1436 The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Ailing Animals 
Answered by Dr. A. S. Alexander 
Seed Warts; Warbles 
1. Could you tell us how to got rid of 
need warts, or such they seem to be, on 
a cow? We have a heifer that freshened 
in early Spring. This Summer we dis¬ 
covered a wai t on her udder, just above 
a teat. 2. What are the large blotches 
that come mostly on the backs of cows, 
about an inch long and as large as a 
lead pencil? Sometimes they can be 
squeezed out and sometimes not. We 
imagine they are caused by the sting of 
some insect. Is there any remedy or 
prevention? J. M. L. 
New York. 
1. Saturate the warts with water con¬ 
taining all the baking soda it will dis¬ 
solve when hot. Warts that have slim 
necks may be snipped off with scissors, a 
few at a time. Lightly rub with a lunar 
caustic pencil upon the base of any wart 
that starts growing again. 
2. Grubs of the ox warble fly cause the 
hunches you describe. The grubs or 
larvae develop from eggs deposited by 
the flies during hot weather in Summer, 
and at such times cows should be pro¬ 
tected by free and frequent sprayings 
with a fly repellent. Squeeze out and 
destroy each ripe warble. Do this by 
fitting the open mouth of a large bottle 
over each boil in turn ; then press down 
hard and pop goes the warble. Sprinkling 
salt upon the backs of cattle to be licked 
off by their mates is accounted a good 
plan of getting rid of the forming war¬ 
bles. It also is well to wash the back 
with a 1-50 solution of coal tar dip twice 
a week at the time when warbles can be 
detected in the skin of the back. 
Bone Spavin 
One of our best young horses has n 
spavin which so far is not very large, but 
is getting very hard and i<5 causing con¬ 
siderable lameness. Some days it works 
off, while on others it gets worse, so much 
so that we have to bring him in. Could 
you give us any treatment that would 
take away the lameness? We understand 
it is impossible to remove the bunch once 
it is hardened, but that the pain, or, in 
other words, the ill effects of the spavin, 
can be to a large extent removed, c. H. F. 
Quebec. 
As other measures have failed, you 
should now have the spavin and entire 
hook joint fired and blistered by a quali¬ 
fied veterinarian and then tie the horse 
up short in a narrow stall for six weeks 
of absolute rest. If you cannot employ a 
competent veterinarian, clip off the hair 
and blister the spavin and joint two or 
three times at intervals of three or four 
weeks, while keeping the horse tied up, 
as advised. For the purpose use a mix¬ 
ture of two drams each of biniodide of 
mercury and powdered cantharides and 
three ounces of lard. Rub the blister in, 
a little at a time, for 15 minutes, then 
smear some of it on the skin. Apply lard 
freely to the skin below the hock before 
applying the blister: also upon the op¬ 
posite leg, and tie up the tail. Wash the 
blister off in 48 hours and then apply a 
little lard daily. 
Blindness 
My best cow, a fine young Guernsey 
heifer, came fresh the first time about 
the twentieth of May in perfect condition 
(no trouble whatever). In breaking her. 
she insisted on kicking. I gave her just 
an ordinary whipping, never striking her 
near the head, but since then she has 
been ailing. She has something wrong 
with her eyes and now she has gone 
totally blind. She has a splendid appe¬ 
tite and is milking well, but lias grad¬ 
ually lost flesh, but only because she could 
not find enough to eat. At first her eyes 
only seemed to be a little sore, but now 
each eye has a little brown hole in the 
sight. She keeps them closed almost all 
the time; she is totally blind. Flense 
advise me what to do, as it is quite an 
expensive loss. As far as I know she is 
well except her eyes. Several of my other 
cows have slightly sore eyes, but it does 
not seem to bother them. I have a herd 
of 16 Guernseys. j. n. H. 
Virginia. 
Blindness (amaurosis) sometimes fol¬ 
lows shock or loss of blood : but it is pos¬ 
sible that your cattle have contagious 
keratitis or ophthalmia, and that the one 
cow has lost her sight from ulceration 
of the cornea. On general principles we 
can only advise you to keep affected eyes 
covered with soft cloth or compresses to 
be kept constantly wet with saturated 
solution of boric acid, and every other 
day dust the eyeballs with a mixture of 
equal parts of finely powdered calomel 
or iodoform and boric acid. In the worst 
case paint the eyeballs once daily with a 
solution of two grains of nitrate of silver 
in an ounce of distilled water, to lx* kept 
in a blue glass bottle, and every other 
day apply a fifteen per cent, solution of 
argyrol. 
Garbage Poisoning 
I. I would like your advice in regard to 
feeding hogs before farrowing. I have 
three purebred Duroc-.Tersey sows to 
farrow last of September. I have a place 
for my hogs to run out in, swampy 
ground, where there is water. I also 
have self-feeder. I have no Alfalfa. 2. I 
had eight pigs die which were three 
months old. 1 think it came from feeding 
garbage. I only fed it to them twice. Is 
there no way of helping pigs that are 
poisoned in that way? I gave them castor 
oil in their feed ; it did not help. 
New .Jersey. a. F. 
I. Keep the sows oft' the swamp land 
and let them graze grass, clover, Alfalfa 
or rape. Feed light laxative slop to keep 
tln> bowels active. Roots would be good 
for the sows and Alfalfa hay would help', 
if you cannot provide green feed. 2." Hogs 
that are to be fed garbage should be im¬ 
munized against cholera, as that disease 
is very liable to attack euch animals. It 
also is well to inject mixed bacterins 
against mixed infection. Consult your 
veterinarian about this. City, hotel or 
restaurant slop and garbage commonly 
contain large quantities of soap^and soap 
powder, and if the quantity is excessive 
it. proves fatally poisonous. Buttermilk 
might help as an antidote, but there is 
no sure way of making such slop safe for 
pigs. Ptomaine poisoning may also de¬ 
velop and is incurable. 
Lame Sow 
I bought a brood sow; she seems to 
have rheumatism, but 1 do not know 
what to do for her. She is a Poland 
China, bred to farrow shortly, and the 
September 27, 1919 
trouble is she lies down quite a little and 
seems to be weak and stiff in her fore 
legs. She favors her front*legs when she 
goes to lie down; she puts her head down 
first and takes a lot of time in letting 
her body down. She has a large pasture 
to run in, plenty of room for exercise and 
cats heartily. I give her wheat middlings, 
slop, sulphur, etc. She has a dry bed and 
everything she needs, but her legs are 
stiff in front. What should I do? 
Syracuse, N. Y. o. l. d. 
The condition that you describe is prob¬ 
ably not rheumatism but rather partial 
paralysis, due generally to a lack of min¬ 
eral .matter, particularly the phosphates 
requisite for bone construction. Certain 
types of swine that have been developed 
intensively for fat and lard production 
mature at a very early age and, unless 
considerable care is exercised in their 
growth and development, one is likely to 
have the experience such as you have de¬ 
scribed. This brood sow was probably a 
vigorous feeder as a youngster, and per¬ 
haps did not have access to such minerals 
as lime, rock phosphate and bonemeal. If 
it is possible to feed some skim-milk this 
will very likely improve the condition, 
and the brood sow should have access to 
a mineral mixture consisting of equal 
parts of salt, sulphur, ground limestone 
and bonemeal. Oftentimes the applica¬ 
tion of an astringent or some penetrating 
liniment will relieve the condition, if it is 
confined exclusively to the muscular tis- 
ines. 
A schoolboy in St. Louis is the author 
of this composition on geese: ‘Geese is 
a heavy-set bird with a head on one side 
and a tail on the other. His feet is set 
so far back on his running gear that they 
nearly miss his body. Some geese is 
ganders and has a curl in his tail. Gan¬ 
ders don’t lay or set. They just eat, loaf 
and go swimming. If I had to be a geese 
I would rather be a gander. Geese do 
not give milk, but give eggs, but for me 
give me liberty or give me death.”—Cam¬ 
per’s Weeklv. 
Prevent 
the “slow down” 
n 
loi 
HORSE 
DAIRY 
POULTRY 
Speed them up now! Your cows 
will come off pasture with a run¬ 
ning start for fall and winter if you 
will begin at once to feed 
Purina 
Cow Chow 
Its high percentage of protein will properly balance 
your home-grown feeds. The protein is supplied 
by such ingredients as linseed meal (old process), 
gluten feed from corn, and cotton-seed meal. 
Dairymen say that the extra milk from Purina Cow 
Chow brings twice as much money as its slight 
difference in cost. 
The grains are laboratory tested, accurately measured 
and mixed by machinery. Why risk home-mixed 
feeds when Purina Cow Chow costs less? 
Send for circular of .balanced rations. Ask your dealer 
for Purina Cow Chow. If he doesn’t keep it, write us. 
Purina Mills 
Ralston Purina Co., Prop. 
827 Gratiot Street, St. Louis, Mo, 
Sold in checkerboard bags only • 
URINA 
.PROTEIN 
six 
BUSY 
MILLS 
If 
PURINA 
FEEDS 
SWINE 
STEER 
CALF 
Wi* 
:?y- 
cowcHoi 
FEED 
A Bunch of Feeders on a Clay County, Neb., Farm 
