TRUE RED WATER IN CATTLE. 409 



TRUE RED WATER IN CATTLE. 



Red water appears to be a disease of the digestive organs, 

 and is justly attributed to derangement of the hver and 

 stomachs. Unhealthy bile renders the chyme also un- 

 healthy. The chyme, of course, affects the chyle ; and the 

 chyle likewise affects the blood, the quantity of which it 

 supports. Thus the consequence of the bile being im- 

 properly secreted, is an altered state of the vital fluid ; the 

 red particles of which are imperfectly formed, and it then 

 becomes the office of the kidneys to remove them as foreign 

 bodies. Red particles, therefore, are voided with the urine, 

 but not sound or entire. On the contrary, the microscope 

 shows them to be broken down, as though they had been 

 ground up in a mortar ; and it is upon the presence of 

 these imperfect foreign bodies, that the colour of the urine 

 depends. The disease is ushered in by diarrhoea, to which 

 constipation succeeds. When it has taken deep hold of 

 the digestive system, the liver is affected, and its secre- 

 tions are unhealthy, and morbidly stimulate the intestines ; 

 the secondary costiveness often complained of gives place 

 to an obstinate diarrhoea. 



Causes. — This disease prevails in some parts of England, 

 and is unknown in others. It is associated with feeding on 

 particular pastures, upon which cows can scarcely be allowed 

 to run without their displaying the disorder. It is also 

 connected with the performance of certain natural func- 

 tions ; thus, in some places, red water is common after 

 calving, and in those places dropping after calving is un- 

 known. In other localities, dropping generally happens, 

 and in those places red water is a very rare occurrence. 



Symptoms. — Those of general constitutional disturbance 

 in cattle, united with a pulse bounding at the heart, and 

 scarcely to be felt at the jaw. The beat of the heart is 

 even loud ; but the symptom peculiar to this disease is the 

 discoloured state of the urine, which assumes all the inter- 

 mediate tints between the palest ale and the deepest 

 porter. 



Treatment. — Those who advocate bleeding say the vein 

 is to be pinned up the instant the pulse falters, or the 

 delay of a few seconds may lose the life of the animal. 



