50 SPECIAL CATTLE THERAPY 



appetite or the other extreme, anorexia, are of no 

 value in diagnosis here. Some cows in this condition 

 will eat well until the case assumes a really grave 

 character. Defecation, while usually scant, is not al- 

 ways entirely absent. 



Now for the treatment. The first thing, and always 

 the first thing, is to strictly forbid feeding. Not a 

 sprig or a grain must be allowed until rumination is 

 again fully established. This may mean a day or two, 

 or it may mean four or five days without food of any 

 kind. Water may be given freely. In these cases I 

 see to it that before I leave the place every bit of 

 feed has been taken out of the manger and matters 

 so arranged that the patient cannot reach food thrown 

 to cows standing near her. For us, this complete ab- 

 stinence from food constitutes seventy-filve per cent of 

 the treatment. The balance consists of plenty of water 

 and repeated small doses of fluid extract of nux vomica 

 with either salol or sulpho-carbolates compound. I 

 prefer salol. The nux is given in half -dram doses every 

 three hours ; the salol is given with it in dram doses. 

 This is kept up until peristalsis is growing marked and 

 there are occasional eructations and signs of rumina- 

 tion. In a well marked case it may take three or 

 four days to get this far. Then I give a large dose 

 of oil, such as castor, linseed or cottonseed, containing 

 an ounce or two of a volatile, carminative oil, such as 

 cajuput. 



The usual "salts" have no place in the treatment 

 of this impaction. When the bowel movements are 

 again fully established and rumination is resumed, 

 small quantities of feed may be permitted, gradually 

 returning to the accustomed ration. 



I can recommend the foregoing treatment as the 

 safest treatment for this impaction; it is slow but 



