4S4 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



ficult to destroy the infecting germs in a stable, even by 

 the use of disinfectants. 



Among the causes that give rise to indigestion are : 

 (i) Overloading the stomach of calves while yet quite 

 young through excess in the richness of the milk or 

 excess in quantity as the result of irregular sucking; 

 (2) giving hand-fed calves improper food, as skim milk, 

 cold, acid, fed from unclean buckets and at irregular in- 

 tervals ; (3) undue exposure to cold and dampness. 



Prominent among the causes that give rise to scour 

 technically known as diarrhoea are: (i) The causes that 

 induce scour from indigestion, as given above, which 

 may lead to the more severe form known as diarrhoea ; 

 (2) anything that tends to lower the vitality of the calf, 

 as, for instance, the inheritance from parents too closely 

 bred or too artificially maintained; (3) milk from cows 

 fed improper food, as when tainted with molds or even 

 excessively rich; (4) crowded, filthy, ill-ventilated and 

 bad-smelling stables and the absence of sufficient exer- 

 cise. In addition to these is the contagious character 

 which the disease assumes when present in a prolonged 

 and aggravated form. 



The exceedingly fatal disease known as white scour 

 comes from a germ that enters the system of the calf, 

 usually, if not in all instances, through the navel before 

 it has healed. When once it appears in a building, it 

 attacks nearly every calf born there while the germs 

 remain in the same, and they have been known to lurk 

 in the same stable for years in spite of attempts to 

 destroy them through the use of disinfectants. But this 

 does not mean that they cannot be thus destroyed. The 

 bacillus which produces it has the same general char- 

 acteristics as those which ]3roduce hemorrhagic septi- 

 cemia, and it is thought that the same infective germ 

 produces one type of abortion. 



Prominent among the indications of scour from 

 simple indigestion are: ( ; ) 'Fhc freccs become gradually 



