DISEASES AND TREATMENT OF CATTLE 303 



CHAPTER XI. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES IN CATTLE 



CONTAGIOUS PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 



This disease is contag-ious, or catching, and is inflammation 

 of the lungs and covering of the lungs; this is how it gets its 

 name. This disease was more common at one time than it is 

 now. It was first noticed in Prussia in 1802, Russia in 1824, 

 England in 1841, and America in 1843. It is a very contagious 

 disease in cattle, but never aflfects other animals. If an animal 

 once gets over this disease it will never get it again. When there 

 is an outbreak of this disease it spreads very rapidly, by the 

 germs of the disease being carried about in different ways. 



Symptoms. — The first symptom is, the animal gets very 

 feverish; the temperature goes as high as 105 degrees. The 

 animal will remain feverish for a week or so, and also have a 

 cough, as if from a slight cold. After this the lungs become 

 inflamed and sets up inflammation of the lungs and their covering. 

 By listening at the sides you will hear the peculiar grating sound 

 that is heard in inflammation of these parts. The animal breathes 

 heavy and quick, falls ofl^ rapidly in condition, refuses to eat, 

 becomes hide bound, and there is a discharge from the nostrils of 

 a whitish color, which has a very bad smell. The pulse runs up 

 higher and becomes weaker; the nose is dry, and the animal lies 

 on its breast bone most of the time. Sometimes there is diarrhoea, 

 then costiveness; the eyes become dull and the animal soon dies. 

 When one animal in a herd becomes affected with this disease the 

 whole herd will soon become affected and die, and if it is not 

 checked in this herd it soon spreads all over the country. 



Treatment — If there should be several animals die in the same 

 district, and you suspect this disease, send for one of the government 

 reterinjirjr inspectors, who looks after all contagious diseases that 

 break out in America. The treatment he will follow, after he is 

 sure it la this disease they have, is : He will have the affected 

 herd immediately destroyed, and, the people who have been 

 attending the cattle and those who are on the farm, will not be 

 allowed to leave the farm for ninety days, and all the stables 

 where the cattle have been will be disinfected and no other cattle 

 will be allowed on the farm for ninety days after the slaughter. 

 Medical treatment is of no avail in this disease, and you are not 

 allowed to treat them. 



