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GASTBO-INTESTINAL CATARRH OF YOUNG ANIMALS. 119 



adults. It has often been confounded with dysentery and described 

 under this name; but it must be distinguished from it, and we 

 have given it a special description. 



Etiology. I. The causes of catarrh in sucklings are as follows: 



1. The diseases of the mother. The constitutional morbid state, 

 anemia, cachexia, affections of the digestive apparatus, and troubles 

 of nutrition, act unfavorably upon the young ; also the infectious 

 diseases, aphthous fever, generalized tuberculosis, mammary tuber- 

 culosis, etc., are deadly for young animals ; mammitis and plain 

 congestion of the udder may also cause gastro-intestinal catarrh in 

 the calf. 



The alimentation of the mother has a considerable influence upon 

 the condition of health of the young. Food which is too rich in 

 nitrogenized matters (grains, legumina, clover), also food which 

 possesses little nutritive properties, a poor quality of watery roots 

 and green substances, spoiled roots and tubers and rancid oil-cakes, 

 may all produce digestive troubles in sucklings. Several special 

 qualities of milk and the alterations which it undergoes produce the 

 disease easily : very fat or too watery, curdled, bitter or rancid 

 milk, or milk containing too much or too little albumin or caséine, 

 must be particularly mentioned. Certain medical substances mixed 

 with this liquid (essential oil, resinous, vesicant or laxative sub- 

 stances) may irritate the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane. Ex- 

 cessive fatigue of the mother influences the quality of the milk and 

 reacts upon the progeny. 



[One of the most common causes of this disease among young 

 animals on American farms is the careless and irregular manner in 

 which they are fed. Kept for long periods without food while the 

 mother is at work, they are allowed to take an unlimited quantity 

 of milk furnished while the dam is overheated and fatigued. This 

 is one of the reasons why so many of our animals are suffering 

 from a chronic form of this disease. If the young animals are not 

 nursing they are allowed to take an overabundance of milk or 

 other food, thus producing indigestion of the abomasum, a common 

 disease among calves. — w. L. z ] 



2. Also when the young animals are fed irregularly, at the time 

 their mothers are used as working beasts. 



3. Also colds (cold or damp stables, draughts, and cold udder of 

 the mother). 



4. The retention of intestinal mucus of the foetus (meconium), 



