

 worthy of the attention of our agricultural 

 societies, to send one or more persons to 

 England to go through a course of study, in 

 one of her schools, where I am told the ad- 

 vantages are all that could be desired. 

 ' In the absence of much of this scientific 

 knowledge, it may be well to record in our 

 agricultural papers, accounts of maladies of 

 animals, with their treatment and results; 

 pro bono publico, to throw one's experience 

 into the common stock. 



The " M'Elroy cow," of whose great 

 milking qualities a short account was pub- 

 lished in the Cabinet last spring,* had a fine 

 bull calf on the evening of the 7th of the 

 present month, and appeared well till the 

 morning of the 10th, when upon going into 

 her stable, she was found in great pain, 

 moaning, uneasy, and refusing to eat — her 

 horns down to the roots were very cold, — 

 the pulse quick, strong and full, and slightly 

 swelled. I immediately gave her one and a 

 half pounds of epsom salts, with a small por- 

 tion of ginger; opened the holes in her horns, 

 which had been previously bored, and applied 

 a small portion of turpentine back of her 

 head, this latter being a common remedy 

 here, for an ailment probably miscalled hol- 

 low-horn. In the course of two to three 

 hours, the pain still continuing, and the 

 medicine not having operated, judging' from 

 the pulse, there was considerable fever, I 

 bled her about seven pints. She ceased 

 moaning, and laid down, appearing easier. 

 In the course of another hour, I went down 

 to give her another dose of salts and found 

 her dead, being about five hours from the 

 time she was first discovered. 



In the treatment of this cow, and my ani- 

 mals generally. I am guided by Youatt, and 

 heretofore with success. The symptoms 

 here corresponded exactly with those which 



* See vol. 6, page 382. 



he ranks under the name of puerperal, or 

 milk fever, and although he says, "this com- 

 plaint generally attacks cows in very high 

 condition, and where there is of course a 

 predisposition to fever; yet deep milkers are 

 also equally subject to it." He says, "all 

 cows have a slight degree of fever at this 

 time; a very little addition to that, will ma- 

 terially interfere with the secretion of milk, 

 and perhaps arrest it altogether, and the 

 throwing back upon the system the quantity 

 of milk which some of them are disposed to 

 give, must strangely add fuel to fire, and 

 kindle a flame by which the powers of na- 

 ture are speedily consumed." "The disease 

 is an inflammatory one, and must be treated 

 as such. There is no malady which more 

 satisfactorily illustrates the necessity of en- 

 deavouring to subdue, as speedily as possi- 

 ble, every inflammatory complaint by the 

 free use of the lancet, for all of them run 

 their course with a rapidity which a person 

 unaccustomed to these animals, and which 

 the human practitioner especially, would 

 scarcely deem possible." "The small bleed- 

 ings to which some have recourse, are worse 

 than useless, for they only increase the na- 

 tural tendency of these animals to take on 

 a low and fatal form." So much for Youatt. 

 It will be seen he relies on purging, and 

 particularly deep bleeding, and yet I have 

 no doubt the latter contributed to the fatal 

 termination of the complaint. She was al- 

 ways in very poor condition, and I always 

 found it impossible to have her otherwise; 

 all the feed given seemed to go to aid the 

 lacteal secretions, and she constantly looked 

 more than half starved. Although there 

 may be some fever in cows of her condition, 

 at such times, experience in this case would 

 seem to say, there is not sufficient to make 

 it necessary to exhaust the strength by pre- 

 mature bleeding, but rather to rely on the 

 operation of the medicine, repeating- dose 

 after dose, till an effect is produced, or even 

 to hasten it by injections. 



On examination, the rumen, manyplus and 

 abomasum, or fourth stomach, were greatly 

 distended with food, while the rectum, or 

 large intestine at the termination of the di- 

 gestive canal, was empty, showing the dis- 

 ease to have been an obstinate constipation. 

 It should also be mentioned, that no milk, or 

 only about a pint, could be drawn from her, 

 and her udder was hot, as if inflamed. 



The death of the M'Elroy cow, is the 

 more to be regretted at this time, as I had 

 ntended to offer her when pasture came, to 

 the disposal of a committee of the Philadel- 

 phia Society, to test her milking properties, 

 either here or at any other place, where she 

 could have an impartial trial, and with the 



