120 VETERINARY STUDIES 



A food may be poorly balanced and dangerous though very 

 nutritious. Beans, wheat, oil meal, and cotton seed meal fed 

 alone contain too much protein and not enough ash, fat and 

 carbohydrates and crude fiber. When fed in the unbalanced 

 ration, such excess of protein may cause febrile disturbances, 

 diarrhea, congestion of the liver, azoturia and milk fever. A 

 similar excess of carbohydrates or fats may cause an injurious 

 deposition of fat under the skin into and between the fibers of 

 voluntary muscles, or in the heart or liver. Excess of fats 

 causes diarrhea and checks absorption. 



Faulty intervals interfere with digestion and thrift, and may 

 cause such disorders as colic and impaction. Cows may be fed 

 at longer intervals than horses; but both should be fed regu- 

 larly. A horse that goes a long time without food and then gets 

 an abundance is apt to have colic or founder. The calf that 

 goes past its usual feeding time and then overeats, is very apt 

 to have serious bowel trouble and remain unthrifty for a long 

 time. 



Animal parasites infest several foods, e.g. stomach worms (of 

 sheep) on grass. 



Sudden changes, from poor to rich pastures, favor hoven, im- 

 paction, and blackleg. 



There are class differences— some animals may eat with im- 

 punity what others cannot. By first producing digestive dis- 

 turbances, rich cereals may indirectly cause laminitis in horses, 

 — not in cows however. Pigs can eat acorns freely; but acorns 

 are injurious to other animals. 



Poisonous) food, such as poisonous plants, may cause heavy 

 losses. Such plants are usually distasteful to stock and are not 

 eaten unless animals are hungry, for example, when on scant 

 pasture or after long shipment by rail. Such losses are nearly 

 all preventable by wise management. 



""Wild cherry" and black cherry leaves and occasionally 

 sorghum contain a deadly poison, prussic acid. As a rule cherry 

 leaves are not eaten, but losses of cattle and sheep from such 

 poisonous plants have been reported many times. 



The common sorghum plant sometimes contains the same 

 poison as cherry leaves. Fortunately it is unusual for sorghum 

 to be poisonous, but serious losses of cattle have occurred be- 

 cause of it. It is safer to test a field of fodder sorghum by 

 turning in only one or two animals the first day. 



