CATTLE, THEIR DISEASES. 247 
The Posture. 
The position of an animal, its mode of standing and lying down, are all 
significant. Lying persistently on one side, or obstinately maintaining one 
position, shows that any other is painful. Horses stand as long as they 
possibly can, as they breathe much easier in the upright position ; and if 
they once lie down, they soon despair and die. Hence the rule is with a 
horse to sling him up, in various ailments. With cattle it is different, 
and it is much less important to keep them erect. When animals cannot 
rise, it may be from weakness, or from palsied limbs, or from sever® 
injuries or sprains. 
Indication of Pain, 
• ♦ 
The feeling of pain in animals is indicated by their flinching when the 
painful part is touched ; by the care which they take in lying down, walk- 
ing or standing to “favor” the part, and by the appearance of the eye. 
Distress and suffering are generally plainly apparent in the face of sick 
horses and cattle. 
Special Signs in Cattle. 
In cattle, the horn at its root yields, by the sensation it imparts to the 
band, a rough idea of the temperature of the blood, and the cow-leech 
generally feels it as the doctor does the pulse, as a part of the indispeus- , 
able programme of a professional visit. If the temperature is natural, 
he concludes there is no fever ; if cold, and the tips of the ears also cold, 
it is a sign of some serious internal congestion ; the blood no longer cir- 
culating in natural force through the extremities. 
The muzzle is another part- he takes note of. In health this is moist, 
covered with “dew,” as the saying is ; but in disease, especially fever, it 
is dry, hotter or colder than natural, and sometimes changed in color, 
paler or injected with blood. By looking at the flanks, the regularity of 
the respiration is noted, rapid and irregular heaving there betraying the 
disturbance of the important function of breathing. In ruminants also, 
the second mastication of the food is among the first of the vital pro- 
cesses to become disturbed in disease. When a cow or an ox “loses the 
cud,” as it is called by herdsmen, that is, ceases to ruminate without 
apparent cause, there is sure to be a feeling of sickness about the animal 
which is thus interfering with one of its processes of digestion. No animal 
can thrive in this condition, it needs attention, 
