DISEASES OF LIVE STOCK 283 



one another. Who has not seen a cow dosed with soda 

 by the advice of one man, and ten minutes later, on 

 the advice of some one else, given a quart or two of 

 vinegar one an alkali and the other an acid? Better 

 by far no medicines at all, excepting salts or oil to move 

 the bowels an excellent measure in all cases of sick- 

 ness. 



Do not be coaxed by the village sage into having 

 the "eye" or "blind" teeth of a young horse knocked out 

 on the theory that they cause sore eyes and blindness. 

 No graduate veterinarian will recommend such pro- 

 cedures or admit that they have the least connection 

 with the eye trouble. Do not let the same wise man 

 talk you into taking a red-hot iron and burning out 

 a. horse's upper gums in the belief that he has "lamp- 

 ers" and that it is going to cure it, for it will not. Do 

 not decide that your horse is suffering from "bots," 

 because there is really no such disease. In almost every 

 healthy horse the larvae of the bot fly (Gastrophilus 

 equi) will be found in the intestines where, excepting in 

 extreme cases, they apparently do no great injury. 



Because a cow will not eat, fails to chew the cud 

 (ruminate) and seems sick, do not let the village "know- 

 it-all" make you believe she has "lost her cud." Do 

 not shove down her throat with a pitchfork handle a 

 wad composed of a slice of salt pork as large as your 

 hand with some pieces of laundry soap wrapped inside 

 it, in the fond hope that it will cure her by replacing the 

 cud which the aforesaid "know-it-all" assures you she 

 has lost. The cow is a ruminant, that is, she eats a 

 lot of feed, stores it up in her first stomach tempo- 

 rarily, then goes off to a comfortable spot, regurgitates 

 (literally vomits) it back into her mouth and proceeds 



