DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 29 



horn cores. When a cow is sick, if the horns are hot it is an evi- 

 dence of fever; if they are cold it indicates impaired circulation of 

 the blood, but these manifestations of sickness are to be regarded as 

 symptoms of some constitutional disorder and do not in themselves 

 require treatment. The treatment should be applied to the disease 

 which causes the abnormal temperature of the horns. The usual 

 treatment for the suppo^d hollow horn, which consists of boring the 

 horns with a gimlet and pouring turpentine in the openings thus 

 made, is not only useless and cruel, but is liable to set up an acute 

 inflammation and result in an abscess of the sinus, 



Ix^ss OF CUD. — The so-called loss of cud is simply a cessation of 

 rumination, frequently one of the first indications of sickness in any 

 kind of a ruminant animal, since ruminants generally stop chewing 

 the cud when feeling much out of condition, A restoration of the 

 cud may be confidently Irwked for with an approaching return of the 

 animal to a state of normal health. This may be facilitated by the 

 intelligent application of the remedies indicated in the treatment of 

 the disordered condition responsible for the cessation of rumination. 

 No local treatment is required. 



Wolf in the tail. — The so-called wolf in the tail is most gener- 

 ally treated by those who are possessed of this fallacious belief by 

 splitting the end of the tail with a knife, filling the cut with salt, and 

 binding with a cloth. This imagined trouble is nothing more than a 

 debilitated condition of the system, resulting in a relaxed or softened 

 condition of the tail, especially at its extremity. It is evident that 

 it is the constitutional disorder which requires treatment and not the 

 relaxed tail. 



When the immense volume and complicated arrangement of the 

 gastric pouches of the cow is considered, together with the great 

 quantities of aliment required in the elaboration of milk and for the 

 animal's nutrition, it is small wonder, in view of the carelessness so 

 often apparent as to both the kinds and quality of food, that disease 

 of the digestive organs in these animals is of more frequent occur- 

 rence than other diseases. And it is believed that a recognition of 

 the facts contained in the foregoing statements will not only tend to 

 dissipate any remaining belief in these old fallacies, but to a more 

 humane and rational treatment of the various forms of indigestion or 

 dyspepsia, of Avhich those manifestations giving rise to impressions 

 of holloAv horn, loss of cud, and wolf in the tail are but symptoms. 



This is not to be confounded with nimination, though some writers 

 have advanced the opinion that vomiting is merely a disordered 

 and irregular nimination. It is not of common occurrence in cattle, 

 though it sometimes occurs. 



