Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

CHAPTER XVII.
THE GENERAL DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT OF CALVES.
In whatever manner the calf is afterwards to be reared, it should
remain with the mother for a few days after it is dropped, and until
the milk can be used in the dairy. The little animal will thus derive
the benefit of the first milk, that to which nature has given an aperient
property, in order that the black and glutinous faeces that had
been accumulating in the intestines during the latter months of the
foetal state, might be carried off. The farmer acts wrongly when he
throws away, as he is too much in the habit of doing, the- heastinffs,
or first milk of the cow.
NAVKL-IM,.
The calf being cleaned, and having begun to suck, the navel-string
should be examined. Perhaps it may continue slowly to bleed. In
this case a ligature should be passed round it closer, but, if it can be
avoided, not quite close to the belly. Possibly the spot at which the
division of the cord took place may be more than usually sore. A
pledget of tow well wetted with Friar's balsam should be pl?«ed
over it, confined with a bandage, and changed every morning and
night, but the caustic applications, that are so frequently resorted to,
should be awided.
Sometimes, when there has been previous bleeding, and especially
if the caustic has been used to arrest the haemorrhage, and at other
times, when all things have seemed to have been going on well, inflammation
suddenly appears about the navel, between the third and
eighth or tenth day. There is a little swelling of the part, but with
more redness and tenderness than such a degree of enlargement
would indicate. Although there may be nothing in the first appearance
of uhis to excite alarm, the navel-ill is a far more serious business
than some imagine. - Fomentation of the part in order to disperse the
tumor, the opening of it with a lancet if it evidently points, and the
administration of two or three two-ounce doses of castor oil, made
into an emulsion by means of an egg, will constitute the first treatment
; but if, when the inflammation abates, extreme weakness should
come on, as is too often the case, gentian and laudanum, with, perhaps,
a small quantity of port wine, should be administered.
Homoeopathic treatment.—In inflammation give some doses of aeon-