3 34 DISEASES OF THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



In the horse, aloes with concentrated solution of Epsom salts ; 

 in cattle, a concentrated solution of Epsom salts and common salt, 

 may be used to remove fluid from the system. In addition to 

 digitalis, strychnine sulphate (H. & C, gr. i-ii; D., gr. 1/120- 

 1/30) may be given, and strophantus (H., tincture, §ss; D., 

 nix) used to replace digitalis. Smart counter irritation over the 

 sides of the chest with mustard, mixed up with water into a paste, 

 may be repeatedly applied, but not so as to produce vesication. 

 When dyspnea is great and the effusion is so great as to threaten 

 life, aspiration may be aseptically done. This is, however, not 

 otherwise desirable, as infection may occur, and the effusion tends 

 to recur. 



Impaction of the Rumen in Cattle or Sheep. 



There are various causes: insufficiency of water; diet consist- 

 ing too largely of soft food, as beet pulp, brewers' grains, etc., 

 without sufficient dry, coarse fodder to sustain rumination; sudden 

 change from dry fodder to rich pasture; animals escaping from 

 stall and overeating grain or rich food. 



Symptoms. — The animal loses appetite and rumination, and 

 there are restlessness and colic. The signs leading us to make a 

 diagnosis are : gaseous distension of rumen and feeling of unusual 

 resistance on deep pressure in left flank over the rumen, in addition 

 to the absence of peristaltic murmurs and sounds in this region. 

 If a surfeit of green food is the source of trouble the course may 

 be very rapid with much tympany obscuring the impaction. 



Treatment. — If tympany is marked, the treatment will be 

 chiefly directed to that condition : puncture, followed by light diet 

 for some days with the use of daily doses of Glauber's salts and 

 linseed oil, and fluidextract of nux vomica (C, 3ii; Sh., TTLxxx) 

 thrice daily (see p. 260). Eserine, gr. 1, and pilocarpine, gr. ii, may 

 be used to induce rapid catharsis, if given subcutaneously to cattle. 



In the less urgent and more chronic cases, fluidextract of nux 



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