330 DISEASES OE CATTLE. 



cau-f-. such as overloading the stomacli when the animal is turned out 

 to graze in the spring, certain constituents of food and high feeding 

 among fattening stock. When the kidneys are functionally deranged 

 urticaria may appear. Spinal irritation and other nervous affections 

 may cause it. 



Treatment. Administer a full dose of Epsom salts. Give soft, easily 

 digested food, and wash the affected parts with a solution of bicarbon- 

 ate of soda common baking soda 8 ounces to the gallon of water twice 

 a day. If it assumes a persistent tendency, give a tablespoonful of the 

 following powder in the feed three times a day : Cream of tartar, sul- 

 phur, and nitrate of potash, equal parts by weight, mix. A tablespoon- 

 ful of Fowler's solution of arsenic may be given in drinking water 

 once a day, if the case has assumed a chronic or recurrent character. 



ECZEMA. 



Eczema is a noncontagious inflammation of the skin, characterized 

 by any or all of the results of inflammation at once or in succession, 

 such as erythema, vesicles, or pustules, accompanied by more or less 

 infiltration and itching, terminating in a watery discharge, with the 

 formation of crusts or in scaling off. The disease may run an acute 

 course and then disappear, or it may become chronic ; therefore, two 

 varieties are recognized, vesicular or pustular, and chronic eczema. 



Causes. Eczema is not so common among cattle as in horses and in 

 dogs, in which it is the most common of all skin diseases. Among cat- 

 tle it is occasionally observed under systems of bad hygiene, filthiness, 

 lousiness, overcrowding, overfeeding, excessively damp or too warm sta- 

 bles. It is found to develop now and then in cattle that are fed upon 

 sour substances, distillery swill, house or garden garbage, etc. Localized 

 eczema may be caused by irritant substances applied to the skin tur- 

 pentine, ammonia, the essential oils, mustard, Spanish fly ointment, 

 etc. Occasionally an eruption with vesiculation of the skin has been 

 induced by the excessive use of mercurial preparations for the destruc- 

 tion of lice. 



Symptoms. In accordance with the variety of symptoms during the 

 progress of the disease we may divide it into different stages or periods. 



(1) Swelling and increased heat of the skin; the formation of vesicles, 

 which are circumscribed, rounded elevations of the epidermis, varying 

 in size from a pin head to a split pea, containing a clear, watery fluid; 



(2) exudation of a watery, glutinous fluid, formation of crusts, and some- 

 times suppuration, or the formation of vesicles containing pus (pus- 

 tules); (3) scaling off (desquamation), with redness, and thickening of 

 the skin. From the very beginning of the disease the animal will com- 

 mence to rub the affected parts, hence the various stages may not 

 always be easily recognized, as the rubbing will produce more or less 

 abrasion, thus leaving the skin raw sometimes bleeding. Neither do 

 these symptoms always occur in regular succession, for in some cases 



