406 CATTLE. 



from puerperal fever, her milk is dried, and she is fattened and sold 

 without much loss of time. 



Something may be done in the way of prevention. If the cow be 

 in a high, and consequently a dangerous state of contMtion, and has 

 been fed on luxuriant pasture, it will be very proper, as has been 

 already stated, to bleed her, and give her a dose of phydc, and re- 

 move her to a field of shorter bite, a little before her expected time 

 of calving. Many valuable animals have been saved by this pre- 

 caution. 



Homoeopathic treatment. — The first thing to be done, is to ad- 

 minister, within three or four hours, three or four doses of aconitum, 

 which generally effect a perceptible calm. Then have recourse to 

 Pulsatilla and mix vomica. Belladonna is also an excellent remedy, 

 particularly in cases of very painful swelling of the belly, and of re- 

 tention of the placenta. Chamomilla restores the secretion of milk. 

 Paralysis of the hind-quarters will generally yield to nux vomica ; but 

 if it does not, then it will disappear under the influence of rkus 

 toxicodendron. 



SORE TEATS. 



Cows are very subject to inflammation of the udder soon after 

 calving. The new or increased function which is now set up, and 

 the sudden distension of the bag with milk, produce tenderness and 

 irritability of the udder, and particularly of the teats. This in some 

 cases shows itself in the foi m of excoriations or sores, or small cracks 

 or chaps, on the teats, and very troublesome they are. The dis- 

 charge likewise from these cracks mingles with the milk. The cow 

 sufiers much pain in the act of milking, and is often unmanageable. 

 Many a cow has been ruined, both as a quiet and a plentiful milker, 

 by bad management when her teats have been sore. It is folly to 

 have recourse to harsh treatment, to compel her to submit to the in- 

 fliction of pain in the act of milking ; she will only become more vio- 

 lent, and probably become a kicker for life ; if by soothing and kind 

 treatment she cannot ^e induced to stand, nothing else will eff'ect it. 

 She will also form a .labit of retaining her milk, which will very 

 speedily and very materially reduce its quantity. The teats should 

 be fomented with warm water, in order to clean them and get rid of 

 a portion of the hardened scabbiness about them, the continuance of 

 which is the cause of the greatest pain in the act nf milking ; and 

 after the milking, the teats should be dressed with the following 

 ointment : — Take an ounce of yellow wax, and three of lard, melt 

 them together, and when they begin to get cool, well rub in a 

 quarter of an ounce of sugar of lead and a drachm of alum finely 

 powdered. 



GARGET, OR SORB BAG. 



Too often, however, the inflammation assumes another and worse 



