Part 24

Worms in the brain occasionally occur, causing great uneasiness to the animal and generally proving fatal.

The symptoms are, loss of appetite; suspended rumination; a fevered condition of the system; horns and ears hot; respiration disturbed; coat staring, etc. No course of treatment will prove efficacious in this disease.

Pressure on the brain may occur from an accumulation of water, tumors, bruises, etc., in the cranial case. In either case, the same effects are produced as are observed in apoplexy.

INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER.

Inflammation of the bladder generally accompanies inflammation of the kidneys, though it is sometimes found disconnected and alone. It is occasionally caused by calculous concretions in the bladder,--which should be removed,--causing very acute abdominal pain to the animal. She makes frequent efforts to stale, passing but a few drops of urine at a time. The pulse is full and rapid; mouth clammy; nose dry; eyes bloodshot; appetite lost; moaning, and walking with a staggering gait.

Treatment.--Inject into the bladder one quart of tepid water, and from one to two ounces of tincture of opium mixed together. Give internally one of the following powders every hour until relieved; nitrate of potassa, one ounce; tartrate of antimony, and pulverized digitalis leaves, each one drachm; mix, and divide into six powders. Mucilaginous draughts should be freely given.

Rupture of the bladder sometimes occurs, but there are no symptoms by which it may be known; and, if there were, no service could be rendered in the way of repairing the injury; the animal must die.

INFLAMMATION OF THE HAW.

The ox, like the horse, has a membrane of semilunar form in the inner corner of the eye, which is capable of being thrown over the entire eyeball, for the purpose of cleansing the eye from any foreign substance which may get into it. This membrane is commonly called the haw, and is susceptible of attacks of inflammation, which cause it to swell, frequently even closing up the eye.

Treatment.--Give a dose of physic, and, if the animal is plethoric, extract a little blood from the vein on the same side as the affected eye. Apply to the eye either of the following washes: tincture of opium, one ounce; rain-water, one pint; or, tincture of aconite, one drachm, to one pint of water. Bathe two or three times a day.

INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS.

This disease--sometimes called nephritis--occurs occasionally in cattle in consequence of their eating bad or unwholesome food, or of the abuse of diuretics, etc.

The symptoms are very insidious in their approach. The loins are very tender upon pressure; the urine is voided in small quantities. As the disease advances, the symptoms become more marked and acute. The animal is dull, and feeds daintily; the evacuation of urine is attended with increased pain, and the urine is highly colored and bloody; the nose is dry; the horns, ears, and extremities are cold; respiration hurried; the pulse full, hard, and throbbing.

Treatment.--Give one pint of linseed-oil and ten drops of castor-oil, mixed together; follow this with small doses of salts once a day, for three or four days; give injections of water, one half a gallon to two ounces of tincture of arnica. Mustard applications to the loins are also very useful.

INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER.

Diseases of the liver are of very common occurrence,--a fact with which all beef-butchers are familiar. Perhaps no organ in the animal economy is so liable to disease. The obscurity of the symptoms and the good condition of the animal prevent its discovery, as a general thing, during its lifetime. When, however, the disease assumes an active form,--known as the yellows, jaundice, or inflammation of the liver,--the symptoms are more readily detected.

Symptoms.--A yellowish color of the eye will be observed; skin, urine, etc., highly colored; soreness, on pressure, on the right side; loss of appetite; dullness; constipation of the bowels, etc.

Treatment.--Calomel is the most reliable medicine known to practitioners for diseases of the liver. Its abuse, however, has brought it into disrepute. Yet, as with ordinary care it may be advantageously used, we will prescribe it as that upon which the most dependence is to be placed, and in doing so, will endeavor to have it used safely. Bleeding has been recommended: but the author has never found any benefit resulting. Give Epsom-salts, in doses of four ounces each, every night, with one scruple of calomel, until the animal is relieved. Mustard and water should be frequently applied to the right side, and well rubbed in.

LARYNGITIS.

This disease is of rare occurrence in cattle. In it, the mucous membrane lining the larynx is in a very irritable condition; the least pressure upon the parts affected causes intensely excruciating pain; the respiration becomes quick, painful, and laborious; the animal often appears to be hungry, yet does not eat much, in consequence of the pain occasioned by the act of swallowing.

Treatment.--Apply to the throat externally strong mustard, mixed, with equal parts of aqua ammonia and water, to a thin paste, every hour, until it produces an effect upon the skin; sponging the parts each time with warm water before applying the mustard. The animal should not be bled. Give upon the tongue, or in drink, half-drachm doses of nitrate of potassa, every three or four hours, until relief is obtained. If suffocation threatens, the operation of tracheotomy is the only resort.

Cloths saturated with cold water, wrapped around the neck so as to cover the larynx, frequently afford relief. A purgative will also be found useful.

LICE.

Cattle are very subject to lice, particularly when they are neglected, half-starved, and in poor condition. Good care and good feeding--in connection with the treatment recommended in mange, to which the reader is referred--will comprise all that is requisite.

MANGE.

Mange, or leprosy, is one of the most unpleasant and difficult diseases to manage of all the ailments to which cattle are subject requiring the nicest care and attention to render it easy of cure. An animal badly nursed will not, under the most skillful treatment, quickly recover. Its causes are in the main, due to poor food, which produces a debilitated condition of the system, and in connection with a want of cleanliness, causes a development of the acari, or minute insects, exciting very great irritation upon the skin and causing the cow to rub herself against every object with which she comes in contact. The hair falls off; a scurfy appearance of the skin is perceptible; and the animal is poor in condition and in milk. The great trouble in treating this disease springs from its contagious character; for, no sooner is the animal, oftentimes, once free from the acari than it comes in contact with some object against which it has previously been rubbing, when the acari which were left upon that object are again brought in contact with the animal, and the disease is reproduced. If, immediately after the proper applications are made, the animal is removed to other quarters, and not allowed to return to the former ones for six or eight weeks, there is, generally speaking, but little trouble in treating the disease.

Take the animal upon a warm, sunny day, and with a scrubbing-brush cleanse the skin thoroughly with Castile-soap and water; when dry, apply in the same manner the following mixture; white hellebore, one ounce; sulphur flower, three ounces; gas-water, one quart; mix all well together. One or two applications are, generally, all that will be required. Give internally one of the following powders in the feed, night and morning: flowers of sulphur, two ounces; black antimony, one ounce; nitrate of potassa, one ounce; mix, and divide into eight powders.

MURRAIN.