SPECIAL REPORT 



ON 



DISEASES OF CATTLE AND ON CATTLE FEEDING. 



ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICINES. 



By A. J. MURRAY, M. R. C. V. S., Detroit, Mich. 



As medicines may be given in different ways, we will consider in detail 

 the most common methods of administering- them to bovine animals. 



BY THE MOUTH. 



Medicines may be given by the mouth in the form of draughts or 

 drenches, powders, electuaries, and balls or pills. 



Draught* or drenches. This is the form in which medicine is usually 

 given to cattle. The medicine should be dissolved in water, beer, or 

 any other suitable liquid. Medicines which are soluble should be well 

 shaken up with the liquid in which they are given, so as to insure their 

 complete solution. For example, if we are giving an ounce of sweet 

 spirits of niter the medicine should be shaken up with at least half a 

 pint of water before giving it. If instead of doing this we give the 

 medicine without diluting it, a sore and inflamed condition of the month 

 and throat is produced. The materials which enter into the composi- 

 tion of some drenches .in- not soluble, that is, no amount of shaking 

 will dissolve them in the liquid in which they are given. As examples 

 of such medicines we may mention powdered ginger, powdered gentian, 

 and carbonate of iron, but by shaking they may be temporarily sus- 

 pended in the liquid in which they are given, so that by agitating such 

 medicines while in the act of giving them they are temporarily mixed 

 with the liquid and may consequently be given in a draught, though 

 not quite s easily as medicines that are soluble. In giving drenches 

 we must always ascertain to what degree the medicine or medicines 

 composing the drench should be diluted. Carelessness in this matter 



