DISEASES OF YOUNG CAL,\T:S. 265 



calving cows and their discharges. Similarly, each calf must have 

 special attention to see that its nurse gives milk which agrees with it, 

 and that this is furnished at suitable times. If allowed to suck, it 

 should either be left with the cow or it may be fed three times a day. 

 If it becomes hungry twice a day it is more likely to overload and 

 derange the stomach, and if left too long hungry it is tempted to take 

 in unsuitable and unwholesome food, for which its stomach is as yet 

 unprepared. So, if fed from the pail, it is safer to do so three times 

 daily than twice. The utmost cleanliness of feeding dishes should be 

 secured and the feeder must be ever on the alert to prevent the strong 

 and hungry from drinking the milk of the weaker in addition to their 

 own. In case the cow nurse has been subjected to any great excite- 

 ment by reason of travel, hunting, or carrying, the first milk she 

 yields thereafter should be used for some other purpose and only the 

 second allowed to the calf. Indeed, one and all of the conditions 

 above indicated as causes should be judiciously guarded against. 



Treatment. — Treatment will vary according to the nature and stage 

 of the disease. When the disease is not widespread, but isolated 

 cases only occur, it may be assumed to be a simple diarrhea and is 

 easily dealt with. The first object is to remove the irritant matter 

 from stomach and bowels, and for this 1 or 2 ounces of castor oil 

 may be given, according to the size of the calf. Reduce the milk by 

 one-half or two-thirds. If the stools smell particularly sour, it may 

 be replaced by 1 ounce calcined magnesia, and in any case a table- 

 spoonful or two of limewater must be given with each meal. Great 

 harm is often done by giving opium and astringents at the outset. 

 These serve merely to bind up the bowels and retain the irritant 

 source of the trouble: literally, "to shut up the wolf in the sheep- 

 fold." "\^^len the offending agents have been expelled in this way, 

 carminatives and demulcent agents may be given — 1 dram anise water. 

 1 dram nitrate of bismuth, and 1 dram gimi arable, three times a day. 

 Under such a course the consistency of the stools should increase 

 until in a day or two they become natural. 



If. however, the outbreak is more general and evidently the result 

 of contagion, the first consideration is to remove all sources of such 

 contamination. Test the milk of the cow with blue litmus paper, and. 

 if it reddens, reject the milk of that cow until by sound, dry feeding, 

 with i^erhaps a course of hyposulphite of soda and gentian root, her 

 milk shall have been made alkaline. The castor oil or magnesia will 

 be demanded to clear away the (now infecting) irritants, but they 

 should be combined with antiseptics, and, while the limewater and the 

 carminative mixture may still be used, a most valuable addition will 

 be found in the following: Calomel, 10 grains; prepared chalk, 1 

 ounce; creosote, 1 teaspoonful; mix, divide into 10 parts, and give one 

 four times a day. Or the following may be given four times a day : 



