wo drachms
of carbonate of soda in the food. Oak-bark tea will be found very useful
in these cases; or one of the following powders, twice a day, will be
found very advantageous: pulverized opium and catechu, each one and a
half ounces; prepared chalk, one drachm; to be given in the feed.
Calves are particularly subject to this disease, and it often proves
fatal to them. It sometimes assumes an epizooetic form, when it is
generally of a mild character. So long as the calf is lively and feeds
well, the farmer should entertain no fear for him; but if he mopes
about, refuses his food, ceases to ruminate, wastes in flesh, passes
mucus and blood with the _faeces_, and exhibits symptoms of pain, the
case is a dangerous one.
In such an emergency, lose no time, but give two or three ounces of
Castor-oil with flour-gruel, or two ounces of salts at a dose, followed
with small draughts of oak-bark tea; or give, twice a day, one of the
following powders: pulverized catechu, opium, and Jamaca ginger, of each
half an ounce; prepared chalk, one ounce; mix, and divide into twelve
powders. Bran washes, green food, and flour-gruel should be given, with
plenty of salt.
DYSENTERY
This disease is very frequently confounded with the foregoing. A
distinction, however, exists,--since inflammation appears in this
disease, while it is absent in the former. In this affection,
inflammation of the large intestines takes place, which is attended with
diarrhoea. The _faeces_ are covered with blood; the animal rapidly
becomes prostrated, and death frequently comes to his relief.
Youatt says: "It is, however, with dysentery that the practitioner is
most loth to cope,--a disease that betrays thousands of cattle. This,
also, may be either acute or chronic. Its causes are too often buried in
obscurity, and its premonitory symptoms are disregarded or unknown.
There appears to be a strong predisposition in cattle to take on this
disease. It seems to be the winding-up of many serious complaints, and
the foundation of it is sometimes laid by those that appear to be of the
most trifling nature. It is that in cattle which glanders and farcy are
in the horse,--the breaking up of the constitution.
"Dysentery may be a symptom and concomitant of other diseases. It is one
of the most fearful characteristics of murrain; it is the destructive
accompaniment, or consequence, of phthisis. It is produced by the sudden
disappearance of a cutaneous eruption;
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