COSTIVENESS. 135 



When constant and violent straining accompanies the expulsion 

 of the dung, an injection of a pint of thick gruel, with which half a 

 drachm of powdered opium has been mixed, will be very useful. 



Diarrhoea will often in the early stage be accompanied not only by 

 inflammation of the bowels, but much general fever. This will be 

 known by much panting, heat of the mouth, and uneasiness, the 

 animal lying down and getting up again, rolling, or kicking at its 

 belly. It will then be prudent to bleed. A pint will be the proper 

 quantity to be taken from a calf under a month ; after that an addi- 

 tional ounce may be taken for every month. When, however, the 

 diarrhoea has been long established, and the calf is getting weak and 

 rapidly losing flesh, it would be madness to bleed ; the strength of 

 the animal would be more speedily exhausted, and its death hastened. 

 Chalk, or starch, astringents, and carminatives will then afford the 

 only rational hope of success. After the cure has been completed, 

 much care should be taken respecting the diet of the animal ; and it 

 \v[]\ sometimes be useful to give him a lump of chalk and another 

 of salt in his feeding place, to lick them when he likes. 



[The following recipe was originally published in the New England Farmer, sanc- 

 tioned with the name of Lovett Peters, of Westborough, Massachusetts, who pro- 

 nounces it an infallible cure for diarrhoea, or scouring in calves:— "I call it," says 

 he, " infallible, because in thirty years' use of it I have never known it to fail in 

 effecting a cure, by once giving it, except in one instance, and then a second dose 

 proved effectual. Put into a suitable bottle about half a pint of good cider, (not 

 eweet nor bottled cider). Then open a vein in the neck of the calf, and let into the 

 bottle about the same quantity of blood. Shake it well together quickly, and before 

 it has time to coagulate, put it down the calf's throat, which is easily done with the 

 bottle. — S.] 



COSTIVENESS. 



This occasionally attacks young calves a few days after they are 

 born. It is then caused by coagulation of milk in the fourth stomach, 

 which is completely distended by the solid curd, and the passage 

 through it obstructed. There is not often any remedy for this. The 

 most likely method to succeed is to pour in plenty of warm water in 

 which Epsom salts have been dissolved, by means of the stomach- 

 pump so often recommended. The first dose may consist of two 

 ounces of the salts dissolved in two or three quarts of water; after 

 which ounce-doses may be given every six hours, likewise in the 

 same quantity of water, until the bowels are opened. 



71ie costiveness of calves is generally produced by bad manage- 

 ment. Either the calf is suffered to suck too plentifully, or put to a 

 cow whose milk is too old, or fed with new milk from the dairy pro- 

 miscuously. All these things are injurious, and thousands of young 

 animals have been destroyed by them. 



When costiveness occurs in calves of two or three months old, it 

 is usually when they have been too suddenly changed from fluid food, 

 as gruel or porridge, to that of a dryer and more stimulating kind, 



