Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

INFLAMMATORY FEVER. 231
The two first are excellent stomachics, as well as tonics ; the last is
a tonic, simply because it is the very best stomachic in the cattle
pharmacopoeia. They may be given three times every day, in doses
of a drachm each of the two first, and half a drachm of the last.
They will be more effectual in these moderate doses than in the
overwhelming quantities in which some administer them, and in which
they oppress and cause nausea, rather than stimulate and give
appetite. They should always be given in gruel, with half a pint or
even a pint of sound ale.
The practitioner may possibly be called in after ulcers have broken
out, and. the sloughing process has commenced : there must be no
bleeding then ; the vitality of the system has received a sufficient
shock, and various parts of it are actually decomposing ; but physic
is necessary, with a double dose of the aromatic, in order to rouse the
energies of the digestive system, and to get rid of much offensive and
dangerous matter collected in the intestinal canal. Epsom salts will
here also constitute the best purgative. The enlargements about the
knee, and elbow, and stifle, and hock, should be fomented with warm
water ; and any considerable indurations, and especially about the
joints, embrocated with equal parts of turpentine, hartshorn, and
camphorated spirit.
The ulcers should be carefully and thoroughly washed several
times every day with a solution of the chloride of lime, of the strength
already recommended. The ulcers about the muzzle, mouth, and
throat, should be treated in a similar manner ; and a pint of the
solution may be horned down twice in the course of the first day.
If there be hoose or bloat, this will combine with the extricated gas,
and prevent the continued formation of it ;
and it will materially cor-
rect the fetor which pervades the whole of" the digestive canal.
Mashes and plenty of thick gruel should be offered to the beast, and
forced upon him by means of the stomach-pump if he refuse to take
it voluntarily. ' In this case, the pipe should not be introduced more
than half-way down the oesophagus, as there will then be greater
probability of the liquor flowing on into the fourth stomach.
Tonics should on no account be neglected, but be administered
simply to rouse to action the languid or almost lifeless powers of the
frame.
If the stench from the ulcers does not abate, the solution of the
chloride should be quickly increased to a double strength ; but as
soon as the fetor has ceased, and the wounds begin to have a
healthy appearance, the healing ointment or the tincture of aloes
may be adopted, and the latter is preferable. When the animal
begins to eat, he should be turned into a field close at hand, the
grass of which has been cropped pretty closely. A seton or a rowel
should be retained for three or four weeks ; but as for medicine, it
cannot be too soon discontinued when the animal is once set on its