44 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



become less acute 5 the animal remains lying down; moans occasionally; 

 his pulse is small and quick; he refuses food and does not ruminate. 

 At this stage he does not pass any dung, though sometimes a small 

 quantity of bloody mucus may be passed. On pressing forcibly the 

 abdomen a gurgling sound is produced as if there was a quantity of 

 liquid in the stomachs. There must be slight absorption of liquid from 

 the digestive system, as the animal passes very little urine. This con- 

 dition may continue for a considerable time, as cattle so affected may 

 live for fifteen or even twenty days. 



Post-mortem appearance. At death the bowels are found to be in- 

 flamed, the inflammation always originating at the point where the 

 intestine has been invaginated, twisted, or knotted. Sometimes the 

 part is gangrenous, the compression of the blood-vessels preventing 

 circulation and thus causing the death of the tissues. 



Treatment. Purgatives, anodynes, and other remedies are of no 

 service in such cases, and bleeding also fails to produce any benefit. 

 Indeed, it may be said truly that in such cases treatment is useless. 

 Some cases are recorded in which an incision has been made in the 

 flank so as to enable the operator to remove the lesion causing the 

 enteritis by surgical means. Success has attended such efforts so 

 rarely that we can not recommend them. 



CONSTIPATION. 



Constipation is rather to be regarded as a symptom of disease than a 

 disease in itself. We frequently observe it in parturition fever, in that 

 form of indigestion which is termed impaction of the third stomach, 

 and as a result of gut-tie, invagination, twisting and knotting of the 

 bowels. In order to remove the constipation the treatment must be 

 applied to remove the causes w-hich give rise to it. Calves sometimes 

 suffer from constipation immediately after birth, and the nieconiuin 

 feces that accumulate in the bowels before birth is not passed, as is 

 usually the case in calves. The cause of the disorder is supposed to 

 be that the dams of such calves have been fed too exclusively on dry 

 food before the calf's birth In such cases give an ounce of castor oil 

 shaken up with an ounce of new milk. The mother's milk is the best 

 food to prevent a recurrence of the constipation, as it contains a large 

 amount of fatty matter which renders it laxative in its effects. 



INTESTINAL WORMS. 



We may state that cattle are less infested with intestinal parasites 

 than any other species of domestic animal, and that it is rarely neces- 

 sary to apply treatment for the removal of those parasites. Two differ- 

 ent kinds of tapeworm and four species of roundworms have, however, 

 been found in the intestines of the bovine species. An examination of 



