348 Foot-and-Mouth Disease. 



Treatment. Best and cleanliness are tlie two principal 

 requirements under which mild forms of the disease terminate 

 in recovery within a short time, and without leaving subsequent 

 affections. 



In the mouth affection care should first of all be taken that 

 the affected mucous membrane be protected from mechanical 

 injury, and that the animals are kept in good condition, in spite 

 of the existing pain which interferes with the partaking of food. 

 For this purpose the diet should be regulated and the animals 

 should be given, instead of coarse and rough food, fresh, green 

 food, tine hay, or silage. Severely affected patients should be 

 supplied with flour and bran gruels, while young animals 

 should be given boiled milk. 



For the cleaning of the buccal cavity the animals should 

 frequently be given pure fresh water, besides the mouth should 

 be syringed out 2 to 3 times a day with pure water with the 

 aid of an irrigator, or with a hard rubber syringe. Medicines 

 are of subordinate importance, and only serve to prevent the 

 decomposition of the accumulated saliva, and to hasten the 

 healing of the erosions. For this purpose mild disinfectants 

 and astringents may be used for the irrigation, such as salt 

 and vinegar water, alum, copper sulphate, iron sulphate, potas- 

 sium chlorate, boracic acid, creolin, carbolic acid, lysol (in 2 

 to 3% solutions), pyoctanin (1:1000), formalin (0.5%), etc. 

 These remedies may be used in camomile-sage or flax-seed 

 decoctions. 



In order that a possible eruption on the base of the horns should 

 not cause a severe inflammation of the horn matrix, and subsequent 

 loss of the horns, it appears indicated, especially in cows, to tie them 

 with chains on the neck instead of on the head. 



The hoof affection is in greater need of treatment, as the 

 affected feet are exposed to irritating influences, although even 

 this affection usually heals without interference, if the ground 

 is sufficiently clean and dry, and the affected animals keep 

 quiet. If the animal is affected only with the mouth lesions, it 

 is advisable to wash the healthy feet at least once daily with 

 a disinfecting fluid, or still better, to paint them repeatedly with 

 tar. If the hoofs are already affected, care should be taken that 

 the floor under the animals is kept dry; therefore the bedding 

 should be changed frequently. For bedding hygroscopic and 

 antiputrefactive material is recommended (turf, gypsum, etc.). 



The treatment proper consists in washing the affected ex- 

 tremities with one of the disinfectants mentioned, or an astrin- 

 gent solution, which in this instance may be used in a somewhat 

 concentrated form. Painting with wood tar, creolin, or lysol 

 liniments, in milking cows with thick milk of lime, or sprinkling 

 with drying powders, will be found beneficial (powdered copper 

 sulphate mixed with oak bark, tannoform, wood charcoal mixed 



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