58 SPECIAL CATTLE THERAPY 



is suffering from a form of scours. Even on the same 

 day another cow or two quit eating and begin to 

 scour; the next day a few more, and so on, until the 

 entire herd is affected. We know of no instance in 

 which the animals were all attacked on one day; a 

 herd of twenty head may consume a week's time in 

 contracting the disease. The feces have a character- 

 istic appearance and color. They are not watery, 

 but have a mushy or granular appearance ; the color 

 is a rich chocolate shade, sometimes (just barely) 

 more towards a red shade. There is no abnormal 

 odor. 



In most cases the cows refuse to eat while the 

 diarrhea persists, which may be from three days to 

 a week or ten days; they drink water freely, even to 

 excess, if permitted to do so. 



The temperature is raised from one to three de- 

 grees. 



After two or three days from the b^ginning of the 

 attack the animals develop a cough. In some of the 

 later cases the cough may be present from the start ; 

 mucous rales can then be heard in the trachea and 

 lungs. Also, about at this time, there appear spasms 

 of certain muscle groups; these spasms are tonic in 

 character and most frequently affect the posterior 

 limbs. 



The milk flow is almost entirely absent; the animals 

 lose flesh rapidly. A herd of dairy cows just emerg- 

 ing from an attack of enzootic dysentery is a sorry 

 spectacle to behold. 



The aniiiials recover irregularly in a given herd, by 

 ones and twos, but not generally in the same order 

 in which thej^ were attacked ; frequently the cows 

 first affected ar(> the last to recover. In a large herd 

 'a month may elapse before the entire herd is free 

 from the disease. 



