RURAL VETERINARY SECRETS 215 



tightly to your body so she will have no chance to swing it from side to 

 side. Raising the head as shown in the illustration, you can 

 now easily pour the medicine down into her mouth without exciting 

 the patient and she will oiifer little or no resistance. 



METHODS TO BE AVOIDED 



Never pull out the patient's tongue while you are giving medicine, 

 as she needs it to perform the act of swallowing to prevent the medi- 

 cine from going down the wrong channel. The practice of having an 

 attendant pinch his thumb and finger into the nostrils should be avoided 

 above all, as it interferes with respiration and excites the animal, where- 

 by it makes an effort to breathe through its mouth, thus leaving the 

 glottis open, which admits the fluid into the trachea, down into the 

 lungs and frequently leads to fatal results. 



THE NECESSITY OF FREELY DILUTING YOUR 

 MEDICINE IN WATER 



Owing to the complicated anatomical construction ,of a cow's 

 stomach, which is divided into four separate stomachs or compart- 

 ments, it is absolutely necessary to dilute your medicines largely, say 

 at least in a quart or two of water for each dose, so that the fluid will 

 pass into the reticulum or second stomach, which is the natural recep- 

 tacle for fluids. If it were given in the form of a mass, bolis or semi- 

 mass, it might pass into the rumen with the unmasticated food, where 

 it is liable to be returned to the mouth during rumination, and its 

 peculiar taste would prompt the patient to throw it out, or drop it from 

 the mouth, without its having a chance to be taken into the system 

 where it should bring about its desired eiTect. 



