DISEASES OF YOUNG CALVES. _ 255 



entrance of bacterial ferments floating in the filthy atmosphere of 

 the stable, or from the entrance of the volatile chemical products of 

 fermentation. 



In addition to the dangers coming through the milk, the calf suffers 

 in its digestive powers from any temporary illness, and among others 

 from the excitement attendant on the cutting of teeth, and impaired 

 digestion means fermentations in the undigested masses and the exces- 

 sive production of poisonous ptomaines and toxins. 



Whatever may be the starting or predisposing cause of this malady, 

 when once established it is liable to perpetuate itself by contagion and 

 to prove a veritable plague in a herd or a district. 



Symptoms. — The symptoms of diarrhea may appear so promptly 

 after birth as to lead to the idea that the cause already existed in the 

 body of the calf, and it usually shows itself before the end of the 

 second week. It may be preceded by constipation, as in retained 

 meconium, or by fetid eructations and colicky pains, as in acute indi- 

 gestion. The tail is stained by the liquid dejections, which are at first 

 simply soft and mixed with mucus with a sour odor, accompanied by 

 a peculiar and characteristic fetor (suggesting rotten cheese), which 

 continually grows worse. The amount of water and mucus steadily 

 increases, the normal predominance of fatty matters becoming modi- 

 fied by the presence of a considerable amount of undigested casein, 

 which is not present in the healthy feces, and in acute cases death 

 may result in one or two days from the combined'drain on the system 

 and the poisoning by the absorbed products of the decomposition in 

 the stomach and bowels. When the case is prolonged the passages, 

 at first five or six per day, increase to fifteen or twenty, and pass with 

 more and more straining, so that they are projected from the animal 

 in a liquid stream. The color of the feces, at first yellow, becomes a 

 lighter grayish yellow or a dirty white (hence the name white scour), 

 and the fetor becomes intolerable. 



At first the calf retains its appetite, but as the severity of the disease 

 increases the animal shows less and less disposition to suck, and has 

 lost all vivacity, lying, dull and listless, and, when raised, walking 

 weakly and unsteadily. Flesh is lost rapidly, the hair stands erect, 

 the skin gets dry and scurfy, the nose is dry and hot, or this condition 

 alternates with a moist and cool one. By this time the mouth and 

 skin, as well as the breath and dung, exhale the peculiar penetrating, 

 sour, offensive odor, and the poor calf has become an object of disgust 

 to all that approach it. At first, and unless inflammation of the 

 stomach and bowels supervene (and unless the affection has started in 

 indigestion and colic), the belly is not bloated or painful on pressure, 

 symptoms of acute colicky pains are absent, and the bowels do not 

 rumble, neither are bubbles of gas mingled with the feces. The irritant 

 products of the intestinal fermentations may, however, irritate and 

 excoriate the skin around the anus, which becomes red, raw, and 



