Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

250 CATTLE.
animal has drunk, generally indicates a more or less serious affection
of the lung.' If a severe cough attack the animal, great attention
must be paid to it, because in such cases we frequently have to treat
commencing hydrothorax. The means to be adopted when no other
symptoms of disease are observed, are : dulcamara, in cough- by
cold; bryonid (in repeated doses,) in inveterate cough; belladonna
and drosera, in chronic cough ; hyoscyamus, when the attacks are
very frequent ; squilla, in cough which comes on after fatigue, and
which interferes with the respiration ; chamomilla, in dry cough, with
diarrhoea ; puhatilla, in frequent attacks of dry cough, with loss of
appetite ; spiritus sulphuratus, in very obstinate cough. When the
cough is the symptom of another disease, it yields to the treatment
required by the latter.
When the entire system has suffered more or less, the affection is
accompanied with fever of greater or less severity ; some doses of
aconitum, the first remedy to be employed in such cases, never fail
to produce excellent effects. If the cold affect but a part of the
"body, we scarcely ever observe any fever, and bryonia is to be administered.
Tn many cases considerable benefit has been obtained
from dulcamara, nux vomica, and rhus toxicodendron. Arsenicum is
good when the digestion is disturbed, or the complaint has been occasioned
by a cold drink.
EPIDEMIC CATARRH.
Catarrh occasionally assumes an epidemic form ; it spreads over
whol'e districts ; is more than usually violent ; associates with itself
the symptoms of other and of worse diseases, and is strangely fatal.
If a cold yet variable spring succeeds to a wet and mild winter,
there will be scarcely a dairy or a straw-yard in some districts in
which a considerable number of cows will not labor under distressing
hoose. Obstinate costiveness attends the early stage of this disease,
on which neither Epsom salts, nor common salt, nor linseed oil, can
make any impression. All seems to go into the rumen, and has for
a while no power on the cuticular coat of that stomach ; and then,
whether the purgative course be pursued or suspended, diarrhoea
suddenly comes on, and bids equal defiance to all astringent medicines.
Sometimes, however, diarrhoea is present, and obstinate from
the very beginning.
Tumors about the head, the roots of the ears, the neck, the back,
and loins, and many of the joints, soon succeed, accompanied by a
singular crackling sound when pressed upon. There is decomposition
going on everywhere, and in the cellular texture among the
rest, accompanied by the extrication of gas, the passage of which
among the cells beneath the skin' is the cause of this crackling.
While these tumors indicate decomposition in one part, the appearance
and odor o! the faeces show that it is not inactive in the