Part 52

In other cases apply a leather pad 8 inches square attached around the body by two elastic bands connected with its four corners, and an elastic band passing from its front border to a collar encircling the neck, and two other elastic bands from the neck collar along the two sides of the body to the two bands passing up over the back. (Pl. XXIV, fig. 6.)

For small hernias nitric acid may be used to destroy the skin and cause such swelling as to close the orifice before the skin is separated. For a mass like a large goose egg one-half ounce of the acid may be rubbed in for three minutes. No more must be applied for 15 days. For large masses this is inapplicable, and with too much loss of skin the orifice may fail to close and the bowels may escape.

The application of a clamp like those used in castration is a most effective method, but great care must be taken to see that all the contents of the sac are returned so that none may be inclosed in the clamp. (Pl. XXIV, fig. 7.)

Another most effective resort is to make a saturated solution of common salt, filter and boil it, and when cool inject under the skin (not into the sac) on each side of the hernia a dram of the fluid. A bandage may then be put around the body. In 10 hours an enormous swelling will have taken place, pressing back the bowel into the abdomen. When this subsides the wound will have closed.

DROPSY OF THE NAVEL.

A sac formed at the navel, by contained liquid accumulated by reason of sucking by other calves, is unsightly and sometimes injurious. After making sure that it is simply a dropsical collection it may be deeply punctured at various points with a large-sized lancet or knife, fomented with hot water, and then daily treated with a strong decoction of white-oak bark.

BLUE DISEASE (CYANOSIS).

This appearing in the calf at birth is due to the orifice between the two auricles of the heart (foramen ovale) remaining too open, allowing the nonaerated (venous) blood to mix with the aerated (arterial) blood, and it is beyond the reach of treatment. It is recognized by the blueness of the eyes, nose, mouth, and other mucous membranes, the coldness of the surface, and the extreme sensitiveness to cold.

CONSTIPATION.

At birth the bowels of the calf contain the meconium, a tenacious, gluey, brownish-yellow material largely derived from the liver, which must be expelled before they can start their functions normally. The first milk of the cow (colostrum, beestings), rich in albumin and salts, is nature's laxative to expel this now offensive material and should never be withheld from the calf. If, for lack of this, from the dry feeding of the cow, or from any other cause, the calf is costive, straining violently without passage, lying down and rising as in colic, and failing in appetite, no time should be lost in giving relief by an ounce dose of castor oil, assisting its action by injections of soapsuds or oil. Whatever meconium is within reach of the finger should be carefully removed. It is also important to give the cow a sloppy, laxative diet.

INDIGESTION.

This may occur from many different causes, as costiveness; a too liberal supply of milk; milk too rich; the furnishing of the milk of a cow long after calving to a very young calf; allowing a calf to suck the first milk of a cow that has been hunted, driven by road, shipped by rail, or otherwise violently excited; allowing the calf too long time between meals, so that impelled by hunger it quickly overloads and clogs the stomach; feeding from the pail milk that has been held over in unwashed (unscalded) buckets, so that it is fermented and spoiled; feeding the milk of cows kept on unwholesome feed; keeping the calves in cold, damp, dark, filthy, or bad-smelling pens; feeding the calves on artificial mixtures containing too much starchy matter; or overfeeding the calves on artificial feed that may be appropriate enough in smaller quantity. The licking of hair from themselves or others and its formation into balls in the stomach will cause obstinate indigestion in the calf.

Symptoms.--The symptoms are dullness, indisposition to move, uneasiness, eructations of gas from the stomach, sour breath, entire loss of appetite, lying down and rising as if in pain, fullness of the abdomen, which gives out a drumlike sound when tapped with the fingers.

The costiveness may be marked at first, but soon it gives place to diarrhea, by which the offensive matters may be carried off and health restored. In other cases it becomes aggravated, merges into inflammation of the bowels, fever sets in, and the calf gradually sinks.

Prevention.--Prevention consists in avoiding the causes enumerated above or any others that may be detected.

Treatment.--Treatment consists in first clearing away the irritant present in the bowels. For this purpose 1 or 2 ounces of castor oil with 20 drops of laudanum may be given, and if the sour eructations are marked a tablespoonful of limewater or one-fourth ounce calcined magnesia may be given and repeated two or three times a day. If the disorder continues after the removal of the irritant, a large tablespoonful of rennet, or 30 grains of pepsin, may be given at each meal along with a teaspoonful of tincture of gentian. Any return of constipation must be treated by injections of warm water and soap, while the persistence of diarrhea must be met as advised under the discussion following this. In case of the formation of loose hair balls inclosing milk undergoing putrid fermentation, temporary benefit may be obtained by giving a tablespoonful of vegetable charcoal three or four times a day, but the only real remedy is to cut the paunch open and extract them. At this early age they may be found in the third or even the fourth stomach; in the adult they are confined to the first two and are comparatively harmless.

DIARRHEA (SCOURING) IN CALVES (SIMPLE AND CONTAGIOUS).

As stated in the last article, scouring is a common result of indigestion, and at first may be nothing more than an attempt of nature to relieve the stomach and bowels of offensive and irritating contents. As the indigestion persists, however, the fermentations going on in the undigested masses become steadily more complex and active, and what was at first the mere result of irritation or suspended digestion comes to be a genuine contagious disease, in which the organized ferments (bacteria) propagate the affection from animal to animal and from herd to herd. More than once I have seen such epizootic diarrhea start on the headwaters of a creek and, traveling along that stream, follow the watershed and attack the herds supplied with water from the contaminated channel. In the same way the disease, once started in a cow stable, is liable to persist for years, or until the building has been thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. It may be carried into a healthy stable by the introduction of a cow brought from an infected stable when she is closely approaching calving. Another method of its introduction is by the purchase of a calf from a herd where the infection exists.

In enumerating the other causes of this disease we may refer to those noted above as inducing indigestion. As a primary consideration any condition which lowers the vitality or vigor of the calf must be accorded a prominent place among factors which, apart from contagion, contribute to start the disease de novo. Other things being equal, the strong, vigorous races are the least predisposed to the malady, and in this respect the compact form, the healthy coat, the clear eye, and the bold, active carriage are desirable. Even the color of the hair is not unimportant, as in the same herd I have found a far greater number of victims among the light colors (light yellow, light brown) than among those of a darker tint. This constitutional predisposition to indigestion and diarrhea is sometimes fostered by too close breeding, without taking due account of the maintenance of a robust constitution; hence animals that are very much inbred need to be especially observed and cared for unless their inherent vigor has been thoroughly attested.

The surroundings of the calf are powerful influences. Calves kept indoors suffer to a greater extent than those running in the open air and having the invigorating influences of sunshine, pure air, and exercise; close, crowded, filthy, bad-smelling buildings are especially causative of the complaint. The presence in the air of carbon dioxid, the product of breathing, and of the fetid, gaseous products of decomposing dung and urine diminish by about one-fourth of their volume the life-giving oxygen and in the same ratio hinder the aeration of the blood and the maintenance of vigorous health. Worse than this, such fetid gases are usually direct poisons to the animal breathing them; for example, sulphureted hydrogen (hydrogen sulphid 2 SH_{2}) and various alkaloids (ptomaines) and toxins (neutral poisonous principles) produced in the filth fermentations. These lower the general health and stamina, impair digestion, and by leading to the accumulation in stomach and bowels of undigested materials they lay the foundation for offensive fermentations within these organs and consequent irritation, poisoning, and diarrhea. They further weaken the system so that it can no longer resist and overcome the trouble.

The condition of the nursing cow and her milk is another potent cause of trouble. The feed of the cow is important. The influence of this is shown in the following tables:

Influence of feed on milk. (From Becquerel and Vernois.)

+--------------------------+--------+----------+--------+--------+--------+ | | | Casein | | | |Character of feed. | Water. | and | Milk | | | | |extractive| sugar. | Butter.| Salts. | | | matter. | | | +--------------------------+--------+----------+--------+--------+--------+ | |Parts |Parts |Parts |Parts |Parts | |in 1,000 in 1,000|in 1,000in 1,000in 1,000 |Cows on winter feed: | | | | | | Trefoil or lucern, 12-13| | | | | | pounds; oat straw, 9-10 | | | | | | pounds; beets, 7 pounds;| | | | | | water, 2 buckets | 871.26 | 47.81 | 33.47 | 42.07 | 5.34 |Cows on summer feed: | | | | | | Green trefoil, lucern, | | | | | | maize, barley, grass, | | | | | | 2 buckets water | 859.56 | 54.70 | 36.38 | 42.76 | 6.80 |Goat's milk on different | | | | | | feed: | | | | | | On straw and trefoil | 858.68 | 47.38 | 35.47 | 52.54 | 5.93 | On beets | 888.77 | 33.81 | 38.02 | 33.68 | 5.72 |Normal mean | 844.90 | 35.14 | 36.90 | 56.87 | 6.18 | | | | | | +--------------------------+--------+----------+--------+--------+--------+

In these examples the deterioration of the milk in casein on the less nutritious winter feeding is very marked, although the relative quantity of butter remains almost unchanged. In the case of the goat the result is even more striking, the beet diet giving a very large decrease of both casein and butter and an increase of milk sugar.

The second table following, condensed from the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin, gives the results in butter and total solids when the same cows were fed on different rations in succession. Each cow was fed a daily ration of 12 pounds corn fodder and 4 pounds clover hay, besides the test diet of (1) 12-1/4 pounds corn-and-cob meal, and (2) 10 pounds sugar meal--a product of the glucose manufacture. This special feed was given seven days before the commencement of each test period to obviate the effects of transition. The analyses of the special rations are given below:

Analyses of special rations.

------------------------------+--------------+-----------+ Constituents. | Corn-and-cob | Sugar | | meal. | meal. | ------------------------------+--------------+-----------+ | Per cent. |Per cent.| Moisture | 13.37 | 6.10 | Salts | 1.43 | 1.17 | Fat | 2.81 | 11.16 | Carbohydrates (heat formers). | 65.99 | 52.66 | Woody fiber | 8.03 | 8.64 | Proteids (flesh formers) | 8.37 | 20.27 | ------------------------------+--------------+-----------+

The great excess of fat and nitrogenous or flesh-forming principles in the sugar meal is very evident.