96 SPECIAL CATTLE THERAPY 



If the animal is in pasture or yard she races about, 

 pawing up the earth, and rushing wildly at all who 

 approach. Evidently there is no true hydrophobia 

 (or fear of water) for cows affected Avith rabies will 

 plunge into creeks, tanks, or other receptacles for 

 Avater. They are unable to drink, however, because of 

 well-marked dysphagia. 



Later, .these spells of ferocity, which in the begin- 

 ning are of short duration become more prolonged 

 and recur at shorter intervals. In all from six to 

 twelve hours are spent in this actively furious stage. 

 The symptoms then become somewhat milder; the cow^ 

 shows some lack of co-ordination in movement; there 

 is now ptosis of one or both lids, and general evidences 

 of both nerve and muscular exhaustion. After a few 

 hours of staggering about she goes down, lying in odd 

 positions and struggling in convulsions, sometimes for 

 hours, before death comes. 



In our cases the whole course of the disease, from 

 initial signs to termination in death, rarely required 

 more than thirty-six or forty-eight hours. 



The treatment of rabies is considered hopeless once 

 it develops; the only hope lies in prophylaxsis. Sev- 

 eral of the manufacturers of biologicals now have fa- 

 cilities for supplying veterinarians with the preventive 

 treatment of Pasteur; the inoculation for each day is 

 sent by mail in the order in which it is to be used. 

 While the treatment is too expensive for common cows 

 we recommend it in valuable animals that have been 

 attacked by rabid dogs. Animals showing symptoms 

 of rabies should either be permitted to develop the 

 disease fully so that the diagnosis may be made reason- 

 ably certain by clinical means, or they should be im- 

 mediately destroyed and the head submitted to the 

 laboratory for diagnosis. Either of these procedures 



