THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS 337 



548. Hoose, or Husk, in Calves. — This is an irritation of 

 the trachea and bronchial tubes, caused by small, white, thread-like 

 worms (Strongylus micrurus) gaining access to the windpipe. It is 

 not nearly so common as it was some years ago. The great cause 

 is putting young calves out to grass during the autumn months 

 (August and September) on strong wet and undrained soils, and 

 leaving them there after sundown. The symptoms are first noticed 

 in September and October, when the animals are heard to have a 

 sharp, tickling, husky cough. They lose flesh fast, and soon show 

 a starved appearance. Next the cough increases in frequency, and 

 finally becomes very troublesome, being accompanied by occasional 

 diarrhoea. Although the animal may still take its milk, it does not 

 thrive, and finally it dies (worn out) from exhaustion, the post- 

 mortem revealing large numbers of white, thread-like worms in the 

 windpipe and bronchial tubes. 



549. Treatment for this complaint is not at all times satisfactory. 

 The affected animals should have good, warm, well-ventilated boxes 

 and clean, dry beds. Turpentine, in dessert-spoonful doses, in a 

 teacupful of linseed oil and milk, or with one or two eggs well 

 beaten up in milk, given every third day, answers as well as 

 anything. At the same time the system should be kept up as far as 

 possible by giving linseed jelly or well-boiled gruel, made of equal 

 parts of oat and barley meals and milk, supplementing it with a 

 mixture of crushed oats, cake, bran, and a little salt. Fumigation 

 with chlorine or sulphur fumes is sometimes resorted to, but I think 

 iodine fumes are more beneficial. For the purpose of fumigation, 

 1 drachm of iodine should be placed on a hot brick, and this having 

 been put into a bag, the calf's head should be held in the bag for a 

 few moments. This destroys the worms, but the parasites have to 

 be coughed up afterwards, so that good nursing is still required. 

 In some parts of the country intratracheal injections of a mixture 

 of turpentine, carbolic acid, chloroform, and oil of almonds are 

 resorted to with great success. But the best thing is not to have 

 the complaint at all ; and, where the system is carried out of 

 keeping the calves indoors, and giving them cake, corn, bran, and a 

 little salt t until they are twelve months old, the trouble is rarely 



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