DISEASES OF YOUNG CALVES. 133 



Bleeding from the navel string is not an uncommon complaint 

 among calves, and it is a very troublesome one. Tht first thing to be 

 done fs to pass another ligature round the string nearer to the body ; 

 for if the bleeding is not stopped the life of the young animal vrill 

 sometimes be endangered, it ma}^ happen, however, that the first 

 ligature may have been nearer to the belly than it ought to have been, 

 so near, indeed, that another cannot be passed within it. A pledget 

 of lint tliat has been dipped in a decoction of galls (half-a-dozen galls 

 bruised, and boiled in half-a-pint of water), should be placed over the 

 part, and confined with a proper bandage. This will be far preferable 

 to the blue vitriol, and oil of vitriol, which some cow-leeches are so 

 fond of applying. It will stop the blood, but not eat into and destroy 

 the part. 



From the application of the caustic, or even of the second ligature, 

 a great deal of swelling will sometimes take place. This should be 

 well fomented until inflammation is pretty nearly subdued. The 

 after-treatment will depend on circumstances. If there is a solid 

 tumour, the fomentation, or a poultice, must be continued until the 

 swelling breaks, or points so decidedly that it may be opened with a 

 lancet. Poultices must then be applied until the matter has fairly 

 run out, after which a little Friar's Balsam will usually complete the 

 cure. 



In consequence of the bleeding and discharge of matter, the calf 

 will sometimes be exceedingly reduced; some tonic medicine will 

 then be necessary. The Recipe No. 13 (p. 54), given in half-doses, 

 will be serviceable, and at the same time the calf should be forced 

 with good oatmeal or peameal gruel. 



DIARRHOEA. 



One of the most frequent and fatal diseases to which young calves 

 arc subject is diarrhoea, or violent purging. It occurs most frequently 

 when the young animal is from a fortnight to six weeks old, and is 

 in the majority of cases the consequence of neglect. The calf has 

 been too early exposed to cold and wet, or has been half starved, and 

 then one full and hearty meal often disarranges the whole alimentary 

 canal. It is bad policy to stint the calf too much in its quantity of 

 milk. The loss of two or three calves in the course of a year will 

 more than swallow up the supposed saving resulting from a system 

 of starvation. 



At the time of weaning, or when the food is changed from milk to 

 gruel or porridge, diarrhoea and dysenter}' are very apt to occur, and 

 are subdued with great difficulty. The weaning and change of food 

 should be efi'ected slowly, and with a great deal of caution. The 

 new milk should be mixed with the skim milk or gruel which is 

 afterwards to be substituted, and the quantity of the one gradually 

 diminished, wiiile the other is as cautiously increased. 



Tlie symptoms of diarrhoea in calves are, continual purging; the 

 matter discharged is covered with more than its natural quantity of 

 U 



