Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

THE DIFFICULTY OF PURGING CATTLE. 29T
ignorant of the anatomy and functions of the stomachs, he wonders
at the obstinate constipation which seems to bid defiance to all purgative
medicines ; whereas, in fact, little or none of it had entered
the intestinal canal. At length, perhaps, the rumen is excited to
action, and ejects a considerable portion of its liquid, and some of its
more solid contents^ either directly .into the cesophagean canal, or
through the medium of the reticulum ; and which, by an inverted
and forcible contraction, is driven through the manyplus and into the
fourth stomach, and thence into the intestinal canal, and produces
sometimes natural, but at other times excessive and unmanageable
and fatal purgation. The great quantity of fibrous substance
which occasionally is found in the dung, warns us that this has taken
place.
Occasionally, when dose after dose has been given, and the animal
dies apparently constipated, the whole of the physic is found in the
rumen. These are difficulties, in cattle practice which are not yet
sufficiently understood.
When two or three moderate doses have been given, and purging
is not produced, the practitioner may begin to suspect that his medicine
has fallen through this cesophagean fissure into the rumen ; and
then, although he does not quite discontinue the physic, he should
principally endeavor to stimulate this cuticular, yet not quite insensible
stomach. He should lessen the quantity of the purgative, and
he should double or treble that of the aromatic and stimulant ; and,
in many cases, he will thus succeed in producing an intestinal evacuation,
the fibrous nature of which will prove the unnatural process by
which it was effected.
It was, perhaps, from observation of the occasional benefit derived
from the administration of aromatics and stimulants, even in inflammatory
cases, that the absurd and mischievous practice of giving
them in every disease, and every state of disease, arose.
The reason and the propriety of the administration of cattlemedicine
in a liquid form is hence evident. A ball, in consequence
of its weight, and the forcible manner in which it is urged on by the
muscles of the oesophagus, breaks through the floor of the cesophagean
canal, and enters the rumen, and is lost. A liquid, administered
slowly and carefully, and trickling down the oesophagus without the
possibility of the muscles of that tube acting upon it and increasing
its momentum, is likely to glide over, this singular floor, and enter
the fourth stomach and the intestines. A hint may hence be derived
with regard to the manner of administering a drink. If it be poured
down bodily from a large vessel, as is generally done, it will probably
fall on the canal with sufficient force partly, at least, to separate the
pillars, and a portion of it will enter the rumen and be useless.
In the calf, fed entirely on its mother's milk, the rumen is in a
manner useless, for all the food goes on to the fourth stomach. It
13*