Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

312 CATTLE.
either relieved or dead. As soon as decided relief is obtained, a dose
of physic should be given, and if any fever seems to be coming on, a
few pounds of blood should be taken away,
Cattle in the neighborhood of lead-mines have been dangerously
affected from the effects of this ore in the grass. Difficult respiration
with loud wheezing is one of the most prominent symptoms, the beast
losing its appetite, pining away, and at length dying of suffocation or
attacked by epileptic symptoms. Large doses of Epsom or Glauber's
salts, with linseed oil, and followed by opium, are the best remedies.
The smoke from copper-mines has also produced sad disease amongst
animals in the neighborhood : it causes swellings of the joints, of a
painful description.
treatment.
An early removal to another soil forms the best
Ranking under the general term of poisons, we may mention the
bites of venomous reptiles. The beast is generally stung about the
head or feet, for it is most likely to disturb these reptiles either in the
act of browsing, or as it wanders over the pasture. Cattle bitten in
the tongue almost invariably die. They are suffocated by the rapid
swelling which takes place. The udder has occasionally been stung
but the supposed bites on the teats are, far oftener than otherwise,
the effect of garget.
Embrocation for Bite of Reptiles.—Take hartshorn, and olive oil,
equal quantities. Shake them well together, and rub the wound and
the neighboring parts well with the liniment morning and night.
A quart of olive oil should also be given to the animal, mixed with
an ounce of hartshorn. . Oil of turpentine may be used when hartshorn
cannot be procured ;
but it is not so much to be depended upon.
The stings of hornets, wasps, and bees, in some cases produce
much temporary swelling and pain. If. the part be well rubbed with
warm vinegar, the inconvenience will soon subside.
DISEASES OF THE RETICULUM.
Of these, in the present state of knowledge of cattle-medicine, little
can be said. Some of the foreign substances that are found in the
rumen have been occasionaly discovered in the reticulum, as pins,
pieces of wire, nails, small stones, &c. They were, probably, ejected
over the valve between the two stomachs, enveloped by, Or attached
to, the portion of food that was preparing for a second mastication.
In the* forcible contraction of the stomach, it has been severely
wounded by these, and so much inflammation has ensued that the
animal has been lost.
The writer of this treatise has frequently seen inflammation of the
second stomach—sometimes accompanying that of the paunch, and
at other times seemingly confined to the reticulum. This inflammation
was, as in the rumen, characterized by the peeling off of the
cuticular coat, and the redness of the tissue beneath it; but the
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