Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

404 CATTLE.
must be repeated every six hours. Should not the medicine soon
begin to act, the usual quantity of aromatic medicine must be
doubled, for in addition to the constipation usually attending fever,
there is that which arises from the occasional state of the rumen,
and the passage leading to it, and that insensible stomach must be
roused to action and excited to discharge its contents, in despite of
the stimulating influence of the spiee on the constitution, generally.
The bowels must fee* opened, or the disease will run its course ; and,
purging once established in an early stage, the fever will, in the
.majority of instances, rapidly subside, leaving the strength of the
constitution untouched.
•
After the physic has begun to operate, the usual sedative medi-
cines should, if necessary, be given.
The digestive function first of all fails when the secondary and
low state of fever comes on. The rumen ceases to discharge its
food, and that being retained, begins to ferment, and the paunch and
the intestines are inflated with fetid gas, and the belly of the animal
swells rapidly.
Next, the nervous system is attacked—the cow begins to stagger.
The weakness is principally referable to the hinder quarters, and
rapidly increases. She reels about for a while, and then falls ; she
gets up, falls again, and at length is unable to rise ; her head is
bent 'back toward her side, and all her limbs are palsied ; and now,
when in too many cases no good can be done, the proprietor, for
the first time, begins to b.e alarmed.
The duration of this second stage pf puerperal fever is uncertain
but although it is usually more protracted than the first, the period
in which hope may be reasonably encouraged is short indeed. If the
cow be seriously ill, and off her feed, and does not get up again in
two or three days, the chances are very much against her; the
author, however, knew one that was saved after she had suffered
considerable fever, and had been down nine days ; and where de-
bility is the principal symptom, and the cow seems to lie tolerably
comfortable, and without pain, and picks a little, she may occasionally
get up after she has been down even longer than that.
The treatment of this stage of the disease, although there has been
a great deal of dispute about it, depends on one simple principle
the existence and the degree of fever. Notwithstandingthere is de-
bility, there may be fever ; although the strength of the constitution
may have been to a great degree wasted, theremay be still a
smothered fire that will presently break out afresh. In another point
of- view, much of this apparent weakness may be deceptive ;
be the result of oppression and venous congestion, and not of exhaustion.
The pulse will be the guide, and should be carefully consulted. Is
it weak, wavering, irregular, dying away, pausing a beat or two, and
— ;
it.may