SYMPTOMS OF THE CATTLE DISEASE. 137 



erection of the coat, or a " staring " coat. In short, the animal 

 seems out of health for a day or two, refuses its food partially 

 or entirely, not from loss of appetite apparently, but from sore- 

 ness of the mouth, and in the course of one or two days you 

 find that it attempts to eat, but fails to masticate, fails to chew 

 its food and swallow it ; it begins to froth at the mouth, walks 

 lame, and shows a tenderness of teats, if it is a milch cow, when 

 milked. You examine carefully into this, and find that in the 

 mouth, on the teats of the udder, and in the space between the 

 hoofs, you have little blisters, in many cases extending half or 

 three-quarters of an inch across, rising on the tongue, on the 

 teats, and in the spaces between the claws. In a day or two days 

 these blisters burst, and where a number existed together, as for 

 instance in the upper jaw, you find raw surfaces, sores, ulcers, 

 and shreds of skin hanging loose, and you find at the same 

 time the blisters bursting on the teats and between the claws, 

 leaving sores there. Many cows do not lose their milk entirely, 

 and the operation of milking not only breaks the blisters to 

 begin with, but continually irritates the sores ; and if the milk 

 is not drawn away the bag swells, becomes inflamed, and in 

 some cases the bag is ruined. In other cases, from going in 

 mud and sand, or otherwise, the cows have their feet perma- 

 nently injured. In the place of simple sores or ulcers between 

 the hoof, those ulcers extend, matter forms beneath the hoof, 

 and goes on extending, so that by and by in bad cases the hoof 

 will be thrown off, the animal walks upon a raw, sensitive sur- 

 face, and if still exposed to filth, there may be any amount of 

 disease resulting. 



Such are the general features. First, simply a little fever, 

 which you may see in any disease ; secondly, this tendency to 

 lameness, frothing at the mouth, soreness of the teats, with 

 blisters rising upon them ; thirdly, the bursting of those blisters 

 with the resulting sores, which may or may not be kept up by 

 external irritation. If left alone, in the course of ten or fifteen 

 days the scabs fall off the sores, and the animal recovers. Some- 

 times the animal dies. In some cases the generative organs are 

 affected, as in one case I saw yesterday where the animal had an 

 abortion. 



The milk is not only useless, but deleterious, especially when 

 used in a warm state. Instances are not wanting of its evil 



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