Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

424 CATTLE.
of the animal, and it can never long exist without inducing a degree
of feyer, always dangerous, and generally fatal.
Homoeopathic treatment.—The more or less inflammatory state'
which generally accompanies it, requires that we commence the
treatment with a dose of aconitum. The most effectual means then
is nux vomica ; it is indicated chiefly, when the evacuations from the
bowels are scanty, hard, covered with mucus, and when the animal
frequently draws up the belly. If there be no thirst, we should have
recourse to china and bryonia. The latter remedy is also suitable
when the constipation has been produced by cold, a circumstance in
which it frequently alternates with diarrhoea. Opium and argila
must be employed when the inaotive state of the intestinal tube allows
nothing to escape from the body, and the animal remains lying down,
though evincing no pain. Tn very obstinate constipation, where the
rectum is empty, and also where only a small quantity of matter
escapes, which is not very hard, plumbum never fails, to be effectual.
DIARBHCEA.
The disease, however, to which calves are most liable, and which
is most fatal to them, is purging. It arises from various causes : the
milk of the mother may not agree with the young one ; it may be of
too poor a nature, and then it produces that disposition to acidity,
which is so easily excited in the fourth stomach and the intestines of
the calf; or, on the other hand, it may be too old and rich, and the
stomach, weakened by the attempt to convert it into healthy chyle,
secretes or permits the development of an acid fluid. It is the result
of starvation and of excess— it is the almost necessary consequence of
a sudden change of diet ; in fact, it is occasionally produced by every
thing that- deranges the process of healthy digestion.
The farmer needs not to be alarmed although the faeces should
become thin, and continue so during two or three days, if the animal
is as lively as usual, and feeds as he was wont ; but if he begins to
droop, if he refuses his food, if rumination ceases, and he is in evident
pain, and mucus, and perhaps blood, begin to mingle with the dung,
and that is far more fetid than in its natural state, not an hour-should
be lost. The proper treatment has already been described under the
titles of diarrhoea and dysentery, pp. 338, 339. A mild purgative
(two ounces of castor oil, or three of Epsom salt) should first be
administered, to carry away the cause of the disturbed state of the
bowels. To this should follow anodyne and astringent and alkaline
medicines, with a mild carminative. The whole will consist of opium,
catechu, chalk, and ginger. The proportions of each have already
been given in p. 339, when describing the treatment of diarrhoea.
The use of this mixture should be accompanied by frequent drenching
with starch or thick gruel ; by the removal of green or acescent food,
and by giving bran mashes, with a little pea or bean flour.