Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

276
CATTLE.
there oftenest effected. If a dairy of cows be removed from a moist
situation to a dry and colder one, consumption will often appear
among them, although a dry air is otherwise esteemed a specific
against the complaint ; but if they be taken from a dry situation,
and put on a woody and damp one, phthisis is sure to appear before
the first season is past.
There is one striking fact, showing the injurious effect of heated
and empoisoned air on the pulmonary system. There are some cowhouses
in which the heat is intense, and the inmates are often in a
state of profuse perspiration. The doors and the windows must
sometimes be opened, and then the wind blows in cold enough upon
those that are close to them, and, one would naturally think, could
not fail of being injurious. No such thing. These are the animals
who escape ; but the others, at the farther end, on whom no wind
blows, and where no perspiration is checked, are the first to have
hoose, inflammation, and consumption. This fact speaks volumes
with regard to the management on many a farm.
In dismissing the diseases of the respiratory system, the author is
far more disposed to direct attention to the preventive than the medi-
cal treatment. By the former one may. do much. Let the over-
filled cow-houses be enlarged, and the close and hot ones be better
ventilated ; let neglect, and exposure, and starvation yield to more
judicious and humane treatment ; when cattle are fed on dry food,
let them have sufficient to drink two or three times every day ; let
those that exhibit decided symptoms of consumption be removed from
the dairy, not because the disease is contagious, but because it is
undeniably hereditary ; and, where so little can be done in the way
of cure, let nothing be omitted in the way of prevention.
Iodine possesses power to arrest the growth of tubercles in the
lungs, and even to dUperse them when recently formed. It may
not be a specific for phthisis or consumption in cattle, but it has
saved some that would otherwise have perished, and, for a while,
prolonged the existence and somewhat restored the condition of more.
Let the proprietor of cattle, and more especially practitioners, study
closely the symptoms of phthisis, as detailed, and make themselves
masters of the inward, feeble, painful, hoarse, gurgling cough of consumption,
and as soon as they are assured that this termination or
consequence of catarrh, or pneumonia, or pleurisy, begins to have
existence—that tubercles have been formed, and, perhaps, have begun
to suppurate—let them have recourse to the iodine, in the form
of the hydriodate of potash, given in a small mash, in doses of three
grains, morning and evening, at the commencement of the treatment,
and gradually increased to six or eight grains. To this should be
added proper attention to comfort ; yet not too much nursing ; and
free access to succulent, but not stimulating, food ; and the medicine
should be continued not only until the general condition of the beast