152 



THE FARMERS VETERINARIAN 



to follow with good laxative food. Of course, 

 medicinal treatment will not be satisfactory if an 

 important part of the animal like the hoof were to 

 be destroyed. So much expense would be con- 

 nected with keeping the animal until a new hoof 

 had been formed that it is better at the beginning 

 to destroy the animal unless very valuable. Where 

 sores only manifest themselves such treatment as 

 given an ordinary wound will be efficacious, pro- 

 vided food absolutely free of ergot is supplied. 



ERYSIPELAS.— An inflammation of the skin 

 and tissues beneath. Owing to a blood poison, it is 

 characterized by a swelling and hardness of the 

 affected parts which has a tendency to spread and 

 form abscesses. In horses and cattle, erysipelas 

 is nearly always the result of wounds and generally 

 of those in the legs of animals weakened by hard 

 work and poor food, or else in young animals whose 

 blood is vitiated by the poison of glanders or some 

 other animal contamination. The disturbance is 

 noticed on the third or fourth day after the injury 

 in the immediate neighborhood of the wound. The 

 skin is swollen, smooth, hot, tender, and painful. 

 The swelling gradually extends around it, some- 

 times deep into the muscles. The surface is hard 

 and tense, but often when the finger is firmly pressed 

 upon it and withdrawn a depression is left. In severe 

 cases chills occur, the pulse is weak and quick, the 

 breathing hurried, the bowels constipated and the 

 urine scanty and highly colored. There is con- 

 siderable thirst, but no appetite. A brisk purge is 

 the first step in treating. Follow the purge with 

 tincture of chloride of iron, 4 teaspoonfuls in a pint 

 of water. Give this every three or four hours. At 

 the same time give internally 4 tablespoonfuls of 

 hyposulphite of soda in a pint of water three times a 



