88 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



the throat; foreign bodies and constriction of the air passages leading 

 to the lungs; fevers, etc. 



As already alluded to, it is only the careful and constant examina- 

 tion of animals in health that will enable one properly to appreciate 

 abnormal conditions. One must become familiar with the frequency 

 and character of the pulse and of the respirations, must know the tem- 

 perature of the animal in health, before changes in abnormal condi- 

 tions can be properly appreciated. 



Temperature. — The temperature should be taken in all cases of sick- 

 ness. Experienced practitioners can approximate the patient's tem- 

 perature with remarkable accuracy, but I would strongly recommend 

 the use of the self-registering clinical thermometer, which is a most 

 valuable instrument in diagnosing diseases. (See PI. Ill, fig. 1.) 

 It is advisable that a tested instrument be procured, as some ther- 

 mometers in the market are inaccurate and misleading. The proper 

 place to insert the thermometer is in the rectum. The instrument 

 should be rested against the walls of the cavity for about three 

 minutes. The normal temperature of the bovine is 101° to 102° F., 

 which is higher than that of the horse. A cow breathes faster, her 

 heart beats faster, and her internal temperature is higher than that 

 of the horse. Ordinary physiological influences — such as exercise, 

 digestion, etc. — give rise to slight variations of internal temperature; 

 but if the temperature rises two or three degrees above the standard, 

 some diseased condition is indicated. 



Pulse. — The pulse in a grown animal of the bovine species in a state 

 of good health beats from forty-five to fifty-five times per minute. 

 Exercise, fright, fear, excitement, overfeeding, pregnancy, and other 

 physiological conditions, as well as disease, may affect the frequency 

 and character of the pulse. It assumes various characters according 

 to its rapidity of beat, frequency of occurrence, resistance to pres- 

 sure, regularity, and perceptibility. Thus we have the quick and 

 slow, frequent and infrequent, hard and soft, full and imperceptible, 

 large and small pulses, the characters of which may be determined 

 from their names; also that form known as the intermittent, either 

 regular or irregular. We may have a dicrotic, or double, pulse; a 

 thready pulse, which is extremely small and scarcely perceptible; 

 the venous, or jugular, pulse; the "running down" pulse, and so on. 

 (Seep. 73.) 



In cattle the pulse is conveniently felt over the submaxillary artery 

 where it winds around the lower jawbone, just at the lower edge of 

 the flat muscle on the side of the cheek. If the cow is lying down the 

 pulse may be taken from the metacarpal artery on the back part of the 

 fore fetlock. The pulsations can be felt from any superficial artery, 

 but in order to ascertain the peculiarities it is necessary to select an 

 artery that may be pressed against a bone. There is a marked dif- 

 ference in the normal or physiological pulse of the horse and that of 



