154 CATTLE. 



Treatment. — This will depend on the special cause, but it is 

 a safe and good practice to bleed from the jugular vein while 

 waiting for professional assistance. Purgatives have the same 

 effect, but not in so short a time. 



Prevention. — If such symptoms as a wild eye and general 

 excitement and intervals of severe depression are observed, an 

 aperient should be given. In this connection it may be remarked 

 that in almost every disease of an ox an aperient is a safe remedy. 



DEW-BLOWN, HOVEN, FOG SICtCNESS, BLAST, &c. 



Cause. — Fermentation of the contents of the paunch or rumen. 



When animals have been yarded through the winter and are 

 keen for a bite of green food they will often fill themselves to 

 repletion without stopping to chew the cud, and gases are quickly 

 evolved which distend the belly to an enormous extent. Most 

 practical farmers take precautions against this, but now and 

 again stock will break out and get into clover and become blown 

 before they are discovered. 



Treatment. — A pint of linseed oil, to which add two ozs. of 

 turpentine and two ozs. of sodium hyposulphite, followed in 

 half-an-hour by a similar dose if the flank does not go 

 down ; a gag may be placed in the animal's mouth to 

 allow the gases to regurgitate. In severe cases it is 



necessary to puncture the rumen. Proper instruments are 

 made for the purpose, and a vet will plunge the point into the 

 left flank and through the side of the paunch without 

 hesitation. If assistance cannot be obtained the amateur will 

 bear in mind that the place to operate is midway between 

 the hip and the last rib. The direction given to the instrument 

 should be downwards and forward. A knife not less than 

 six inches long may be made to do duty, and a fresh cut 

 stick of alder from which the pith has been removed. This is 

 rough surgery, but it has saved many a valuable animal. A 

 probang introduced into the animal's rumen may answer. 



Prevention. — Turn out only for an hour or two if there is 

 a flush of grass. Wait until the dew is off. See to your fences. 



