THE OX—-THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 249 
DIARRHEA. 
This is caused by improper food; foul water; drinking cold, strange 
water; damp and cold weather; drinking just after eating; weakened con- 
stitution; other diseases; in sucking calves, the milk of the mother when 
she has been improperly fed or overheated. 
Symptoms.—Dung loose, becoming liquid, and spurted some distance; 
pain; loss of appetite, flesh and spirits; offensive dung. 
TREATMENT.—Should the case be mild and not attended with pain, 
the spirits, flesh and appetite little affected, and the dung not offensive, it 
need cause no alarm, as nature is probably removing an unhealthy condition. 
When the case is violent or long-continued, remedies are necessary. When 
cold is the cause, or in recent cases with shivering, give fifteen to twenty 
‘drops of camphor three or four times a day in a little cold flour-gruel. 
Before putting it into the gruel, mix it in just enough spirits of wine and 
water (not pure water) to hold it in solution, without “settlings.” If the 
dung be mixed with mucus and passed without griping pains, or when it 
is frothy, dark and slimy, or when the rectum protrudes, mercurius is needed. 
If the purging arises from drinking cold water, from exposure to sudden 
changes of temperature, or from impure water, and is attended with chills, 
bryonia will be found efficacious. Arsenicum is demanded by great pain in 
the bowels; watery, slimy, greenish or brownish dung; weakness; loss of 
flesh and appetite; especially in cases caused by unsuitable food or cold 
drinks. It may be given in alternation with mercurius for symptoms indi- 
cating that remedy. Phosphorus, in doses of four or five drops, is excellent. 
Sulphuric acid is good for chronic forms, two or three drops of the concen- 
trated acid being given in a half-pint of water two or three times daily. 
Veratrum is good for both ordinary and chronic forms. Pulsatilla is. in- 
valuable for calves affected by the milk. Sulphur in one-grain doses 
should be given occasionally after.recovery occurs. Give only soft, boiled 
food, as gruels of flour or oatmeal, and other like articles. 
CONSTIPATION.—COSTIVENESS. 
Constipation generally results from some other disorder, but may exist 
alone, and be caused by cold or irregular feeding. The bowels are bound, 
and what dung passes is dry and hard; the appetite is impaired; the animal 
is uneasy, showing signs of belly-ache. 
TREATMENT.—Give sulphur, alone, or in alternation with aconite. 
Allow only soft, boiled food. For other suggestions consult the section on 
Indigestion; also that on Constipation in the Horse. 
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