CHAPTER 74 



Diseases of Animals and Their Management 



By Dr. S. S. Buckley 

 Professor of Veterinary Science and Pathology, Maryland Agricultural College 



"You say you doctored me when lately ill; 

 To prove you didn't, I'm living still." 



Domestic animals contribute largely to the benefits of country life, 

 and, aside from house pets, these pleasures are denied the residents of towns 

 and cities. Farms devoted to trucking and fruit growing may prove 

 financially profitable, as do mercantile pursuits, but they fail to make the 

 farm a home as do those which possess a varied assortment of species of 

 live stock. 



Domestic animals share our labor, contribute to our food supply and 

 furnish the means for improving our soil and maintaining its fertility. 

 While the different species of domestic animals are materially unlike in 

 some respects, yet the general scheme on which their conformation and 

 action is planned makes it possible to apply similar broad rules for the care 

 and management of them all. 



Animals in health are by nature intended to serve man's purposes 

 and, according to the degree of impairment of health, so is the degree of their 

 usefulness to man affected. 



Strictly considered, there are not different degrees of health, since 

 health signifies a normal condition of the body. Abnormal conditions of 

 the body occur, however, which are variable in degree, and these constitute 

 disease. 



Disease, therefore, may range from slight unrecognizable disturbances 

 of the body functions to extremely complex modifications which terminate 

 life in death. 



An animal is most highly profitable to its owner when in a normal or 

 healthy condition, and its value to him diminishes according to the degree 

 of abnormality or disease. It is for the stockman, therefore, to interest 

 himself in maintaining animals in health, rather than in the study of the 

 nature and treatment of their diseases, if he is to derive the greatest benefits 

 from them. 



The Essentials for Health. — In order to be most successful in the 



management of animals, a study should be made of the efficacy of sound, 



wholesome food and pure water; the necessity for pure air and proper 



exercise; the effects of proper dieting, over-feeding and abstinence; the 



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