Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

CATARRH, OR HOOSE. 247
proper nourishment, or to keep up proper warmth ; and the more
forward drive the others about, and permit them to obtain only
a small portion of their proper share of the provender, and then
the depressing effects of cold, and wet, and hunger, so debilitate
these poor beasts, that they are seldom without catarrh—and that
catarrh too frequently runs on "to a more serious disease.
Some breeds are more subject to hoose than others. The natives
of a southern district are seldom naturalized in a colder
clime without several times passing through severe catarrh ; and,
where the system of breeding in and in has been carried to too
great an extent, and been pursued in defiance of many a warning,
hoose, perpetually occurring, difficult to remove, and degene-
rating into confirmed phthisis, will painfully, but somewhat too
late, convince the farmer of his mistake.
The principal error, however, of the agriculturist is, not that he
suffers the causes of hoose to exist, or always gives them existence,
but that he underrates the mischievous and fatal character of
the disease. To this point we shall refer again and again ; and if
we can but induce him to listen to the dictates of •humanity and of
interest, the present treatise may rank among those which have diffused
some useful knowledge.
There is no disease of a chronic nature by which cattle are so se-
riously injured, or which is eventually so fatal to them, as hoose ;
yet very few of those whose interest is at stake, pay the slightest
attention to it. The cow may cough on from week to week, and no
one takes notice of it until the quantity of milk is seriously decreas-
ing, or she is rapidly losing flesh, and then medical treatment is
generally*unavailing. The disease has now reached the chest ; the
lungs are seriously affected ; and the foundation is laid for confirmed
consumption.
It is far from the wish of the author to inculcate a system of overnursing.
He knows full well that those cattle are most healthy
that are exposed to the usual changes of the weather, yet somewhat
sheltered from its greatest inclemency. He would not consider
every cow that hooses as a sick animal, and shut her up in some
close place, and physic and drench her, but would endeavor to prevail
oil the farmer to be a great deal more on the look-out. The
herdsman should be aware of every beast .that coughs. It may be
only a slight cold, afld in a few days may disappear of* itself. He
may wait and see whether it will, unless there be some urgent symptoms;
but, these few days having passed, and the cow continuing to
hoose, it begins to be imperatively necessary for him to adopt the
proper measures, while they may be serviceable.
If she feed as well as ever, if moisture stand upon her muzzle, and
her flanks are perfectly quiet, then one or two nights' housing, and
a mash or two, or a dose of physic, may set all right. But if the