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COMMON SENSE
TREATMENT

OF

FARM ANIMALS
ee SMEAD, eos
VETERINARY EDITOR

OF

THE NATIONAL
STOCKMAN AND FARMER

PLES BURG Hee’:

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY
THE STOCKMAN-FARMER PUBLISHING CO.
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

% FOREWORD.

As a preface to what the following pages may contain I de-
sire to say: My intentions are not to make veterinarians of the
readers of this little book. Neither is it my design to make of
it a class book for students of veterinary science, nor to make it
what may be strictly called a scientific work. Yet what its pages
contain will be based on scientific facts. My desire is to so
instruct the host of my Stockman friends who have from time
to time sought my advice as to enable them in cases of emergency
to do something toward saving the lives of their animals when
no veterinarian is to be had. For several years I have been so-
licited by my Stockman friends to write a book they could refer
to in the management of their animals so as to avoid sickness
among them and treat the more common troubles. It is therefore
to them especially that I dedicate this little book and I hope that
long after I have passed to the Great Unknown some of them
may refer to it as a friend in time of need.

Most cordially yours,
Cc. D. SMEAD.

[Photographs by F. O. Sibley, Milford, N. Y.]
3

CHAPTER I.

SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF DISEASE.

In the study of animal diseases and the best means of treat-
ing them the all-important thing is, so far as possible, to learn
the cause. Having learned the cause, we have knowledge of how
best to treat it successfully, and more than this we learn how to
prevent the disease, which is most important of all. As the student
and practitioner of veterinary medicine and surgery finds on the
farms of the country, from one ocean to the other, diseases among
domestic animals he finds that not less than fifty per cent of them
have been caused by lack of knowledge of feeding the young ani-
mals from birth to maturity, or if not always lack of knowledge,
a neglect of the growing colt, calf, lamb, pig or chicken so that
it cannot grow up into a strong, vigorous animal. Hence with
lack of constitutional vigor to stand work (if working animals),
or feeding if dairy, beef, pork or mutton animals, they are not
only deficient as workers, milkers or feeders, but they are con-
stantly subject to diseases of a certain class from which they
would have been immune had they been properly fed so as to
have maintained a healthy, strong digestion. With a strong diges-
tion we always find the whole physical system strong, barring of
course some inherent weakness or deformity.

It is not our purpose to deal specifically with kinds of food,
or of their comb nation into so-called balanced rations, but to
treat this part of the subject in a general way. Thus we can
safely bank on this: Milk is a product that never as yet has
been supplanted by any other known food or combination of
foods that science has been able to find. A human infant cannot
exist for any considerable length of time except as milk is furnished
it for sustenance. Neither can a little colt, calf, lamb or pig. No
scientist has ever as yet learned how to manufacture simple, plain,
wholesome milk as it is drawn from the mammary glands of a
mother, whether that mother be human or of the lower animals.
While it is true that there is a variation in the solids that milk
contains from different animals, the same fundamental principle
is found in the milk of all animals. It is a product whose manu-
facture is in the animal. With all of the knowledge thus far ac-
quired it remains a mystery just how the mother is enabled
to eat, digest and put into her circulatory system the nutrients she
eats as food and throw off these nutrients through the mammary

5

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

glands so that her babe may be nourished. We have, however,
learned many facts regarding this product (milk), and fact num-
ber one is: That in order to enable the mother to manufacture
milk a certain class of food has to be eaten and digested by her
or she can manufacture no milk, and her offspring, although
born strong, would starve for lack of sustenance. Thus we say
milk is a perfect food for the young animal, and nearly so for
the growing animal, and only a little more carbon is needed in a
form to give the stomach distension for the fully grown animal.

Now when we apply this knowledge to the maintenance of
health what do we find? Simply this—that a class of food that
will enable a mother to make milk of it in fair quantity is a health
preserving food. And when we feed a young and growing animal
on 2 class of food which if it were fed to a nursing mother would
not enable her to convert it into milk we are feeding that young
animal a class of food that will stunt its growth from a lack of
proper nourishment, overtax its digestive organs by taking into its
stomach a surplus of bulky substance that weakens its digestion,
and it grows up an animal subject to intestinal disease on slight
provocation. With insufficient food nutrients we have a weak
muscular system, weak ligaments of the joints, and sometimes a
bony structure lacking in strength. Thus it is we find many
animals of superior breeding that grow up weaklings. They were
well born and started well in life on the milk of the mother,
and when such animal is a foal it grows a beauty so long as it
remains with the mother, nurses her and learns to eat the class
of food with her that she is manufacturing into milk for it. But
what a change sometimes follows when this little beauty is
weaned from its mother, and furnished the class of food its own-
er ignorantly feeds it. The same rule holds good regarding the
raising of a calf or a pig when weaned from the mother and the
mother’s milk at a tender age and a supplemental food furnished
it. This is right and proper when wisely and _ intelligently
done. But when said supplemental food is of a character widely
different from the analysis of milk trouble follows in the form of
a weakened digestion, with the result of sudden death, or a worth-
less beast either as a work horse, a dairy cow, or a fattening animal.

We especially call attention of all animal breeders to the neces-
sity of studying the needs of the young animal, to insure a steady,
healthy growth from birth up to maturity, and then continuing
practically on the same line of feeding in order to maintain good
digestion, with a consequent vigorous constitution. But how is
the farmer to learn? is a pertinent question and a highly proper one,
and at the present time a very easy one to answer. The agricul-
tural press generally is furnishing the very essence or extract of
practical knowledge on the subject of feeding animals, and the

6

OF FARM ANIMALS.

experiment stations are putting forth bulletins constantly giving
freely to the world the results of their experiments in the feed-
ing of animals. The agricultural press and the experiment station
bulletins are just as essential to the progressive breeders of do-
mestic animals as law journals and medical journals are to the
lawyer and the man of medicine.

In the beginning of this chapter I spoke of breeding in con-
nection with feeding, and have thus far spoken of improper feed-
ing. I have given the feeding first place as I have learned by
experience that the lack of proper feeding is about twice as dis-
astrous as the lack of proper breeding of animals as far as the
disease problem is concerned. Remember I am not discussing
breeding for profit or loss, but breeding as a cause of disease. As
students of veterinary science and animal husbandry have studied
these questions, it has been found that not far from twenty per cent
of the horses that become blemished either in colthood or when
they are put to work do so from an inherited weakness, or from
a conformation not suited to the class of work required of them
in after life. We also find from five to fifteen per cent of the
dairy cows that go wrong in their udders do so by reason of their
having been bred with such a conformation that to carry an udder
without injuring it is impossible. We also find that many
breeders of animals, who by the way are alone responsible for
whatever the animal is, have dictated the mating or allowed the
mating of animals with such weak physical conformation as to
be wholly lacking in constitution. A fad that some possess on
color lines, or milk veins, or udder conformation, leads them to
overlook the points in an animal which denote physical strength.
Many are the animals of the bovine family bred by faddists that
are fit subjects for disease germs, especially of tuberculosis. We
shall endeavor in future chapters to illustrate by pictures ani-
mals that are subject to a certain class of disease. Having said
this much regarding food and the mating of animals, let us con-
sider some of the diseases which are most directly caused by
a bad system of feeding. Under this head will naturally come
first:

SPASMODIC COLIC.

This is a farmer name for acute indigestion.

This also with tympanitic colic (bloating), or a colic called
“sterchoral colic” by the veterinarian, stoppage of the bowels by
farmers, or impaction.

Now all of these are the results directly or indirectly of im-
proper feeding. The direct cause is the inability of the stomach
with the aid of the liver and pancreas to secrete juices which will
digest or put in condition the food that has been eaten so that
it can be digested. Hence it is that spasmodic, muscular pain is

U

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

produced in the stomach or intestines farther along. As an
illustration of what 1 desire to impress upon the reader’s mind,
I will call attention to what we as humans experience. It has
been truthfully said that “What is one man’s meat is another man’s
poison.” This saying has its origin in the simple fact that
the digestion of all persons is not the same. A class of food that
would be relished and well received by the stomach of nineteen
men would not be well received by the stomach of the twentieth
man, and might produce in him an attack of acute indigestion,
with the spasmodic griping pain we call ‘spasmodic colic’ in
the horse. Thus it is that whenever a horse owner has a horse
that has frequent attacks of colic he should not only seek a rem-
edy to relieve the pain and cure the colic, but he should make
some changes in that horse’s feed. Some horses (especially the
Eastern-bred horses of New York and New England) cannot
eat and well digest corn in any form it may be prepared for
them without bringing on a case of spasmodic colic. Yet all
horses of the Middle West are largely fed on corn. It is not good
judgment, therefore, for horse owners to strive to reason that
because perhaps twenty or even forty horses are eating a cer-
tain class of food and thrive well on it, all horses can eat
the same class of food without making them sick. Thus it is we
advise some change in the feed to be made in every case where a
horse has had frequent attacks of colic. But this in my years
of practice has been the hardest thing to get horse owners (espe-
cially farmers) to do. They have corn, rye, wheat or buckwheat
in plenty, while oats are scarce with them. Thus it is they de-
sire to feed whatever they have in the greatest quantity, and when
the horse is made sick by reason of feeding it they are re-
luctant to change, but seek a remedy to relieve the horse for
the time being, then continue to feed him just the same as before,
with the result many times of large veterinary bills or a dead
horse.

Farmers as a rule seek remedies and ignere causes. Were
it not for this we veterinarians might sometimes go hungry for
jobs. By far too many people, when they learn the remedy used
in curing their horse of colic, flatter themselves that they have
the veterinarian’s secret, when in fact they have in hand only
what may fail as the case may reach a stage when the remedy
is not capable of conquering the disease. As a home remedy in
a case of spasmodic colic, none stands ahead of a tablespoonful
of good ginger, the same of common baking soda, dissolved or
mixed in a pint of hot water and given while still warm. This repeat
in half an hour in case the animal is suffering much pain. As a
more efficient remedy for horse owner’s use, to keep as a gen-
eral stable remedy, the following is a good one: It is made by

8

OF FARM ANIMALS.

No. 1—The type of udder that is subject to Garget.— [See page 33]

No. 9—Road horse with weakness in fore legs.—[See page 67]
9

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

mixing together two ounces each of tincture of ginger, sulphuric
ether, tincture of opium and spirits of niter. Then add one ounce
of essence of peppermint. Give of this two tablespoonfuls in a
pint of water. Repeat in a half-hour if not relieved. When re-
lief takes place and the animal lies quiet, stop giving. Never
be frightened when the animal lies down and stretches out flat
on his side. Put a blanket on him and let him alone, even if he
lies for several hours, unless he really has passed all cure and is
down never to rise again. It is a good symptom that the pain has
passed over, and recovery is taking place. Always feel en-
couraged when a rumbling is heard in the bowels in a case of
spasmodic colic. Never be in haste to encourage a horse to
eat when recovering from any bowel disease. Many a _ horse
is killed by a relapse of the disease from over-feeding after hav-
ing passed through the critical period of the disease. Never be
afraid to give the horse a few swallows of water when suffering
from colic of any kind.

CATHARTICS AS A CURE OF COLIC.

Some veterinarians high in authority have advised the giv-
ing of aloes as a cathartic as the first dose in a case of spasmod-
ic colic, but such has not been my experience. There is no need
of a physic until we can quiet the pain. Then as the safest rem-
edy for the farmer or general horse owner, I much prefer a pint
of pure raw linseed oil. As its cathartic effect is mechanical
and not by reason of exciting spasmodic action of the muscles
of the intestinal canal, as a rule no physic is called for at all. In
a case of common or spasmodic colic plenty of water given in
small quantities, together with laxative food like a feed of three
quarts of scalded wheat bran, with a handful of ground flaxseed
added, will be all that is needed. When the means and reme-
dies advised do not relieve the suffering brute, and a good vet-
erinarian is within reach, the safer way is to have him see the
animal, when more potent means may be used by him. But
drastic or extremely potent drugs are never safe in other than
skilled hands.

TYMPANITIC OR BLOATING COLIC.

This species of colic in animals, especially horses, is but one
form of spasmodic colic. It is a consequence of food that has
been eaten which is not properly digested, and a fermentation
is set up which involves gas to an extent which distends the
stomach or large intestines, sometimes to a degree which causes
death by suffocation before the veterinarian can be got to see
the patient. Hence it is highly important that farmers living
miles, sometimes, from the city or town where the veterinarian

10

OF FARM ANIMALS.

is located be enabled to do something to relieve the sufferer
before it becomes too late to save his life. In this chapter I will
only speak of a treatment for the horse, reserving the treat-
ment for cattle for a future chapter. When the fermentation is
going on solely in the stomach tablespoon doses of ‘common bak-
ing soda with a stimulant like a teaspoon of ground black pepper,
mixed in a pint of warm water, will many times prove an effi-
cient remedy. A more potent one, however, is a half-ounce of the
carbonate of ammonia, dissolved in a pint or more of cold water
and poured down the throat. Repeat in twenty minutes if bloat-
ing continues. But alas, the stomach form of tympany (gas
formation) in the horse is not the common but the least common
form of the trouble. The part of the intestinal canal known
as the colon is the point where the gas does most of its deadly
work, and is beyond a point where remedies given by the mouth
have great effect. Hence it becomes necessary for the farmer
to have some instruments on hand or he is powerless to do any-
thing when the veterinarian is not to be had. Now I care not
if the farmer owns only a team of horses and two cows, he
needs to own a good metal syringe, with a pipe six inches
long, and also a smaller pipe, the syringe holding not less than a
pint. It can be had of instrument makers, or any druggist can
order it at a nominal cost. This syringe and a bucket of warm
soapy water with a handful of common salt added, used as a
rectal enema, will save, if used in time, many a horse suffering
with Tympanitis (bloat) before the veterinarian can drive five
miles with his treatment (called a trocar) to tap the distended
colon. This trocar, by the way, we shall speak of later on in
discussing diseases of cattle, when it can be safely used by
farmers. But it is an instrument that requires a skilled hand to
use in tapping the horse. Again the syringe will be the needed
instrument in the cleaning of punctured wounds and answer
all practical purposes, in the treatment of Tympanitic Colic, when
used at the beginning of the bloat.

STERCHORAL COLIC, CAUSED BY CONSTIPATION.

The third and last species of Colic that we shall speak of
is known by various names. The veterinarian calls it Sterchoral
Colic, or a colic as the result of constipation or mechanical ob-
struction through the stomachs of the cow and intestines of the
horse. Sometimes it is named for short Straw Colic. Its general
cause is the habit the animal owners have of supplying no laxa-
tive food through the long winter months, feeding day after day
on dry fodder, hay or straw regardless of the nutrition these
foods may contain. In some instances the animal is turned to a

11

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

Neen eee ee ee Rm

stack of straw and because it eats voraciously of it the owner
thinks the animal is doing finely, as it is always full and always
hungry for more food. Always full but never fed, and con-
stantly starving! But whether the dry food is fairly nutritious or
not, the fact of its being dry necessitates the secretion of more
of the bile from the liver, the pancreatic fluids and gastric juices
to digest it, and unless the animal is fed more nutritious food
in the form of grain, or the animal has exceedingly strong diges-
tion, the time will come when there is a weakening of the
functional duty of the liver, the pancreas, and the secretive pow-
ers of the intestines. Then we begin to see constipation of the
animal, and later a dull, continuous pain manifest in the abdom-
inal region. The horse will stand and paw, and occasionally look
around at his sides, sometimes lie down and stretch out at full
length and groan, then get up and begin pawing again. In such
a case if the ear is placed to the side of the abdomen, no sound
is heard of the intestines contracting and relaxing, producing
what is known as peristaltic action of the bowels. In fact diges-
tion has stopped and unless it can be set in operation within a
limited time an inflammation will set up, and we have a case of
peritonitis (inflammation of the bowels) to contend with, which
is a disease beyond the skill of the ordinary farmer. The animal
owner should use his knowledge and skill in preventing serious
ailments, and this is manifestly true in the treatment of all forms
of Colic, before the more deadly disease peritonitis or enteritis
takes place (inflammation of the bowels, in farmer language).
Now comes in the treatment. What shall it be? The digestion
has stopped, and may be in a semi-paralytic condition. The all-
important thing is to secure bowel movement, and many skilled
men in medicine actually aggravate the trouble, and sometimes
cause the death of animals, when not at all in a serious condi-
tion, by their extreme desire to see a bowel movement. Drastic
purgative agents are used, which cause muscular contractions
of the bowels, in a striving to force a dried mass of indigested
coarse food through them before this mass is so softened as to
be put in a condition to pass through the alimentary canal.
When aloes or aloin is given we do not in any way soften this
mass of dry substance. We only excite the liver into secreting
a little more bile and bring on muscular contractions of the
bowels. We therefore condemn active physics in the treatment
of such cases, and advise the use of agents which act mechani-
cally more than actively. Thus we have in either castor or pure
raw linseed oil the best and safest remedy for the farmer to
use. Every farmer should keep on hand not less than one gallon

12

OF FARM ANIMALS. ,

of pure raw linseed oil. Give a pint of this at a single dose, add
to it a tablespoon of good ginger, to act as a stimulant. Give
the horse, or cow either, all the water it will drink, and offer the
water frequently. Repeat the oil in two hours, and in a severe
case every hour, and put in two teaspoons of the spasmodic colic
remedy. Here again we have use for the syringe. Use this by
injecting a half-gallon or even a gallon of warm, soapy, slightly
salted enema, and use it as often as every half-hour, until a
natural rumbling is heard in the bowels, and the animal ceases to
paw and manifest other symptoms of pain. In recovering from
this species of colic, there is never the sudden let-up of pain and
quick recovery that mark the two preceding species of colic.
There may be momentary spasms or a griping for even twenty-
four hours, before all symptoms of disease have passed over.

AFTER TREATMENT.

The treating of all animals after having suffered an attack
of either of the kinds of colic mentioned is of fully as much im-
portance.as the treatment during the immediate attack. Many
an animal owner in his haste and desire to see his animal well
again, or get him to work, will strive to do it by seeing if he
will not eat a bunk full of hay, or a full feed of grain. Right
here I desire to especially caution the reader. Always put the
animal on a stinted ration for at least three days after a re-
covery from the active stage of the disease, and always prepare
that so that it will be easily digested. As to the kind of food
Iam not so particular. If the animal has a voracious appetite
be doubly careful about over-feeding. In case there is but little
desire to eat anything at all set your wits at work and hunt up
some class of food that he will relish. It may be a sour apple or a
earrot, a burdock leaf or a corn husk, or a quart or two of wheat
bran, whole wheat or ground oats. As a remedy to stimulate
the appetite use twenty-five to fifty drops of fluid extract of nux
vomica, given in a spoonful of water on the tongue, three times
a day.

DISEASES PRODUCED BY EXCESSIVE FEEDING.

Thus far we have spoken of disease as a result of either im-
proper foods or foods fed unwisely. We shall now speak of a
disease caused by the improper feeding of a good food. I refer
to the disease known to veterinarians as

AZOTURIA.
To horse owners it is known under different names
such as “black water,” “sweating colic,” or “kidney stiffness.”

13

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

The voidings from the kidneys during an attack are very dark
in color, sometimes nearly black, and always have a strong
smell of ammonia, thus the name black water. As sweating
from the start takes place, and usually some abdominal pain is
present, it quite naturally would be given the name of sweat-
ing colic; and as the animal always suffers more or less muscular
stiffness, and the urine is high colored, it could well be named
“kidney stiffness’ when one knows no other name to give it.
Even up to within fifty years the veterinary profession had no
real knowledge of the cause of this disease. When the sufferer
was afflicted to the extent of being unable to stand on its feet it
was called paralysis as a result of spinal congestion, which was
true. Just what caused the congestion veterinarians did not
know. But as knowledge has been gained along the lines of di-
gestion and assimilation of foods the cause has become _ per-
fectly plain, and the means of prevention should be known by
every horse owner, although Other animals than the horse are
subject to it, particularly rapidly growing lambs and pigs, which
will be spoken of in a special chapter later on. What we say
now will especially apply to the horse.

Now I desire every reader’s attention, as it is of especial
importance to him that he understands to a degree how all
food is used up in the animal system. Ag an illustration I will
call attention to the fact that there is a constant wearing out
of muscular tissue going on in all animate bodies, and the food that
is eaten is constantly building up what is being torn down in
the animal system. When we are doing hard physical labor with
the horse we all know that it must be fed on a more concen-
trated and more nutritious food. Hence the horse that is worked
is fed grain to keep up his strength, and also to keep him from
growing thin in flesh. All horse owners or horse users have
learned this fact. Yet many are ignorant of the manner in
which the food nutrients are taken care of by the digestive
system. Digestion can be considered as only a chemical change,
produced by a mingling of the bile from the liver, after food has
been moistened by the saliva in the process of mastication, with
the fluid from the pancreas and later with the gastric juices.
These combined so dissolve the food as to permit the nutrients to
be sucked up into the blood and carried to various parts of the
body to build up the tissue that is being torn down by the labor
the horse is performing. Now in the case of a horse that is laboring
every day and is fed on a nutritious class of food, all goes well
with him, as he has nutrition to build up what the labor is tear-
ing down. But stop work even for a day, and full feed the horse,

14

Oi” FARM ANIMALS.

a.)
ps ANSE
UA a

yok
Reo

No. 10—The type most subject to Tuberculosis.— [See page 6

ww

]

No. 11—Good dairy type, with strong vitality, yet withtudder subject to Garget.—[See page 62]

15

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

then what takes place? This nutritious food is being digested
and taken up by the blood, but there was no labor performed
to break down any tissue of the body, so there the nutrients are
in the blood, semi-coagulating it. A part of the nutrients may
be stored up in making fat and muscle, but there cannot be
enough of this to anywhere near use up the surplus food nutri-
ents. Now what is to be done? How is nature to get rid of it?
The horse is fed his regular full feed of grain and more of the
nutrients of it are taken into the blood, so that it becomes more
and more loaded with unappropriated nutrients of the food it is
eating. The liver from the idleness of the horse fails to secrete
bile enough to convert this excess into urea, so that the kidneys
can carry it off as urine. The horse as he remains idle suffers
no inconvenience whatever. His limbs may ache like a person’s
limbs when he eats hearty meals and sits around doing nothing,
but his blood is in what is called by the veterinarians a hyper-
nitrogenous condition. Don’t try, please, to pronounce this word
or your tongue may get hung on a center as engineers find their
engines get sometimes. But simply reason that the blood is
overcharged with food nutrients that nature can’t get rid of.
Now that is the exact condition the horse is in when hitched
up to drive to town or do a day’s work. He feels well and acts
well, but start him off at a trot or even a brisk walk, and he will
go but a short distance before he will stumble, or hang back,
stop trotting, and appear tired, although perhaps he has not
gone a half-mile. He soon begins to sweat, or not sweat in the
proper sense of the term. It will be an exudation of water
highly charged with ammonia coming out through the capillaries
(pores) of the skin. Stop the horse and you will find him breath-
ing very quickly, sometimes panting for breath. Put your hand
on the muscles of his hips and you will find them hard and tense.
Continue to make him move and you will soon find him scarcely
able to pick his feet off the ground. Every step seems to pain
him. Continue to make him move or hurry him at all and he
will fall broadside, and generally speaking be unable to get to his
feet again, and many times never be able to stand on his feet,
frequently die from a heart clot, or a blood clot on the brain.
Now these later conditions need not take place at all and the dis-
ease Azoturia need not be a serious matter at all, although
through ignorance of its nature, and ignorance in caring for the
animal when once attacked, it is killing thousands of horses yearly
on the farms of the country. Far more horses die in the farmer’s
hands than in the city horse owner’s hands yearly simply be
cause the city man uses his horses daily rain or shine, the

16

OF FARM ANIMALS.

farmer stops the use of his on rainy days. Now I have said it
could be wholly and absolutely avoided. Pretty strong lan-
guage, that, some folks will say. But I mean it, so I put
it strong. Whenever the working horse is on full grain feed,
when the idle day or days come cut that grain ration
right in two in the middle, then there won’t be any sur-
plus or excess of food nutrients taken into the blood; also try
to give him a little daily exercise. A daily run in the barnyard
for an hour and this dread disease will not exist. But in some
instances this may not be possible. The horse owner does not
know in the morning whether he will work his horse that day
or not. Especially is this true of the physician’s horse or the
livery in town. It is a hard drive for a day or several days, then
there comes a day or several days when there is no driving ‘The
same happens on the farm, and thus it is the horse is fuliv fed,
and when the time comes to use him he is put in harness aud
started, and then the trouble. Now it can be to an extent avert
ed if he is started off slowly, and the circulation of the blooa is
increased slowly by the exercise. This is good policy in every
case when starting on a drive. A rapid gait on a full stomach
kills many a horse. But it is not our purpose to write on specific
management of the horse, but general management. Just as soon
as the horse begins to manifest stumbling or stiffness in his gait,
or breaks out in a sweat, stop him. Don’t drive him even a rod.
Stop right where you are. The exercise you are giving him or
making him take is increasing ‘he pulse beats of the heart, and
this half-coagulated or thick bi ‘d can’t pass freely through
the small blood-vessels of the mu: -ular system. Hence it is that
the horse’s limbs stiffen and beu»me cramped, and he stum-
bles. Now what makes him sweat? Nothing, only it is an effort
on nature’s part to relieve the cramp by throwing off what she
can through the pores of the skin. Now Hark! Stop and Listen
to what I am going to say to you. No man of medicine ever yet
cured any disease only as he studied nature’s laws and learned
to aid nature in doing her work. Now if by exercise we are mak-
ing the cramping of the muscles, our common sense should dic-
tate us to stop the exercise, and not do as hundreds do, get fright-
ened and try to hurry the horse to some near-by barn or get him
home. If we do the chances are the cramping will increase and
extend to the great spinal nerve, and then he loses all control of
his limbs, and down he goes in the road with a probable spinal
congestion (spinal meningitis) brought on by our lack of sense.
Thus always have sense enough to say whoa no matter where
you are, and thus put a stop to the cramping cause.

Now nature is trying to relieve by perspiration. Put on the
blanket and help the horse perspire, and in nineteen out of every

17

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

twenty cases it will not be over ten or twenty minutes before
the sufferer will be breathing naturally, when he can be walked
slowly to some near-by barn. When the barn is reached get some
hot water and some thick fabric (an old piece of carpet is ideal),
it needs to be fully a yard long and just as wide, if a yard and
a half long all the better. Wring this out of the water just as
hot as can be safely handled, and get it on his back just as hot
as it can be laid on without scalding. Then put one or more dry
blankets over it. This will keep it warm and steaming for an
hour, when it should be wrung out of the hot water, and nineteen
out of twenty horses if thus treated will be easier and breathing
quite naturally inside of an hour and will manifest a desire to
eat something. Now right here is the most critical part of the
disease. As the horse is acted upon by the hot application to his
back and hips, there will soon be a micturition, and the first pas-
sage of urine from the kidneys will be fairly black in color, with
a strong ammoniacal odor. Then if the owner is a man with but
little will of his own, and less knowledge of disease, he will get
frightened right away. Then in most sections of the rural dis-
tricts there are found men all-wise (in their own estimation), espe-
cially so when there is a sick horse or cow in the neighborhood,
and they are always on hand to give advice and recommend any
and all kinds of herb teas, some poisonous and others harmless;
or some fellow’s doctor once gave him some sweet spirits of niter,
and he knows that the horse will die with inflammation of the
kidneys if something is not done right away, and at last about
four out of five horse owners will yield to such advice unless a
veterinarian is there with courage enough to stand up and fight.
That black water is proof enough to convince the average horse
owner that the kidneys must be in an awful condition and thus
it is that many a horse when well on the road to recovery is
drugged to death by the whims of fools and the weak kneed owner.

Not one time in ten is any medicine needed to stimulate ac-
tion of the kidneys. High-colored urine is not by any means an
indication of diseased kidneys in this disease. The kidneys’ office
work is to carry off poisons in the system, and the food nutrients
have now become ammoniacal poisons circulating in the blood,
and the kidneys are removing them as fast as they can by means of
the steaming and sweating the horse is undergoing from the hot
application along his spine. An ounce dose of aloes to stimulate
the liver and bowels is all that most cases need, and only in case
there is no passage of urine from the bladder at all, in from one
to two hours after the horse is taken sick, should the sweet spir-
its of niter be given, when two ounces in a pint of warm water
will usually be all that is needed. Perhaps once in twenty or
more cases it is necessary to use a catheter, when of course the

18

OF FARM ANIMALS.

veterinarian should be sent for to use it. It is always best to send
for a veterinarian when a good one is within reach. But my strife
in writing this is to instruct the horse owner, so that the horse
can be on the road to recovery before the veterinarian can be
summoned. The period mentioned is again a Critical one by rea-
son of so many horse owners believing that as long as a horse
is hungry for something to eat, and will eat, he is doing well. I
have had a lot of fighting in my practice to keep the owner, and
sometimes his wife, daughters and sons, from feeding a horse to
death when he began to get better from azoturia. They one and
all seem bent on feeding the horse some dainty. Now have sense,
don’t feed him anything for the next 24 hours, but give all the
water he desires to drink. This of itself will aid wonderfully in
helping to rid the system of the agents which brought on the dis-
ease. Keep up the hot water on the back for a full twelve hours,
when it can be discontinued. A horse thus treated will be ready
for moderate work again in three days, usually in about twenty-
four hours he can be led about for an hour or two for exercise,
or if from home when taken removed to his home at a walking
gait. Now I have thus far given a prevention and a treatment
when the disease first appears and that is just as far as it is wis-
dom for the general horse owner to go in the treatment of this
disease. Whenever the horse has been driven until it falls it is
one of the most serious ailments the veterinarian has to contend
with, and not less than three cases will die where one will make
a good recovery, as spinal disease is frequently brought on, with
a paralysis from which it takes months to recover.

INFLUENZA OR DISTEMPERS

can well be spoken of under this chapter, inasmuch as the well-
fed animal and the properly-exercised animal, yet not overworked,
has little to fear by reason of any distempers that rage as an epi-
demic among any of our domestic animals. The well-fed, prop-
erly-nourished animal has a much greater germ-resisting power
than the one that is poorly fed and kept under conditions that are
not sanitary. The fatalities, also the sequels, are not nearly as
great when colts or horses, also cattle, are in prime condition, and
are exposed and contract some distemper as is the case when the
low vitality is attacked by the same disease. By sequels I mean
diseases like roaring in the horse, that may follow a case of com-
mon horse distemper, strangles, laryngitis or epizootic. Even a
common cold from exposure to a chilling blast is not nearly as
likely to result in pneumonia when the animal is in perfect health
from good feeding and sensible care.

Now I have touched a subject on which there is a great va-
riance of opinion. I refer to sensible care of farm stock. I might

19

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

devote many pages of this little work to this subject, but think it
best only to throw out a few hints in relation to it. A horse barn
or a cow barn can be so constructed as to keep the air in it at
all times at about the same temperature, and the foul gases can
be taken out by a system of ventilation. Yet more animals in it
suffer and die than the animals kept in a neighbor’s barn whose
ventilation is doors and windows. The parlor barn frequently has
parlor furnishings, and it is so nicely arranged that it becomes
wholly unnecessary for the animals to go outside at all, while
the animals of the neighbor of necessity are turned out for a time
daily. My practice has called me to the barns of the rich, the
barns of the poor, and the barns of the middle class, and my ex-
perience has been, in periods of epidemics, that the middle class,
where the animals are well fed and turned out to get their drink
from a trough, even in cold weather, are less likely to contract
distempers, and have lighter attacks, than the animals kept un-
der the so-called more sanitary conditions. It is the pampered
child that catches diphtheria and dies, when the child that is
reared to roughing it a little escapes. And so it is with the colts
and calves. It is never good policy when distempers are prevail-
ing to leave horses or cows out in a rainstorm, or to keep them out
of doors on chilly nights, especially when the ground is wet for
them to lie on. But it is equally as bad to keep animals closely
confined in a stable ever so well supplied with pure air. As a
rule the human race is too much afraid of taking exercise in
the open air. Especially is this true when a disease of an epl-
demic character is raging in the house or in the barn., The tendency is
too great to shut down closely all avenues for fresh air to get to
the patient. We therefore desire to call attention to the fact that
pure air is more essential than much drugging, when an epidemic
disease is in the horse barn or the cow stable. Those who have stud-
ied the actions and symptoms of horses when suffering from dis-
tempers or lung disease know that when given a close box stall
horses will always be found with the head toward the door or
window when given a chance. The very nature of the disease
calls for pure, fresh air, and instinctively they strive to get it.
Keep the body comfortably clothed and in all cases where the
lungs are involved bandage the limbs in woolen bandages from
knees down to the feet. As to diet, give them whatever their ap-
petite seems to crave, only don’t overfeed. We will now briefly
speak of some of the more common distempers, beginning with
what the farmers call the

OLD-FASHIONED HORSE DISTEMPER.

The veterinarian calls it strangles, as there is always a sore-
ness of the throat which prevents the horse from swallowing water

20

OF FARM ANIMALS.

easily without strangling, while he may be unable to eat hay and
perhaps whole grain. Meals he will rarely try to eat, as they
require an increase of saliva from the mouth, and wheat bran
mashes, which are so popular with many veterinarians, I have nev-
er been able to get a horse suffering with strangles to eat. Theo-
retically the wheat bran would be all right, but practically it does
not work as desired. I said the sufferer had difficulty in swallow-
ing water. I might have said that it is nearly or quite impos-
sible for a horse to drink from a brook or from a low trough.
But if water is placed in a pail, and held up so the sufferer does
not need to put his nose below the lower part of his shoulder
blades, he will manage to drink considerable water, and thus re-
fresh himself. The water should be fresh and sweet and offered
him from a pail every one or two hours. In some cases of this
form of distemper there will be a swelling of the glands of the
throat and a suppuration will follow, in which case when the swol-
len glands beneath the jaws begin to cast off the hair, and the
skin looks a little watery, it is good policy to lance the tumefied
gland and let the pus out. Then with a syringe wash out the
cavity with a one per cent solution of carbolic acid. Whenever
the glands are greatly swollen and slow in coming to a suppurative
stage it is good policy to use linseed meal poultices on the glands
to hasten suppuration, otherwise no poulticing is called for. Per-
haps nine out of ten horse owners will consider this disease the
worst whenever there is a large degree of swelling and much dis-
charge of pus after the glands begin to suppurate. But such is not
the case. The most dangerous cases are those where there is no
glandular swelling and no suppuration. The pus forms in the
membranes of the throat, is swallowed, and frequently results in
septicaemic poisoning of the blood, which manifests itself in drop-
sical swelling of the limbs, or perhaps running sores on various
parts of the body, or as is sometimes the case, an internal gland
suppurates and death ensues after the owner thinks the horse
fully recovered. To relieve throat soreness I have found nothing
better than a mixture of equal parts of powdered sanguinaria
(blood root) and powdered chlorate of potash. Mix a teaspoonful
of this and a tablespoonful of simple syrup, and with a wooden
paddle smear on the tongue every two hours, and to guard against
the septic poison of the blood from the swallowed pus as often as
twice per day make a paste of hyposulphite of soda and simple
syrup and smear on the tongue, using an even tablespoonful of
the soda. This will neutralize the poison of the pus or render it
harmless in most cases. Hence, I advise the use of the soda in
every case of distemper, be it ever so light. Avoid working the
horse when suffering with distemper, even in a mild form, as the
respiratory organs are all of them more or less affected,

21

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

and a little overdoing is very apt to terminate in congestion of
the bronchial tubes or lungs. Also when the animal is put to
work after having recovered from the disease be careful and do
not leave him tied in a draft or facing a strong wind. A little
overwork or fast driving kills many a horse when he is well over
the distemper. The twin sister to strangles is the disease known as

LARYNGITIS.

This can well be called a severe cold causing a sore throat.
The same may be true of the disease known as pharyngitis. Both
can be treated as one, on the same general principle. Steaming
the head with the steam from pine or hemlock boughs is an old
and very good agent to use in connection with chlorate of potash
and blood root, already advised. A mixture of spirits of
ammonia one ounce, oil of turpentine one ounce, and olive oil
six ounces rubbed over the head of the glottis (throat), and along
the windpipe, makes a good counter-irritant. Use morning and
night, until the skin becomes a little tender, then stop its use, and
in most cases recovery will follow under good sensible care alone.
When there is a harsh, rasping cough, it may be well to give the
following cough syrup, which should really be in every horse
stable to use in case of colds. It is made by simmering together
over a slow fire two ounces of oil of tar, two ounces of Canada
balsam, one ounce tincture of capsicum, three ounces extract of
belladonna, three ounces syrup of squills, one pound granulated
sugar, one-half pint water. Constantly stir until all ingredients
are well melted together. Give of this one tablespoonful on the
tongue or make into soft balls with meal. About ten years ago
a peculiar disease of a zymotic nature (atmospheric) struck this
country, and in certain sections has become serious. I refer to
the catarrhal disease called

PINKEYE.

Horsemen doubtless gave it this name by reason of the mem-
branes of the eyeball becoming of a bright red or pink color. It
has now become under certain conditions very serivuuSs among
horses, cattle and sheep. It has its origin in a special micro-or-
ganism or microbe which floats in the air. The disease is usher-
ed in by a high temperature with a severe chill in some cases. It
is not a disease that can be arrested by any known treatment. It
is advisable always to cease work with the animal, place it in a
half-darkened stable, yet free of all foul gases and well supplied
with pure air. The eyes bathe frequently with a lotion made by
dissolving a half-ounce each of borax and acetate of lead, and
one ounce of common salt, in a pint of clean rain water. As a
rule neglected cases leave the eyes weak, and when horses are

22

OF FARM ANIMALS.

so left they should have their eyes protected by a piece of thin
blue or brown veiling put over the forehead or the eye weakness
may develop into blindness later on. Always give the suffering
animal plenty of laxative food like wheat bran mashes, and leaves
of the burdock or fresh green grass to cool the system. The more
serious forms of epidemic diseases are diphtheria and la grippe,
but these of necessity come under the head of diseases where all
medical treatment should be under direct supervision of a quali-
fied veterinarian. Another disease that comes under the head of
being largely produced by improper feeding, and bad management
when horses are suffering from the before-mentioned influenzas, is

PULMONARY OR ASTHMATICAL HEAVES.

While it is true that horses are bred with a physical con-
formation which renders them susceptible to this class of heaves
(bellows heaves horsemen and farmers call it), we will speak
briefly of it. Heaves is incurable. It is largely produced by the
habit farmers have of feeding on hay or straw during the win-
ter months and not enough of the grains containing more nutri-
tion. Thus constantly is the stomach distended with bulky food,
until the nervous structure of the respiratory organs becomes de-
ranged. Horses suffering with heaves can be helped by feeding
cut hay, dampened with lime water, and the grain ground into
meal and mixed with the cut hay, never feeding more than a half-
bushel measure full at one feed, and not less than three pounds
of it being ground grain. If hard worked feed from four to six
pounds of the ground grain to a thousand pounds weight of horse
at each feed.

CATARRHAL HEAVES.

This class of heaves is usually a sequel to some one of the
forms of distemper. While there is no cure for it, careful feed-
ing on nutritious food, and from time to time syringing out the
head through the nasal chambers with a solution made by mix-
ing a teaspoonful of creolin in a pint of water, will help it. A
better remedy is dissolving a tablet of Chinosol in a quart of wa-
ter and using. When the disease is more of a bronchial nature
than catarrhal the cough syrup advised for laryngitis will afford
relief.

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COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

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CHAPTER II.

WOUNDS AND ACCIDENTS.

These can be spoken of only in a general way, as the extent
and location of a wound must of necessity govern the treatment
to a degree. When a vein or an artery has been severed and
the hemorrhage is great, the animal will bleed to death before
the veterinarian can be had, hence it becomes highly necessary
for the farmer to have on hand some powerful styptic and also
be able to take up a small artery if necessary. Four or more
ounces of the tincture of the muriate of iron should be in every
farmer’s household to use in the stoppage of hemorrhage due to
severed veins. Saturate cotton with this and crowd into the
wound if a punctured one or bind on if a surface wound. This
will effectually stop the hemorrhage of all veins except the larg-
er ones, and will also stop hemorrhage from the smaller arteries.
A flat piece of iron dipped in boiling water and applied to small
arteries will stop the hemorrhage. It is preferable to the heated
iron, as that will only sear over and the flow may break out afresh. In
case the artery below the knees or hock is severed, in most cases
the leg can be corded above the wound by tying a piece of soft
rope around the limb above the wound and then with a stick twisting
the rope so tightly as to stop the flow of blood. In case the
hemorrhage comes from a vein tie the cord below the wound,
then apply the saturated cotton mentioned, and bind on tightly,
and in most cases after keeping the limb corded for about an
hour the hemorrhage will be brought under control. In all such
eases after the hemorrhage has been stopped leave the wound
without further dressing for a full twenty-four hour day. Then
carefully soak loose the cotton from the wound, and carefully
cleanse the wound with a carbolic solution made by mixing a tea-
spoonful of liquid pure carbolic acid in a half-pint of water, then
saturate cotton with the following: Pure carbolic acid one ounce,
glycerine four ounces, olive oil six ounces. This is one of the
best healing dressings known to veterinary science. Punctured
wounds need cleansing by the use of a syringe so as to reach the
bottom of the puncture and destroy any possible germs that may
have been carried into the wound, which is all important.

LACERATED WOUNDS OR ABRASED WOUNDS.
When there are no vessels severed of course the wounds re-
quire no such treatment at the start as do the punctured wounds.

25

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

In all such cases make the wound clean with the carbolic solution
advised previously, and if there are threads of tissue or fragments
of muscle, with clean knife or shears clip them off. This will insure
a better and quicker healing. I am speaking now of wounds in
the muscular tissue and not kicks on the joints of the limbs, or
open joints or bruises made by dull calks in case of a kick by an-
other horse. But lacerated or torn wounds in the flesh, or where
the part has had the skin torn off, after they have once been
cleaned by the carbolic solution and the shredded fragments re-
moved the object should be to heal them without any pus forma-
tion if possible, and what is known by medical men as the first
intention. If we can aid nature to do this we have accomplished
the very best purpose. Now please remember that no agent known
heals any wound, nature does this. All we do is to put the wound
in shape so that nature can heal it, and then keep the germs that
the air is full of from infecting the wound. While the veterinarian
may have his own special germicide and antiseptics, which he may
prize more than others, I never have found any superior to a mix-
ture of bichloride of mercury one ounce mixed in finely powdered
resin four ounces. This mixture is a poison and needs to be prop-
erly labeled as such, and kept where children or animals cannot
reach it. Apply by dusting on the wounds, and unless there are
watery or pus secretions do not wash off at all. It will form a
scab over the wound. Keep flies away and give nature every
chance to heal the wound.

THE PICKING UP OF NAILS.

Of late years more than formerly animals, especially horses,
are liable to step on nails carelessly left in pieces of board, or the
horse may half pull a shoe, and the nails that held it in place be
on, and a puncture made in the sole of the foot or frog. The owner
thinks that when he has pulled the nail out all that is needed has
been done. But alas, such is not true, whenever a nail has been
driven through the sole or frog, or any other instrument sufficient
to bring blood, when it is withdrawnthere is great danger of
serious trouble without a sufficient opening is made to allow a
thorough disinfecting of the wound the nail or other body made in
the foot. Sometimes the trouble arises from the carrying into the
foot of the germ of tetanus (lockjaw) or the imprisoned blood may
create pus which has to work its way out somewhere, or a case
of blood poison or canker of the foot follows, and death results
in thousands of cases that need not have occurred had the owner
had knowledge enough to realize these simple facts, and had
removed the nail or other instrument, then with the blade
of his pocket knife cut out a hole in the bottom of the foot large

26

OF FARM ANIMALS.

enough so that the end of the little finger could have been inserted.
This will let out the blood, and allow any possible germs to be de-
stroyed. While there are many germicides which can be used, none
is superior to carbolic acid, used at a strength of one part acid
to five parts water. Pour a little of this in the wound, then satu-
rate cotton with it and crowd into the wound, in twenty-four hours
remove, and pour a little more in the wound, when in most cases
a pledget of cotton saturated with pine tar crowded into the wound
will stay there, and in a few days there will be a filling in of the
horn. Some use the spirits of turpentine instead of the acid. But
the turpentine in the form that most farmers have it is not of
sufficient potency to destroy the germ of tetanus. Many are re-
luctant to cut a hole in the foot. A very needless fear, as a
little cotton or oakum saturated with tar will keep all dirt out,
and the animal can be put right to work.

SHOULDER BRUISES AND CYSTIC TUMORS.

If every horse owner had a suitable collar for his horse, and
understood the anatomy of the shoulder sufficiently to understand
where the pressure should and should not be placed, then fitted
his collar so it really would fit, there would be no such thing
known as hard, callous swellings or soft puffy swellings seen on
shoulders. But these things will continue just as long as horse
owners continue to use the old English collar and hames. Thou-
sands of farmers in civilized countries will stick to this style of
collar with the same tenacity that a Hindoo will stick to the custom
of his fathers and use a crooked stick to till the soil propelled by
a water buffalo with a stick tied across his forehead. So it is that
modern styles in collars, like the Humane and Twentieth Century
collars, will have a hard time bringing about a change, and I see
plainly that veterinarians will have plenty of business for many
years to come in treating these swellings. Of late years sweat
pads of various materials have been put in use to overcome the evil
the ill-fitting collar is producing. To an extent they do some
good, and in other ways they are a damage. A hole can be cut out
of the pad and take pressure off the gall or hard swelling, and then
relief is afforded, and some agent in the form of gall cures is used to
heal up the sores. I will give three remedies: One is verdigris oint-
ment, which any druggist can procure. Another is made by mix-
ing dry white lead in raw linseed oil until it becomes a thick white
paint, and the third is a dusting powder made by mixing an ounce
each of oxide of zinc, finely powdered alum and borax and
four ounces of finely powdered starch. Dust on the raw sore from an
old pepper box. If a large puffy swelling comes on the shoulder,
and fills with bloody water (simply a large blood blister formed

27

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

between two layers of muscles of the shoulder caused by the col-
lar not fitting), there is only one way to treat it and that is to lance
it deep enough to let the bloody water out before it dries down
into an organized body (callus). When the lancing is done in the
beginning, it needs no further treatment more than to syringe out
daily with a one per cent solution of carbolic acid. In case several
days have elapsed before the swelling is lanced, it becomes what
is called encysted, which is the beginning of a callus. Then it
should be injected with the tincture of iodine daily for a few days,
until pus is being secreted liberally. Then change to the one per
cent carbolic solution until healed. Should any proud flesh form
in the wound made with the knife in lancing dip a camel’s-hair
brush or feather in butter of antimony and daily wet it with it
until reduced.

BRUISES.

All poll evils and fistulas of the withers are no more nor less
than the result of a severe bruise to the extent of injury of the
tissue covering the occiput bones of the head in one case, or the
spines running upward from the spinal column to form the so-called
withers in the other. Now the farmer can do only a few things
with these. The first is use either cold or hot water to reduce any
inflammation as the result of a recent bruise. I don’t care where it
is located, whether on the muscular part of the body or on a joint,
perhaps inflicted by a kick from another horse, use water. It is
far superior to any liniment that can be made as a reducer or
preventive of suppurative inflammation, which should be the first
thing sought. An ounce of sal ammoniac and the same of common
salt, added to each quart used, when cold water is used will make
the water still colder. This line of treatment we especially advise
in case of a bruise on a joint, and where possible wring cloths
out of this salt and ammonia water and wrap the joint with them,
changing about every hour. In case of bruise of the withers it is
rarely known when it does occur, as the horse may roll on a
stone in the pasture, or jam his withers against the side of the
stall, or put his head under a bar or a gate. The same may occur in
bruising the top of the head, so that generally speaking no one
knows when it occurs, and the first noticeable feature will be a
swelling. In all such cases use for a day or two the medicated
water. Then apply a blister, none better than the biniodide of
mercury ointment. This repeat in about ten days, in case the
swelling does not take on the appearance of breaking out. In that
case a competent veterinarian must be employed. There is no
other way, as a deep lancing of the tumor is needed before a
cure can be made.

28

OF FARM ANIMALS.

OPEN JOINTS.

These can only be treated successfully by the skilled veter-
inarian. All the horse owner should do is to keep the animal
absolutely quiet in a stall (not in a pasture field) and never as some
do, thinking to save expense, lead or drive the horse to the veter-
inarian, and thus ruin all chance of saving the animal. Right here
I will bring the horse part of this little book to a close by saying:
In all serious cases always bring the veterinarian to see the
patient, especially so in cases of influenzas, lung and bowel troubles
and injuries to a joint. Many a time have I had horses and cattle
brought to see me and the journey killed them, when if the owner
had left them in the barn and come for me the animal would have
been well on the road to recovery by the time I got there. While
it may be true that moderate walking exercise will, in some cases,
be beneficial such exercise as most horse owners give the sufferer
kills more than the disease does.

29

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COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

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CHAPTER III.

CATTLE DISEASES.

While cattle are practically immune from many of the diseases
that afflict horses, the diseases of cattle are none the less
important, inasmuch as milk from the cow is so extensively used
as food for the human family, and the carcass forms a large per
cent of the meat that is consumed. Unless the cow is in good
bodily health she is wholly incapable of furnishing milk of a whole-
some character for human food, or even for the rearing of her own
offspring (in case her disease is of the mammary glands). Right
here again I desire to say, the feeding of milk-producing cows is
in a sense of more vital importance to the human race than the
feeding of horses, sheep or swine. The milk she produces is simply
a product made into a liquid form of the food she eats, the air she
breathes and the water she drinks. Give her a rotten food, germ-
laden air to breathe and poor water to drink, and it becomes im-
possible for her to put into the milk pail a product of high quality.
While the theory prevails among many scientific men that milk as
it comes from the udder is not contaminated with germs that are
in the udder, but with germs on the udder which fall in the pail
during the act of milking, it is by no means a fact that germs of
certain diseases do not actually abound in the milk before it leaves
the milk cistern in the udder of the cow. While a class of food
mouldy in its character can be fed to the cow, or beef animal also,
and no evil results follow in the form of gastric or kidney disease
as in the horse, it may in other ways prove to be a cause of fevers
of an anaemic form, the cow becomes emaciated and may even die
from nervous prostration or impoverished blood, due to micro-or-
ganisms taken into her system through the food she has been made
to subsist upon or the water she has quenched her thirst with. A
word to the wise is sufficient without further comment.

GARGET (MAMMITIS).

The disease Garget, as farmers name it, Mammitis as the
veterinary profession knows it, is one of the most common cow ail-
ments the farmer has to contend with. It may have causes without
number. It really is only an inflamed condition of the whole or some
part of the udder of the cow. When the cow is in full flow of
milk her udder is the most sensitive part of her physical system.

32

OF FARM ANIMALS.

Blood laden with food nutrients is determined to her udder, and
her udder temperature is in some instances from one to two de-
grees higher than the temperature taken at the mouth. Now let a
cow in full or even half normal flow of milk be allowed to remain
out in a cold rain storm, whereby she contracts a cold and has 4
shivering fit, the chances are that she will either stop milk secre-
tion almost entirely or her udder become highly inflamed and we
have a case of general garget to contend with. Hence the great
importance of keeping all cows in from such storms as a preven-
tive; and whenever one suffers from taking a cold in any form
doing something to break up this cold or shivering fit just as
quickly as possible before the udder becomes inflamed is a neces-
sity. As a home remedy a pint of good ginger tea and an all-wool
square horse-blanket is good. And now I am going to speak of two
very active remedies, both highly poisonous, yet perfectly safe when
used as they should be. The one is the tincture of aconite, the
other extract of veratrum. In buying either of these always have
the druggist mark on the label the dose for a person, then make it
ten times as much for a horse or a cow. The laws of all states
compel the druggist to plainly mark it as poison. Give first above
dose of aconite and half an hour later give a dose of the other, until
all chill ceases, and the skin becomes moist under the blanket,
and many a case of garget will be headed off.

LOCALIZED GARGET.

It sometimes happens that one or more quarters of the udder
become hot and tense. This form of garget can be traced to one
of the three general causes. (1) The cow may have a bad con-
formation of the udder, as photo No. 1 will show, or be too narrow
across her hocks, as photo No. 14 shows, and if she is a large pro-
ducer of milk her udder will be constantly banged by her hocks
in walking, and if made to hurry they will sometimes inflict injury
to such an extent as to inflame one or both hind quarters. Again
cows with long udders, when they lie down on short platforms in
the stable so that the udder hangs Over the edge of the manure
gutter, will bruise the udder. And again such udders will lie on
the hock joint of the leg when lying down, and the leg above it
will lie right on the udder and bruise it. Now right here I will
say, get rid of all such udders by breeding them out of the herd.
Use no bull whose dam and grandam had such a formed udder.
The better the breeding of such a bull the more sure he is to get
heifers with badly formed udders, gargety udders veterinariaus
call them. Photo No. 3 shows a well formed udder and properly
formed hock for a dairy cow. As a remedy for this kind of garget,
use local treatment, hot water applied with thorough rubbing un-

33

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

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[@9 aBnd aay|—'MOd Altep & JO} SyDOY ‘
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OF FARM ANIMALS.

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and hocks and cons

No. 8—Dr. Smead showing how to relieve a choked horse by a blow on a plank
held across the buttocks of the animal.— [See page 61]
35

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

til quite dry. Then apply some of a mixture of lard and turpen-
tine. This is a first-class home remedy, and use it twice or more
daily, giving teaspoonful doses three times per day of the ex-
tract of pokeroot. Now we come to another form of garget, where
there is no inflammation whatever. It is not really garget, but
what can be more properly called a

GARGETY CONDITION.

The cow has in some way received a blow on some part of one
quarter of her udder, and while there is no visible fever or hard
lump to be felt a small abscess has formed, and from time to time
the pus comes down into the milk cistern (cavity at the base of
the teat), and during the act of milking these little chunks of pus
come out with the milk and will be seen on the strainer. Now
this is not Garget, but what is known as a gargety condition of
the milk, due to the small abscess formed in the udder gland.
Now please do not understand me as saying that all lumps in milk
that may be seen on the strainer are pus cells. Lumps or chunks can
get in the milk from a stoppage of the follicles (tubes) in the
udder, and there will be seen when these follicles clear themselves
small organized pieces of casein (cheesy deposit), but such milk,
whether there be pus in it or even the cheesy deposit, is wholly
unfit for human food, as in the act of straining all that is done
is to take out the larger chunks of pus and casein. In most cases
if each teat is milked separately it will be found that one quarter
of the udder alone is responsible for this condition. When this
is found, then the milk from the remaining quarters can be saved
as human food. It has been a long-time practice among dairymen
to give saltpeter in tablespoon doses, yet I have doubts as to
whether any drug that may be given ever had much effect upon the
abscess or injury in the udder gland. Quite recently the G. P. Pilling
& Sons Co. of Philadelphia have invented a double syringe, whereby
the milk cistern of a cow suffering with this condition can be
cleaned and disinfected, and in many a case where the cow would
lose one or more quarters of her udder if not daily syringed out
with some harmless solution for a time it can be saved. We
therefore advise every dairyman to get either this or some other
garget syringe and use as may be needed. As a solution a heap-
ing teaspoon of common baking soda dissolved in a pint of boiled
water is a good one.

THE USE OF MILK TUBES.
Right at this time, I consider it fitting to speak of the use
and misuse of the milk tube. When a farmer owns even a half
dozen cows it rarely happens but that one or more of them will

36

OF FARM ANIMALS.

in some way or manner get a teat injured, so that it becomes im-
possible to milk this teat by hand, and the tube has to be resorted
to, sometimes with the result of spoiling the quarter with the tube
by the time the wound is healed. Now this need not occur, and
will not occur, with a proper tube, properly used.

THE PROPER TUBE.

Milk tubes are found on the dealer’s counter in four sizes,
namely: two inches, two and one-half inches, three inches, and four
inches in length, and the size in diameter is always in proportion
to the length. They are all of one price, and four men out of five
will buy the biggest they can get for the money. Thus it is a tube
four inches in length, and full one or two sizes larger than the
milk channel in the teat, is bought to use on a cow With a teat
not over three inches long. Thus again about four cow owners
out of five think the farther up the teat they can push the tube
the more milk they will get, so they push the oversize tube up the
teat and wound it, then punch the end up into the udder gland and
inflict a wound there also, and the next time they try to milk
the cow they find the teat and udder hot and tense and no milk
in it, simply spoiled by the tube that was as unsuited to use as a
crowbar would be for a toothpick. There are very few cows in
whose udder a three-inch tube will not reach the milk cistern and
draw all the milk there is in it, and in most cases a two and
one-half inch tube is long enough and large enough.

HANDLING THE TUBE.

The unseen things in this world are the dangerous ones, and
no one can see a germ any more than he can see the force that
drives the trolley car. The user of a milk-tube may carry on his
hands germs enough to spoil all the cows’ teats on _ the
farm, yet not see one of them. Yet he wonders why, when he care-
fully ran the milk-tube up the teat of the cow, it inflamed
the teat so much. A dead easy thing to understand when we
learn about these things we can’t see. The user wiped his hands
off on the milk-tube, and then shoved the tube up the teat of the
cow, and wiped the germs off on the lining membranes of the teat
and in her udder. Now hot water is cheap, and if one will take
hold of the base of that milk tube and dip it in boiling water for
an instant he will kill every germ on the tube. Wait a half minute
and the tube will be cool enough so as to not scald the teat, then
insert it up the teat, and draw the milk, after which rinse the
tube in cool water, then hot water to get the milk off it, and a
milk tube can be used in safety indefinitely and not inflict injury
to the teat.

37

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

COW POX OR INFECTIOUS GARGET.

Most veterinarians class these two very distinct diseases to-
gether as one, but they are not so by any means. True cow pox is
an eruptive fever, with pustules forming on the udder and teats,
which will in about a week scab over and heal under the scab, and
the cow will be well. But the disease which may look to be cow
pox, and is not, doesn’t get well. It forms a blister much like that
of cow pox, then scabs over as the blister breaks, and then
instead of getting well forms a phagedenic (spreading) ulcer and
gets worse all the time. Again this latter disease does not always
locate itself on the teat, or udder, but is more liable to infect the
teat at the tip end of the milk channel, that point being moist.
There a tiny blister forms, and does its spreading right up the
milk channel, and goes into the udder and ruins the quarter if
not immediately headed off in its work. The first noticeable symp-
tom is when the milker sits down to milk the cow will cringe or
kick when the milk is first started. The next time she will do
more cringing, and soon the teat will be found hot and it is hard
to squeeze the milk through it, coming in a much smaller stream
than usual. When it gets to that stage there is little hope of sav-
ing that quarter of the udder. But it can be easily headed off in
the beginning by the proper use of the following: Carbolized olive
oil, made by melting one ounce of crystal carbolic acid and mixing
when melted with ten ounces of pure olive oil. Use this on the end of
the teat, or on all blisters or sores on the teat at each milking. Then to
prevent the germ from working up the milk channel, with a small
glass syringe inject a teaspoonful up the teat and milk it out again.
This will so grease the milk channel as to prevent the working
up of the germ. It is always worth the trial, even after the teat
becomes hot and the milk hard to draw.

HOW THE INFECTIVE GERM !S CARRIED.

The milker conveys the disease from cow to cow through the
hand. He milks an ailing cow, then milks a well one, and carries
the germ right to her teats. Again no one knows just where the
germ starts, but there are good reasons for believing on the floor
of the stable when cows are kept on it. ‘Therefore always
scrub the fioors with boiling water, then sprinkle air-slaked lime on
them, to destroy possible germs of the disease.

BLOODY MILK.

This may be the result sometimes of tuberculous disease of
the udder. Therefore always ascertain the quarter it comes from,
and examine closely for any hardened lumps in it, and if found
have the cow tested with tuberculin. If no such condition exists

38

OF FARM ANIMALS.

consider it due to injury of the udder from thumping it with her
hocks in fighting flies, etc. Spray the cow with a good fly killer and
give her teaspoonful doses of powdered sulphate of iron, mixed
with common salt, twice daily, mixed in a feed of meal or bran, until
the blood ceases. With heavy milking cows practice milking them

three times a day.

LUMPY JAW (ACTINOMYCOSIS).

This disease is becoming more and more common. It is due to
a specific fungus found on various plants or pasture grasses. Its
name is “Ray Fungus,’ and under the microscope it looks like a
cluster of Indian war clubs. It sometimes locates in the glands
of the throat and internal glands, but generally either in the glands
of the throat orthe tongue, and through any sores about the teeth
it works down to their extremities and infects the inner part of
the bone. Through much experimenting carried on by the
Bureau of Animal Husbandry at Washington, D. C., it was found
that when iodide of potassium was given in from one to two
drachm doses twice daily for two weeks, then once per day for
about two weeks longer, ninety per cent of cases where the glands
were the seat of the fungi would cease to go on with the enlarge-
ment, and the disease stop from doing serious damage until such
time as the animal could be made fat for beef. And in cases
where the bone was involved fully sixty per cent of cases could be
headed off. The surgeon may save advanced cases by an opera-
tion, but the farmer would better give the potassium iodide, and
use a blister on the enlargement as soon as it is noticed, which
repeat every two weeks for a few times. No better blister is found
than this: Compound one of the ointment of iodine crystal, pow-
dered cantharides and the biniodide Of mercury. Prepare it
by mixing a drachm each of crystal iodine, biniodide of mercury
and powdered cantharides, in three ounces of lard.

CHOKING OF CATTLE.

Cattle frequently get choked on various things, and the farmer
should know how to relieve them, as in many cases death will take
place before the veterinarian can get to see the sufferer. When
the choking is by reason of some spherical body, like an apple or
@ potato, it is no serious thing to relieve the animal; with some
body like the section of a cabbage stump it is far more serious.
Yet when the farmer possesses a fair amount of sense and judg-
ment, and does not get excited and lose his head, few animals need
die from choke. There are two forms of choke. The most common
is the high choke, in which the substance the animal tried to swal-
low is lodged at any point of the gullet between the mouth and

39

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

ih

choke or bloat.

No. 4.—Method of putting the rubber hose down the
40

OF FARM ANIMALS.

where it enters the body. The so-called low choke is the one
where the body is lodged beyond the visible part of the gullet.
There are three very inexpensive instruments or rather home-
made devices which in a case of emergency will answer every pur-
pose, and every farmer needs them. First is a piece of inch rub-
ber hose, costing about sixty-five cents. It needs to be full six and
a half feet long (See photo No. 4),as it is about six feet from the
mouth to the entrance of gullet into the first stomach of the
grown cow or ox. Yet many think when they have pushed an
obstruction down the gullet out of sight it is far enough, when
in fact it is only about half way to the stomach or rumen
(paunch farmers call it), which lies back of the center of the
body of the animal. Now before going farther I desire to call
attention to one fact, and that is no rigid body like a whip-stock,
rake-handle or other similar device, can ever be passed from the
mouth to the rumen of a cow, calf or ox. The gullet takes a
turn upward soon as it reaches the thoracic cavity (lung cavity),
and soon after the whip-stock or other rigid device enters this
cavity it can follow the gullet no farther, and if it is pushed will
go right through the gullet and kill the animal. Yet scores of
ignorant editors of the agricultural press are giving space to just
such nonsense that ignorant writers desire to put in the paper.
All devices must of necessity be flexible, and while it is not sup-
posable that farmers would own the expensive instrument known
as a probang, they can own a piece of rubber hose one inch in
diameter, which is second only to the probang for utility in various
ways, which will be spoken of later on. First it is hollow, and
liquids can be poured or syringed into the end of it that sticks
out of the mouth. After the hose has been shoved down the
gullet this is a very great advantage, as when it has been shoved
down to the obstruction some raw linseed oil or melted lard can
be poured into the protruding end of the rubber hose and by
gravitation will run down to whatever obstructs the passage, when
the obstruction being greased with oil or lard will be, by gentle
pushing of the hose, passed into the rumen, and the job will be
over before the veterinarian can be phoned and get on the ground
in case he lives three miles away. The next instrument is a bull
snap costing twenty-five cents, to place in the nose to better hold
the animal when inserting the rubber hose. And the last is an
oblong ring, made of half-inch round iron, large enough to put
the hand and arm through. An old neck-yoke ring of large size,
flattened down a little, can be used in an emergency case. But
it is better to have the blacksmith make one about ten inches long,
so as to be held easily in the mouth by an assistant when the

41

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT
i

operator is at work with this in the mouth. The farmer can
safely pass his hand down the throat of cow, ox or horse, and
where the obstruction is in the throat pull it out with his hand.
In case of an ordinary sized cow the arm of a man will be long
enough to go down the gullet a few inches. Now hark ye all:
Never try to push an obstacle down into the rumen that can be,
felt from the outside. Never, as some have done, have an assistant
hold the fence maul on one side while the operator hits the
other side with a mallet, to mash the obstacle. A blow that would
mash a potato or a hard apple, say nothing about turnips or cab-
bage stumps, would mash the gullet of the animal, and seriously
injure it if not cause its death. Yet this foolish, yea torturous,
treatment has found its way into print in numerous agricultural
journals. Now what is the sensible, rational way? Pour a little
oil or melted lard down the gullet. The oil of course cannot go
any farther than the obstruction, but it will grease the obstruction,
whatever it may be, and enable one to manipulate the obstruction
from the outside and bring it up into the mouth, where it can be
reached easily by the hand, and brought out. In case of the low
choke of course recourse must be had to pushing it down after
greasing, always with the piece of rubber hose mentioned, which
being hollow and cup-shaped to an extent, will not slip by the
obstruction.

BLOATING OF CATTLE.

Bloating of cattle is very common on farms of the country,
and every cattle owner should know how to relieve it. No animal
should ever die with clover bloat when the farmer is at home, or
even his wife or boy ten years old. Of course all farmers should
avoid turning cattle on fresh wet clover or alfalfa when they are
hungry. In case the one in charge was on the watch for bloat
and took notice of the bloat commencing, the putting of a smooth,
round stick about three inches in diameter in the cow’s mouth,
and tying it with a cord put over the head so as to hold it in place and
keep the mouth open, and the animal striving to get it out, will
so work the muscles of deglutition as to keep the gas coming out
of the rumen before it accumulates to the extent of closing the
valves at the lower end of the gullet. But this having been
neglected in nine cases out of ten the piece of rubber hose men-
tioned can be run down the gullet to the rumen and let the gas
out in short order. But the time may be when the bloated animal
is in a field a mile or more from the house, and would die before
one could get to the house and get the hose. What shall be done?

42

OF FARM ANIMALS.

TAPPING.

Every farmer or farm boy should be taught how to properly
tap a bloated cow or ox. It really is one of the simplest opera-
tions known to veterinary science. There is one point, and one
point only, where an incision can safely be made by a novice into
the rumen and let the gas out, and that point is on the left side
of the animal, as one stands behind it facing toward it. In a full
grown animal it is one hand’s breadth from the back bone, and half
way between the hip and the last rib. Note the place where my
hand lies in the picture. Photo No. 5. The proper instrument is
a trocar, costing seventy-five cents. It is no better than a large
sized pocket knife, only as the trocar has a tube (canula) which
can be left in the wound until the gas has all escaped, while if the
knife alone is used, one will need to turn the blade crosswise
of the cut made with it, and hold it in place until the gas has
escaped. Now inexperienced men fail to relieve by tapping the
animal when they have only a knife, by reason of three methods
of using it. The first is: They use too small a blade or too
short a blade, or perhaps do not insert it full length. In an or-
dinary cow or ox it is full three inches or more through the skin
and abdominal walls into the rumen (paunch), so one need never
be afraid of inserting the knife too far. The trocars are made
six inches in length, with a canula (tube) five and one-
half inches in length, while the farmer’s pocket knife blade is
rarely over three inches in length, and will barely reach the
paunch when plunged into the animal full length. Other failures
occur from not inserting the trocar or knife at the proper angle.
Some will hold the trocar or knife nearly horizontal, others will
hold it nearly perpendicular. The right angle to insert the knife
or trocar is at an angle that would, if long enough, come out at
the forward teat of a cow. Note photo No. 6. The gas will be
reached every time when the trocar or knife is plunged deep
enough, but it may be as said, the trocar may be at the house a
mile away when the farmer finds the animal nearly dead from
bloat, then of course the pocket knife must be used, and if any
farmer is not onto his job well enough to own a pocket knife, he
had better throw up his job and go to work in sOme man’s sand-
bank.

BLOATING CALVES AND SHEEP.

The same general principles should be used in the treatment
of them as in older cattle, always in tapping when needed. Do it
on the left side and never on the right side no matter which
side of the animal may be distended the most. There is only one

43

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

point in all ruminating animals where the rumen (paunch) is at-
tached to the abdominal walls and that is the one marked in the
picture No. 5.

TAPPING THE HORSE.
Tapping the bloated horse is the business of the veterinarian
alone, and should never be attempted by the unskilled man.

44

CHAPTER Iv.

BOVINE ABORTION AND STERILITY.

For fully a century have veterinarians been laboring to discov-
er the cause and a remedy for cows failing to conceive, and to learn
why many of them drop the foetus prematurely, and yet the trou-
ble has been steadily on the increase. Now this is casting no
slur on what investigators have done. They have learned much,
but there is much yet to learn. Some have worked on the theory
that some specific germ is causing the farmer the trouble he is
having with his cows. Others are working on antitoxins and
serums to inject into the system of the cow to render her immune
from the effects of the germ. Honorable veterinarians have thought
they had found specifics that would enable the farmer to stop the
trouble in his herd, and a lot of empirics have set their wits to
work and got up nostrums by the score and sold them to the
gullible. Now with the exception of the last named I feel like
giving due credit to all that has been done. It all tends toward
the solution of the problem, even though it has not solved it. I
have no specific to offer the reader. On the other hand I have
to tell him I don’t think any will ever be found, yet I hope I
may be wrong in this conclusion. While specific germs may
and do cause some of the trouble, it is not the maximum but the
minimum cause the writer has had to contend with. The cow
herself must be studied, and means used to manage her by which
we can prevent sterility and abortion. In brief we must take her
as she presents herself to us at the present time; and take her
into consideration as a physical being, and a very abnormal pro-
duction of man, subject to certain conditions even as the human
female, especially shock from fright, sense of sight and smell.

We must realize that our modern cow has been so bred as
to produce milk, not only in sufficient quantity for a calf four
months in the year but she must produce enough to well rear two
calves for four months, then keep it up for four months longer,
and then produce enough to feed one calf for a period of two
months, or be condemned as an unprofitable dairy cow. Now all
this ability has been bred and fed into the cow by the skill of
man, but in the accomplishment of it we have dwarfed and ren-
dered less vitally strong the organs of reproduction, which are in
correlation with the mammary glands. The cow that will produce
milk only in a limited quantity for five or six months of the year

45

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

under good care and feeding never aborts except as the result
of severe injury. Her general vitality is good, her mammary
glands small, and her reproductive functions strong. She gets in
calf readily and carries it full time. She can witness extraordi-
nary sights, and inhale offensive odors, and it will have no effect
upon her sympathetic nervous organization, as she is of a low
nervous organization just as the peasant woman who can produce a
strong healthy babe every sixteen months, needs no mid-wife and
is ready to perform her usual labor in a week’s time, while the
more refined races of the earth, with a higher nervous organiza-
tion, need to be on constant guard or an abortion will be the
result instead of the much desired living healthy child. Now this
is plain talk, my readers. It is the refined, improved cows and
heifers in our dairies that give us trouble in getting in calf and
then in keeping it up yearly until they have passed the age of
usefulness. It is this condition that confronts us more than it is
a micro-organism. The organisms (germs) that cause sterility
and abortion I consider as the least to fear. We have
learned that carbolic acid given internally for a prolonged period
will destroy the germs of abortion that exist in the blood or
uterus, while dilute sprays of it on the vulva and vaginal injection
will destroy the organisms. But drugs will not cure inherent
predisposition. A nervous child must be carefully cared for to
prevent convulsions, and this unbalanced cow of a high milk pro-
ducing function must be fed and cared for on the line of a re-
alization, that she, like the nervous child, must be fed to make
her strong in her weak parts. It may be considered in a sense an
inherent weakness, brought about by breeding. When we have a
cow capable of producing ten thousand pounds of milk annually
we should realize that all such animals, or the heifers from such
animals, have a corresponding weakness of their reproductive
organs. Heifers fail to desire to breed, and when they do breed
they fail to conceive.

This brings us to another contributive cause, namely, the
rearing of the calf. This in far too many instances is done on
the extreme plan. The little young thing is either fed beyond
reason to make a show animal of it, kept closely confined in a
pen or stable, given all the new milk it will take, and grain or
meal as soon as it will partake of it, with the result that it be-
comes loaded with kidney fat to the extent of encasing the re-
productive organs in fat, so that conception is impossible, or if a
male it is impotent. We see more of this among the beef breeds
than among the dairy breeds. On the mass of dairy farms, how-
ever, it is the reverse. The price milk commands in market in-
duces the owner to strive to rear the heifer calves on just as
little milk as possible and supplement with hay teas, calf meals and

46

OF FARM ANIMALS.

Gr

and run her owner in debt $25.00 a year for feed.—{See page 63)
47

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

various condiments that are on the market. Many of these are
good, and I don’t condemn them when the calf has arrived at an
age to live largely on solid foods. But when the calf-raiser starts
in to raise a calf at a week or even three weeks of age on this
class of supplemental food he starts a calf on life’s journey with a
low vitality, an impaired digestion (like the calf shown in photo
No. 2), sometimes with the result, in case it is born with an
inherent weakness of the uterine organs, that we havea heifer that
is either sterile or aborts on slight provocation. Or in case she
drops a living calf at two or two and a half years of age and
largely sends the nutrients of the food she eats into the milk
pail, she fails to conceive or aborts if she does. I might take up
time and space in further discussion on this line of thought, but a
hint to the wise is sufficient. A strong animal at maturity must
be started right in infaney or it disappoints ‘the owner when it
grows up into cowhood. This thought can well be put in print
and nailed up in many a farmer’s cow stable. Exercise and grow-
ing, digestible food in plenty the first year of a heifer’s life would
make it a yearly breeder of calves instead of a yearly aborter.
Another thought on this line I will present: By far too many
farmers think that when their cows or heifers are once safely
in calf they can be turned in a back woods pasture to fight flies
and subsist on any kind of herbage they can find, in most in-
stances with a scanty supply of grass. When winter time comes
the wheat straw stack and a nubbin of corn will be sufficient.
But it is not. There is growth to be made in this heifer, and a
life in her uterus to support and develop and give birth to, and
you need not be surprised if she aborts at about the sixth, sev-
enth or eighth month in pregnancy from sheer weakness of the
vital functions to grow the mother and develop the offspring.

SYMPATHETIC ABORTIONS.

In a preceding paragraph I spoke of a sympathetic nervous or-
ganization. This needs explanation; no one, however, can fully ex-
plain it. A person is run over by the cars and his limbs mangled
and is brought into the presence of perhaps twenty fellow beings.
Some will faint at the sight, others will have a sickness at the
stomach and vomit up the contents of it, all will be shocked, and
perhaps not five out of the twenty could pick up the bleeding per-
son and care for him. Sickening odors have the same effect on some
persons. Thus it is that a pregnant woman of a high nervous organ-
ization can never aid safely a member of her own sex at
time of child birth without danger of bringing about a premature
birth in her own case. This, in a homely way of expressing it, is
what the effects are on the nerves of sympathy. Now we must
come to a higher knowledge of the cow than many of us have,

48

OF FARM ANIMALS.

when we assume to treat her so as to avoid abortions in the herd.
We must come to understand that even the brute is endowed with
a sympathetic nervous system, with some of the senses, especial-
ly smell, much more acute than the human. So that when we
send dogs after or otherwise frighten the pregnant cow we may
by reason of that fright cause her to abort. Then we must realize
that when an abortion occurs from any cause in the herd other
cows may from the effects of the sight and odor be so acted upon
as to produce an abortion in them. Thus we must immediately
remove the aborting cow from the herd and keep her away until
no segments of the placenta are being passed from her. In high-grade
herds if the aborting cows are allowed to remain with the herd a ver-
itable epidemic through sympathy may prevail in the herd and yet no
germ be present. The foetus must be removed out of sight and smell
of the herd, and not as some do throw it out on the manure
heap. In all cases use antiseptics and germicides. Carbolic acid
in one per cent solution is the most commonly used as vaginal
injections once a day. Creolin is also good, but of late the Ger-
man germicide, sold under the trade name of “Chinosol,” I prefer
to either, the carbolic acid or creolin being perhaps preferable to
use as an outside wash, on account of the odor counteracting the
odors of the cow when the placenta or fluids are being passed.

FOODS AS A CAUSE OF ABORTION.

In these days of milk craze, when both the scientist and the
farmer are striving to get the most milk out of the cow possible,
concentrated foods rich in protein, which can be purchased the
most cheaply, are being fed to excess on some dairy farms. Even
scientists sometimes look only at the large per cent of protein
the food contains, and overlook digestibility and palatability, and
to induce the animal to eat it advise that cheap molasses be fed
with it as a seasoning. Stock food proprietors frequently season
up by-products rich in protein so as to make them highly pala-
table, and for a time they may cause a larger milk flow. Yet all
the time these foods may contain active medicinal agents which
injure digestion or agents which directly affect the uterine organs,
and when a cow has a predisposition to abort produce an abor-
tion. Cottonseed meal contains in a limited degree some of the
active emenagogue effects of the root of the plant (meaning the
power to produce uterine excitement and contraction). Thus it
is that the farmer needs to know of what the rich concentrated
protein feeds he buys are composed, and to always feed cot-
tonseed meal and the combinations containing it sparingly to his
large milk-producing cows. It is these precautions that must be
considered as well as the looking for germs when we combat abor-
tion in the herd. And without this done by the farmer himself

49

COMMON, SENSE TREATMENT

there is little hope of the scientist or veterinarian ever doing very
much toward helping him out of his trouble. The first thing ev-
ery farmer should come to understand is to distinguish the differ-
ence between the germ form of abortion and an abortion that may
be from accident or from sympathy.

HOW TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE ABORTIONS.

Whenever a cow aborts from the action of specific germs that
attack the placental membranes the foetus will usually be found
covered with a yellowish slime when it is first dropped and the
placenta will be found more or less covered with tne same and the
cotyledons (buttons the farmer calls them) will be found in a
partly putrid condition. Again the placenta will usually be passed
in from two hours to two days, and if one will part the lips of
the vulva he will usually find small red pimples or small ulcers
on the walls of the vagina. In all such cases lose no time in
taking the cow and fetus from the sight and possible smell of the
herd, and flush out her uterus with a solution of carbolic acid or
creolin, making it of a strength of a tablespoonful of either to
three pints of warm soft water. Or better still if it can be got-
ten use a tablet of Chinosol dissolved in a quart of water. Con-
tinue to use daily until all segments of the placenta and slimy
fluids have ceased to be seen passing from her. Then don’t breed
her again inside of two months. As a rule cows thus treated will
get in calf again as readily as if they had not aborted.

Whenever a cow aborts from accident or uterine weakness the
slimy appearance of the foetus will as a rule not be present and the
placental membranes will remain attached to the walls of the
uterus. In all such cases remove the cow from the herd just the
same as if the case were of germ abortion and treat her just the
same as if she had given birth to a fully developed calf and
the placenta had been retained, which we speak of next, and such
- treated cows will be as likely to again breed as if they had not
aborted. But such cows may need more special care in feeding
to keep them vitally strong during pregnancy or from weakness
of the uterine organs they may again drop the calf prematurely.

GIVING GERMICIDES INTERNALLY IN CASES OF SUSPECTED
GERM ABORTIONS.

It is as yet an undecided question as to whether the germs
which produce the germ form of abortion abound in the blood
or inhabit the uterus alone, but it matters not as far as the
farmer is concerned where the germs abound so that he can erad-
icate them from his herd. Thus it is that all suspected cases of
germ abortion should be treated internally with some agent which
can be given with safety. Without going into details I will say

50

OF FARM ANIMALS.

that carbolic acid given internally in from twenty to forty-drop
doses for alternate months during pregnancy has proved very ef-
ficient. It can be safely given in case it is properly given, and
the proper way to give it is to put the dose of acid in a half-pint
of water and use the water to dampen a mess of wheat bran
or meal. Give once per day for a month after the cow has drop-
ped her calf, then skip a month and give again after she is safe-
ly in calf and continue through her period of pregnancy and she
will be often cleaned of possible germs and be a safe breeder
afterward.
TREATING THE BULL.

In all cases where it is thought that the bull has served an
infected cow thoroughly wash his sheath with the solution named
or better still use the Chinosol, which all druggists should keep.
The bull may be the means of spreading the germs through the
herd if not treated, and it is such a simple thing to render him
perfectly safe that no farmer should neglect to treat him in every
case there is reason to suspect infection.

RETENTION OF THE PLACENTA.

It sometimes happens that nature’s laws have in some un
known way been interfered with, and the placental membrane
(afterbirth) still retains its adhesion to the walls of the uterus.
Various medical agents have been advised by the older authori-
ties to bring on uterine contractions and thus effect the expul-
sion of the placenta, but in candor I don’t believe that any of them
has any effect whatever in loosening the attachments. In a case
where the placenta was already detached and was retained simply
by lack of uterine contractions sufficient to expel it the remedy
may have been of use, and then I think a pint of ginger tea or
a half-pint of spirits of wine, reduced one-half with boiling water,
would accomplish just as much as stronger remedies like ergot.
It is therefore well to give the ginger tea, or the spirits, and re-
peat it in about six hours, when in case there is no delivery of
the placenta it can be considered as a case of retention from the
natural adhesions not yet being detached. The former custom
was to employ the veterinarian or cow quack to take them away,
but no man did ever yet entirely remove them, as some of the
attachments could not be removed, and of necessity had to remain
to putrefy or rot away. Sometimes the neck of the uterus closed
and locked these segments (fragments of the placenta) in the
body of the uterus, when the only way nature had of getting rid of
them was by absorption of the purulent pus into the blood. Thus
many a case of septic fever (blood poison) was produced, render-
ing the milk flow for not less than six months wholly unfit for
human food with the chances of the cow never conceiving again.

al

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

But the modern, safe and better way is not to endeavor to re-
move the placenta at all. This method the author of this little
book claims to be the first to advise. With the discovery of germ-
icides and antiseptics a new field was opened up, and now we can
safely allow the placenta in a cow to remain indefinitely, or until
natural conditions take place, by simply once daily injecting, with
a proper cattle syringe, some antiseptic solution which will pre-
vent germ inoculation, and in from two to eight days, as a rule,
the whole mass will be passed, and the cow left in as perfect
physical condition as though the placenta had been passed soon
after the birth of the calf. As an antiseptic solution use a one per
cent solution of carbolic acid or creolin, made by mixing a dessert-
spoonful of either in a quart of warm soft water, using at as
near blood temperature as possible, or a tablet of Chinosol dissolv-
ed in a quart of water. It has the advantage of creating no smart-
ing sensation to the cow. Every farmer needs a horse and cattle
syringe fully as much as he needs a hoe and a shovel.

CATTLE AND HORSES OVER-EATING OF GRAIN OR MEAL.

On the best managed farm a cow or a horse will sometimes get
loose and get into the corn crib, oat-bin or a bin of meal, and
help itself to several times as much as can be digested.
The danger to be apprehended depends largely upon the kind of
meal or grain the animal eats. In case it is oats a cow may eat
her fill and it is rare that injury follows. In case it is corn in the
ear it is rare that the cow or horse is made sick if properly treat-
ed, which will be spoken of later on. But in case it is wheat or
rye there may be acute indigestion followed with a stiffness, whichis
called grain founder, which may remain permanently, and so it is
with the meals. Ground oats may give the horse the colic, but rare-
ly produces impaction by drying up the secretions of the stomach
and digestive tract. But corn meal, being so concentrated and
devoid of fiber, is quite sure to become packed in the second, third
or fourth stomach of the cow and in the stomach or intestines
of the horse unless proper means are promptly used to prevent
this condition. A very common opinion exists among farmers
that no water should be allowed either horse or cow that has en-
gorged itself with grain or meal of any kind. This belief
doubtless has its origin based on the fact that one engorgement
always calls for another, and when an animal has engorged itself
with twice or thrice the grain or meal that it can digest its
depraved appetite produces a depraved thirst, and if allowed to
go to the creek or trough and help itself to all the water its thirst
calls for it will add another engorgement of water to the engorge-
ment of grain or meal. Then there are two engorgements to con-
tend with, and the animal generally dies. Thus it is the farmer

52

OF FARM ANIMALS.

jumps to the conclusion that all water must be withheld, which
is nearly as fatal to the animal as if it were allowed to go to
the creek or trough and fill up on water. Now we stated in the
beginning of the article that the danger lay in the baking of the
meal, by reason of there not being fluids enough to moisten it, say-
ing nothing about there being enough digestive fiuids to digest
the surplus mass of grain or meal. Common sense is or should
be the basis of all action. If there is grain or meal in the stom-
ach that can’t be digested, and is liable to soon absorb all the gas-
tric fluids, common sense would say give fluids enough to keep
this surplus meal from absorbing all the fluids and becoming bak-
ed in the stomach or intestine. Give water enough to make the
meal into a thin slop, so that it can pass through all the stom-
achs and go out its way through the intestinal canale-Water given
judiciously will accomplish more in doing this than all the drugs
in a drug house.

WATER USED JUDICIOUSLY.

That means furnishing it to the animal in small quantities, at
intervals of about every fifteen minutes. Two quarts at a time
every fifteen minutes, until the thirst is quenched, is worth more
than pounds of cathartics. It is simply the mechanical action on
the meal, making it into a slop, so that it will goonits way through
the intestinal canal and not bake. In the water each time place
a teaspoonful each of ginger and common baking soda, to warm up
the stomach and prevent fermentation. Animals thus treated will
be enabled to get rid of enormous quantities of grain and meal
and do no practical harm to them other than spoil their appetite
and stop the milk flow, if a cow, for a few days.

TREATING THE ANIMAL AFTER BAKING HAS SET IN.

But it sometimes happens that the animal gets loose when
no one sees it, and it may be hours before we know of it, and
when the animal is found it is in pain. Baking of the meal has
already commenced. Then what is to be done? A more serious
condition now exists. We must stop the baking, or paralysis of
the muscles of the digestive tract will soon take place. The thirst
will be present, only more severe than if water had been given at the
start. But give the water and the ginger and soda, with the
same judgment and discretion, and in connection with it give
about every hour a pint of pure raw linseed oil, and that
is also given more for its mechanical effect than for its medicinal
effect. It will by its mechanical effect soften baked meal and at
the same time hasten its passage through the intestinal canal,
and save many a case before the veterinarian can get on the

ground.

53

CHAPTER V.

STIFF LAMBS.

It sometimes happens that when farmers are taking what may
well be called ideal care of their ewes that are dropping their
lambs in the early spring months some of their best lambs are
found down and unable to rise on their feet, or if they are helped
up will seem weak in their legs and perhaps walk but a few steps
and drop down again. At first the lamb seems to suffer no pain
and will be greedy to nurse the mother. Later on if nothing
done to relieve it a quick breathing is noticed and a total inabil-
ity to stand, no desire to nurse the mother, and death soon fol-
lows. After giving the subject some years of study I can come to
no other conclusion than it is wholly due to practically the same
causes which produce the disease known and heretofore spoken
of as azoturia in the horse, only the effect of the surplus food of
the lamb may be different. My study of the disease has convinced
me that it can be considered as wholly a surplus food disease, as
we always find the lambs that are afflicted to be the single lambs
of the flock and those whose mothers carry a full udder of milk
and some to spare. Again it is always at a time when the little
fellow is beginning to eat grain with the mother and also at
the period when the ewe’s milk undergoes a rapid change, for be
it known that a ewe’s milk changes in its fat content sometimes
from as high as an 8 to 12 per cent butter fat content to about
a 4 per cent content between the first week and the fourth or
fifth week, while the other solids in the milk remain about the
same. We find this condition: the lamb is taking more food nu-
trients into its system than it can grow fast enough to make use
of and its blood becomes in a condition quite similar to that spoken
of in the horse with azoturia. The lamb may be seen running
and skipping and in an hour is paralyzed. Never have I known of
twin lambs being affected nor the lamb that had scant milk supply.
Thus it is we say that the disease is caused by too much food
and a violent change of the mother’s milk which renders it some-
what constipating. So we can reason that a surplus amount of
unappropriated food nutrients together with constipation is the
primary cause. Avoid the trouble by placing the large-milking
ewes and their lambs by themselves and feed less milk producing
food to them. Manage to have some succulent food for the
flock at hand just before lambing time and feed it until the flock
goes to pasture.

54

OF FARM ANIMALS.
—————

HOW SHALL AN AILING LAMB BE TREATED?

If discovered soon after being taken or beginning to walk
stiff give it a tablespoonful of castor oil and a teaspoonful of
sweet spirits of niter. This is to quickly move the bowels and
kidneys. Then put the lamb to soak in a tub of water as hot as
the hand can be held in for a full half-hour, immersing the whole
body except the head and holding it in the water, meantime add-
ing hot water so as to keep it hot. When taken out of the water
rub it as dry as possible and wrap it in a woolen blanket and
many a case will be quickly on the road to recovery. Of course
a lazy man is never expected to do this and will not consider
it worth while.

AZOTURIA IN PIGS.

Pigs are also prone to the same disease, especially when kept
closely confined and fed all the nitrogenous food they will
eat, for be it known that a pig will eat as a rule twice as much
food any time as it can grow fast enough to make use of, and
that is the only reason I know why they call him a hog when he
grows up. Azoturia in the pig assumes a somewhat different
form from that of other animals, seeming to take on more of a
rheumatic form followed by a paralysis of the hind limbs due to
the spinal cord becoming involved. The same general treatment
as for the lamb can be used in the young pig. The older one give
the physic and follow with stimulating embrocations to the back
and loins, a strong decoction of Cayenne pepper is good. Also
follow the physic with from ten to forty-grain doses of
salol three times per day in some cooked oat meal. A mixture of
spirits of ammonia one part, olive or linseed oil four parts rubbed
along the spine is a good embrocation. But as a hog is a hog
any way you can fix him and hard to doctor it is just as well to
make him into pork as to spend time in doctoring him.

E5

CHAPTER VI.

SPRING MANAGEMENT OF THE BREEDING FLOCK.

About March ist every year trouble begins on many a flock
owner’s farm. His ewes have apparently wintered fairly well, and
their condition, as far as flesh is concerned, is by no means bad,
but about two, three or four weeks before the expected birth of
the lamb a ewe is noticed to be standing with the head pressed
against the side of the barn or feed rack. Sometimes she will be
stupid, and if she attempts to move fast she will fall, and seems
very weak. Sometimes she is unable to see clearly, and appears
to be dizzy. This condition slowly grows worse, and in from one
day to a week she, is dead. The older works on sheep husbandry
and farmers in general called it “grub in the head.” This con-
clusion was arrived at by means of more or less of the larvae (grub)
of the gadfly being found in the nasal chamber when a post-mortem
was held. For several centuries this was a common belief. Yet
like many another belief it was found sadly in error when more
study was given to sheep and their necessities learned.

In a brief way I will say: My personal investigations have
always found the cause to be constipation. The flock has been
wintered wholly on dry food, sometimes lacking in variety. The
sheep by nature is a constipated animal and it is an animal, bar-
ring the goat, whose appetite craves, and physical needs require,
a greater variety of food than any other of our domestic animals.
A succulent food of some kind is well-nigh a necessity in win-
tering a breeding flock of ewes in order to avoid the conditions
named, and several others mentioned later on. In England there
is not a day in the year that the breeding flock does not eat a
succulent food of some kind, and the English shepherds never are
troubled with loss from this source. This country is now well
supplied with English breeds of sheep, but in most cases the Eng-
lish methods of feeding and care did not come over with the im-
portation of the sheep. Thus it is that we find the English or
mutton breeds suffering more from this cause than our American
breeds of sheep.

Now I have said that constipation caused the death of the
sheep. But few realize what the results of constipation may be in
a pregnant animal, especially the sheep. A dozen or more dis-
eases may be the outcome of simply feeding a pregnant ewe four
months on dry hay, fodder and grain. Some will say, “I keep

56

OF FARM ANIMALS.

}

salt where the flock can help themselves to it all the time.” This
is good as far as it goes. But no sheep can eat salt enough to
take the place of succulent food. In England roots, cabbage or
kale are fed, but in this country corn silage can be made to fill
the bill in place of the roots, although not the equal of the roots
or cabbage. But one or the other must be furnished in order to
avoid loss by death of many ewes just before giving birth to the
lamb. Now I wish to be fully understood in what I am saying. I
mentioned variety of food right in connection with a succulent
food, and I spoke of corn silage taking the place of roots. Neither
corn silage nor roots of any kind must be wholly depended on.
They can be depended on to fill one place in the winter feeding
of the breeding ewe, but by no means must they constitute the
whole or sole food for the ewe. Many jump to the conciusion that
by reason of a certain food being a good one for sheep it can be
fed as the sole food in wintering the flock. Were the shepherd
to strive even for a few days to feed the flock of pregnant ewes
on corn silage or roots of any kind, he likely would set many of
the flock to scouring, and some ewes would prematurely give birth
to their lambs. As a part ration succulence is essential, but dry
foods are just as much needed as are succulent foods, and one
won’t take the place of the other.

Another, important consideration in the feeding of the flock
to avoid disease later on is the feeding of the dry foods. When
the owner has clover or mixed hay, straw of various kinds, corn
fodder or bean fodder or any other roughage it is not good policy
for him to start in the winter feeding his poor feed first, thinking
to keep the clover or mixed hay until about lambing time. The
ewe when she comes from the pasture needs just as good feed-
ing to keep up her bodily health as at any time during the winter.
It is all important to keep the ewe strong and vigorous every day
and not allow her to lose in flesh or strength for a single day.
The sheep is not an animal that can be starved the fore part of
the winter and regain what was lost later in the winter or early
spring. If she needs clover hay in March she needs it in December.
All hay or no hay, all straw or no straw at all is the cus-
tom when the flock owner is compelled to feed cheap or unmar-
ketable roughage to his breeding flock. Yet a large number of
American flockmasters do this, then wonder when lambing time
comes why the lambs are weak and there is nothing in the udder
of the ewe to feed the lamb. The correct way and by far the most
economical way is to feed the better food right along with the
poorer food from the beginning of the winter, feeding the better
food at night and in the morning feeding the straw and if corn
stover or corn stalks are to be fed (and by the way when the

57

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

stalks are in good condition they are by no means a poor rough
feed), throwing them out on the ground for the sheep to pick over at
noon when it does not rtorm. All sheep need a little grain feed,
I care not how fleshy they may be, and the best of all grain feeds
for the breeding ewe is oats. Young ewes may need but little, but
older ones need feed in plenty. In this country it is safe to say
that where one sheep is fed oats to its injury not less than fifty
are allowed to get in low vitality for need of oats. It matters not
what time of the day the oats are fed, but the succulent feed like
the roots or silage is best fed in the fore part of the day.

In some parts of the middle western and eastern states blue-
grass abounds and when the snow does not cover the ground will
supply two very essential things for the breeding ewe, namely,
exercise and succulence. But right here is an illustration of the
truthfulness of what has been said: The bluegrass is abundant,
and is succulent, hence the flock owner depends upon it. He al-
lows the sheep to run out on the frozen bluegrass and stuff them-
selves upon it, but they are never fed, they are simply filled, and
only half fed. They are plump, yet actually being vitally reduced
in strength and prematurely give birth to their lambs, or if
they carry them full time drop weak lambs, which the ewes do
not own, or have no milk for them, and many a ewe dies at time
of parturition. She has simply managed to store up vitality enough
to carry her through giving birth to her lamb, then runs down
and dies. Too much succulence and not enough food. All could
have been prevented had a daily feed of good hay been furnished,
and a liberal feeding of grain all winter long. Right here again
is where thousands of sheep owners in this country bring loss in
their flocks. They save the grain feeding until after the lamb is
born, and then think to feed the ewe up into giving a good flow
of milk when the lamb is there to nurse it—a mistaken idea. A
breeding ewe that does not have a good udder of milk when the
lamb is born can never be fed up into giving a large flow after-
ward. The proper way is to feed the breeding ewe a milk-pro-
ducing food before the lamb is born, in fact all winter long, only
don’t put her on as strong feeding as when she is nursing her lamb.

DISOWNING LAMBS.

Some flock owners are always having trouble by reason of
their ewes not owning their lambs. I feel perfectly safe in saying
that nine times out of ten when the ewe drops a single lamb and
does not own it she has no milk in her udder to feed it. She may
have twin lambs and fail to own one of them when she has a
full udder of milk, but put it down as a rule that the disowning of
lambs is by reason of no milk in the udder. And there is no milk
there simply because the shepherd fed his flock no milk-producing

58

OF FARM ANIMALS.

food previous to lambing. Prevent the trouble by proper feeding
is the best of all ways. When ewes drop their lambs in the pas-
ture after being turned out for a few weeks before lambing it
never happens that a ewe in good physical health fails to own
her lamb.

CARE AT LAMBING TIME.

Shepherds are not made, they are born. It is the man who
has an inborn love for sheep who makes a good shepherd and no
other can be made into a first-class shepherd. We all in-
stinctively drift toward the things we love in this world and the
good shepherd always drifts to the sheep barn when the ewes
are lambing. He has prepared his sheep barn and so arranged
it as to have some little pens about 4x6 feet in size, so that when
he sees a ewe is about to drop her lamb he can put her into
it by herself. Then in case she drops twin lambs she will not
get strayed from either of them and as a rule will own them both.
The good shepherd is always familiar with his flock and the
flock is familiar with him. He can go among them night or day
without scaring them. A man not constituted to do this or too
lazy to get up in the middle of the night at lambing time and go
to the barn and see how his flock is getting along is not fit to
have charge of a flock of ewes. There are many good feeders of
sheep who are mighty poor shepherds to care for a flock at lamb-
ing time. A little assistance a ewe may need in the delivering of
her lamb, and a few drops of milk given soon after its birth will
save many a lamb’s life and put a five dollar bill in the pocket
of the owner five months later on. A little intelligent assistance
rendered at this critical time saves the life of a fine ewe. The
man who stands around with his gloves on and lets a ewe strain
her life away, when one leg happens to be back in the uterus, is
no man to look after the flock at lambing time. He may have
graduated at an agricultural college and have a degree, be able
to preach the Gospel or practice law or teach, but he has no
place in the sheep barn. It requires a man of more energy, more
sense and judgment than he possesses to look properly after a
flock of sheep. Or if he thinks his hands too delicate to take hold
of a young lamb and rub it dry in case the ewe is quite exhausted,
and assist it to nurse, he may be taught to play a fiddle or pos-
sibly a piano, but he is not fitted to grace a sheep barn when the
ewes are lambing. He may be able to write a good article for the
press, or talk well from the platform at a farmers’ institute, but
keep him at that kind of work and don’t allow him to enter the
sheep barn. In closing this chapter it is fitting that I say some-
thing regarding the doctoring of sheep.

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COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

PARASITES.

The chief enemy of the sheep in this country is internal para-
sites, by which I mean the stomach worm and the throat and
lung worm. The first named can be kept from doing serious harm by
the simple method of constantly keeping where the sheep can have
access to it medicated salt. Salt has long been known to be
one of the best worm destroyers and worm preventives. When
the salt is medicated by mixing in four quarts of salt one
pound of tobacco dust, one pound of powdered wormseed and one-
half pound of exiccated sulphate of iron, well mixed and placed in
a box where the fiock can have access to it constantly summer
and winter, there is little danger of worm infection. It may be
cheaper, however, for the flock owner to buy the medicated salt
sold under the trade name of Sal-Vet. This I know by a personal
trial to be a good preventive of worms in sheep and the proprietors
preparing it on a large scale can furnish it at a low price, con-
sidering its value. Worms are so prevalent in this country that
no flock owner should run the risk of the flock becoming infected
when it can be so easily prevented. As a direct worm destroyer
the best known remedies are found in the gasoline treatment and
the coal tar creosotes. The method of giving them has been so
frequently given in the bulletins and agricultural press that it
would seem out of place to give it here. Again this work is put
forth more to instruct farmers how to prevent ailments than to
cure ailments, which must always be of necessity the business of
the veterinary profession. The throat and lung worm is incur-
able only as the veterinarian is called to administer tracheal in-
jection of special drugs. The adding of a gill of oil of turpentine
to every four quarts of the medicated salt is the best known
preventive.

EXTERNAL PARASITES.

External parasites can be kept under subjection by dipping
the sheep and lambs in almost any one of the creosote or tobac-
co preparations on the market. The day is past and gone when
the farmer can prepare his own dip. The manufacturer can fur-
nish him the needed preparation ready for use for less than half
what he can buy the crude drugs for, and the pure drug laws of
this country practically make every dip a good and safe remedy
to use if used as directed.

STRETCHES IN SHEEP.

This is practically unknown when sheep are fed succulent food
as heretofore spoken of. When a sheep does have an attack four
ounces of Epsom salts and a spoonful of ginger dissolved in a pint
of warm water and given as a drench will afford relief the quick-
est of any known remedy.

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CHAPTER VII.

ODDS AND ENDS.

Many a farmer is ignorant of how to give a horse medicine
in a liquid form or drench. Photograph No. 7 shows a very easy
method. It is simply a two-tined fork, the tines of which are
placed in the mouth so as to straddle the upper jaw as noted in
the picture, when a man can easily raise the head of the horse,
not extremely high, but just high enough so that the fluid will
not run out of the mouth, when even a woman or a boy can stand
on a box if a man is not at hand and easily pour the drench in the
side of the mouth as you will note the farmer in the picture doing.
Raise the head only just high enough so ‘that the horse can
drink it easily. When the head is raised too high it becomes
impossible for the horse to swallow and strangling may take place.

GIVING CATTLE DRENCHES.

Some veterinarians have great trouble in giving cattle a
drench, but such is not the case when it is properly done. As
a rule when the animal is in the barn with the head in a stanchion
all one needs to do is to grasp the nostril with the thumb and
forefinger and the animal will stick its nose up, when the mouth
of the drenching bottle can be inserted and the animal will usual-
ly drink it as readily as an old toper.

RELIEVING A HORSE CHOKED ON OATS.

It is no uncommon thing for horses to become choked on oats
and sometimes it becomes a serious matter. The first thing al-
ways pour a little water down the throat, which generally relieves
the same as it will a person who chokes on some dry food. In
case it does not relieve have an assistant hold a piece of plank
on the buttock of the horse as is represented in the picture, while
you with a fence maul strike the plank a sharp blow as you see
me about to do in photograph No. 8.

A TYPE OF ROAD HORSE THAT USUALLY GOES LAME
AFTER A FEW HARD DRIVES.

Many a horse that has good blood in its veins and is consid-
ered a first-class road animal goes lame when put to hard driy-
ing on the road, or even moderate driving. Photograph No. 9
shows a horse of this class. Any woman can safely drive it, but

61

COMMON SENSE TREATMENT

look carefully at the fore limbs. Note the spring in the knees
and the short, upright pastern joint. The spring of a road horse
should be in the pastern joint and not in the knees, or the horse
machine will not be a “laster” to use a horseman’s phrase.

THE TUBERCULOUS TYPE.

Photograph No. 10 shows a type of cow in which veterinarians
who have studied types of cattle find the most tuberculosis pre-
vailing. Note.the lack of depth through the heart and the lack
of chest. While she may be a fair dairy cow her lack of con-
stitution makes her always subject to pulmonary disease.

THE STRONG CONSTITUTION iE.

Photograph No. 11 shows the type of cow of great constitution
and a first-class dairy cow, a little deficient in her udder conforma-
tion, making her somewhat subject to garget, also parturient apo-
plexy. Note her large nostril, her large jaw, her prominent chest
and great power of digestion. It is rare indeed that we find
a cow of this conformation suffering from tuberculous disease.
Right the opposite of the cow in Photograph No. 10.

A FIRST-CLASS DAIRY TYPE.

Photograph No. 12 shows a cow of well-nigh a perfect dairy
type. Animals of this type are generally not afflicted with gar-
get except as the result of a severe cold. The picture is one of
a pure-bred Ayrshire. She is not presented to boom the breed,
but to show what the type of a dairy cow that is somewhere near
perfection must look like, and at the same time have no inherent
tendency to disease of the mammary glands and lungs. Photo-
graph No. 183 shows the rear view of a pure-bred Guernsey heifer
28 months old, in milk three months, with an average daily record
of 36 pounds of milk testing 5.2 per cent of butter fat. The pho-
tograph shows the correct form of thighs and hocks so as to make
proper room for an udder not liable to injury.

NO ROOM FOR UDDER.

Photograph No. 14 shows a fairly good dairy type of cow, but
it will be noted that she is so narrow across the thighs and hocks
as not to have space enough to well carry her udder and she is
constantly producing stringy milk as a result of injuring her rear
udder with her hock joints. All such types should be bred out to
prevent veterinary bills and bad milk from time to time.

62

OF FARM ANIMALS.

A TYPE OF COW THAT IS NEVER SICK AND NEVER PRO-
DUCES ANY BAD MILK.

Photograph No. 15 shows the type of cow that I am sorry to
say is found on many farms of the country. They are never sick
and their owner never has to call the veterinarian. In fact the
owners of such cattle are always boasting that they always doctor
their own cows. In case one loses its cud he gives it a slice of
salt pork and in case a wolf gets in one’s tail he splits it and puts
in some salt and pepper to kill the wolf or drive him out. Or if
perchance one may have hollow horn in the spring contracted
from having a hollow belly all winter, he bores the horn and pours
turpentine in the ear to make her shake the horn pith back again.
So you see that he has no use for the veterinary profession and
will call them all a pack of fools, myself included, for writing this
little book. He never milks his cows during the winter as the
cow never has any milk in her udder to take out. She may pro-
duce three thousand pounds of milk per year that will test 3
per cent butter fat; while she always consumes none too good a class
of food she always costs her owner from $15 to $25 more per year
to keep her than she produces him in milk. Look her over and
see how she compares with the cows of the preceding photographs.

[THE END.]

63

One copy del, to Cat. Div.