How To Do Things

Veterinary Care of Teeth

Care of Horses' Teeth

Always examine the horse's teeth when the digestive organs are out of order. Attention by an expert dentist may be necessary. Chewing is made difficult and sometimes painful when the teeth are "cutting" through the gums, especially when milk (tempo­rary) teeth are being displaced by sec­ond (permanent) teeth. Roots of milk teeth are absorbed and the re­maining part, cap or crown, is forced off by the incoming second teeth. Crowns often lodge between the teeth and cheek, or fail to come off promptly, hence keep the second teeth back, or cause them to come in crooked.

Teething Troubles

When colts under five years of age "quid" their hay, or do not properly chew grain, examine the mouth and remove crowns with forceps. Between the ages of four and five years lancing swollen gums over teeth about to cut through often gives relief, especially as regards corner incisors (nippers or front lower teeth) and tushes or bridle teeth. One stroke of a rough file over the incoming tooth may take the place of lancing.

Wolf or blind teeth in the upper jaw, just in front of the first back teeth (pre-molars), seldom do harm, do not cause eye disease (moon blindness) or weak eyes, but should be pulled if they interfere with the bit.

Using the File or Rasp

Filing, rasping or floating back teeth (molars) is necessary when sharp points tend to cut the cheeks or tongue. Those points are found on the outer edge of the upper back teeth and in­ner edge of the lower back teeth. Rough grinding surfaces of teeth never should be filed smooth. Sharp tushes should be shortened and filed blunt when they cut the tongue or interfere with the bit; long points of back teeth and hooks of the two last upper and lower molars are to be treated in the same way.

Pull Decayed Molars

"Quidding" of hay, or pain (tooth­ache), shown by holding the head to one side when drinking cold water or chewing feed, slobbering, or foul smell from the mouth, usually indi­cates a split or decayed back tooth. It should be pulled with forceps or punched down into the mouth through a hole made in the bone of the face above the root of the tooth by means of a bone augur (trephine). Persist­ent discharge from one nostril, with or without bulging of the bones or the face below the eye, often is due to a diseased molar tooth which must be removed.

When the front teeth greatly over­lap the lower teeth, causing "parrot mouth," the horse cannot graze prop­erly. Correct this in curable cases by notching deeply with a sharp tri­angle file across the front of the upper teeth at the proper height; then nip off the overlapping portions by means of strong, sharp pincers and file smooth.

Bits Sometimes Make Trouble

The lower jaw, on the floor of the mouth (bar) between the first Incisor

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Medicine Chest Veterinary

and the front molar tooth, may be injured by the bit in younger or hard­-mouthed horses. The jawbone may be chipped or splintered by the bit. A raw sore forms and gathers feed and decaying saliva, which soon give off a foul odor. Probing of the wound discovers exposed diseased bone which flakes off (exfoliates) and should be removed. This is best done by means of a bone scoop or bone forceps in ten to fourteen days from the time of dis­covery.

A discharging sore (fistula) may form under the jaw on the edge of the bone. The diseased bone, due to fracture, must be removed, else healing will not take place. Cleanse the sore in the mouth and the external sore and pipe (sinus) by syringing with a two per cent. solution of permanganate of potash twice daily, and swab with tincture of iodine on alternate days until healed. Allow soft feed. Use a rubber or leather-covered straight bar bit. Do not use any overhead check. Similar discharging sinuses, farther back, are often due to diseased molar teeth which must be extracted. Fistula of the salivary duct is located nearby.

Stock Medicines and a Medicine Chest

All the medicine in the world will neither prevent nor cure a disease unless the remedy is at hand when it should be used. That is why so many animals die while the owner is making a trip to the drug store for remedies which are so necessary and so frequently used that they should be kept in a definite place in the stock barn.

A small cupboard about two feet wide and three feet high, with a depth of eight or ten inches, is a good thing to have in the feed way or in some convenient corner of every stock barn. On the several shelves of such a cup­board remedies of various kinds, and instruments for different purposes, can be kept for use. They will be handy when a sick animal is discov­ered, and it will not be necessary to go to the druggist, or even to the house, for medicines. There may be two doors on the cupboard, as shown in the illustration.

Instruments and Implements

In such a medicine chest, which is best made of grooved lumber to keep out dust and cockroaches, there may be hooks for hanging up syringes, scissors, trocars, clippers, knives, etc. These are necessary parts of every stockman's medicine kit, for their use is not compli­cated. The lower shelf in the cupboard may be placed twelve or fourteen inch­es high to make room beneath it for the instruments, a long-necked bottle to be used in drenching animals and for any tall pieces of glassware. Smaller pieces of glass­ware may be placed on the upper

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Veterinary Foot Troubles

shelves. A small strip of wood placed on the upper surface of the shelves at the outer edges will prevent the bottles being forced off the shelves.

The Most Necessary Drugs

It is neither possible nor economi­cal to keep in such a chest a remedy for every trouble. There are a few remedies, however, whose uses are so varied that they need to be included in the list. One of these is tincture of iodine, used to swab out deep cuts and wounds. Ordinarily such wounds heal in a couple of weeks; if they fail to do so, a snag or an abscess may be present, necessitating the services of a veterinarian.

Aloes and linseed oil are almost a necessity, particularly for use in purging a horse. Epsom salts an­swers well as a purgavtive [sic, ed.] for cows and sheep, and castor oil for calves infected with scours. Baking soda can be kept for colic, and some pow­dered tobacco for worms in horses. A box of salve, for use on sore teats, is worth having on hand. Just as necessary is a bottle of linement for use on sprains and bruises.

Not Much, But Some

Copper sulphate, commonly called blue vitriol, has a wide use as a wash and is also used in controlling proud flesh in wounds. Silver nitrate is en­titled to a place on the shelf, because of its use as an eye wash. Red iodide of mercury is used for blistering, mak­ing it into an ointment for use on spavins and splints. Carbolic acid is effective as a wash and disinfectant. Sulphur chloride of lime, powdered chalk, sulphate of iron and lead ace­tate are a few other articles worth a place in the cupboard. The amount of these kept on hand need not be large; it is important to have them on hand, rather than in any large amount. Soap is an important article to have. Powders for dusting on sores may be kept in cans with perforated tops, so the dust can be sprinkled on easily.

Labels on bottles containing medi­cine need to be renewed as often as they become faded or discolored. A bunch of labels may be kept in the cupboard to be used as needed. It is imperative that all bottles or boxes containing poison be labeled "Poison" in large letters. All such bottles might be kept on the top shelf, where they will be out of reach of any of the chil­dren who might wander into the barn. Better still, keep the door of the chest locked.

Dry Stables, Sound Feet

Every practical horseman knows that the disease known as thrush is caused by allowing the horse to stand with his feet constantly in wet and filth; but few, comparatively, understand that canker of the frog and sole is caused in the same way.

Thrush is characterized by inflammation

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Foot Troubles Veterinary

of the fine skin between the toes in cattle; pus forms and tends to underrun the horny wall of the foot. In horses the frog (see F, in illustration) is the part affected, and its cleft, nor­mally shallow, be­comes deep and ex­udes a thin, foul­-smelling liquid. Gradually the frog becomes rotten and loose and the disease may spread to the surrounding parts; lameness is rare.

Canker of the frog, F, and sole, S, differs from thrush in that the horn of the sole becomes soft or spongy and readily bleeds when cut. In canker, the sensitive tissue (pododerm) of the sole, which ordinarily is covered with solid horny tissue, seems to have taken the place of the solid material. The sole is made up of sprouting fun­gous tissue and is extremely sensitive and vascular. If it be cut away it may grow again in a single night and the entire affected part is covered with a stinking fluid.

Prevention is all important in these diseases. Stable management should be such that no horse is allowed to stand for any length of time in wet and filth. In horse stables where the manure is removed "now and then," the "nows" and the "thens" some­times coming months apart, so that the horse has to jump into bed over a high barrier of manure, it is little wonder that the animal contracts thrush or canker.

Treatment of Thrush

Treatment of thrush consists in removing the cause, cleansing the affected foot thoroughly, then cutting away all loose, rotten and underrun horn of the frog and on each side of it, and packing the cleft of the frog full of calomel, or a mixture of calomel, subnitrate of bismuth and slaked lime. This is to be covered with oakum, upon which pine tar has been spread, and the dressing is to be renewed at intervals of three or four days. The stall floor should be kept clean, sprinkled with slaked lime or gypsum (land-plaster) and bedded with sawdust or planing-mill shav­ings.

Treatment of Canker

Canker is best treated by the trained and experienced veterinarian, but there is no specific remedy. Be­fore succeeding with a bad case, it usually is necessary to alternate rem­edies and try a great number. The first step in all cases should be to cut down the sprouting growth level with the walls of the foot; then it is usual to cauterize the sole with a red-hot iron or some strong caustic. We usually employ terchloride of antimony, or full strength formaldehyde to start with, and if that does not suf­fice, change to chromic acid, or strong nitric acid. After applying the caustic, oakum saturated with tinc­ture of iron, or a solution of two ounces of sulphate of copper (blue­stone) to the pint of hot water, is bound upon the sole in such a way as to cause firm pressure, for pres­sure is absolutely necessary. The dressing is changed or renewed every twenty-four hours. Dry dressing pow­ders also are useful, such as a mix­ture of equal quantities of calomel, subnitrate of bismuth and tannic acid or burnt alum, or a cheaper mixture of slaked lime, alum, sulphur and charcoal. Naphthalin sometimes is added.

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Veterinary Foot-and-Mouth Disease

The Terrible Foot-and-Mouth Disease

It is sincerely to be hoped that contagious foot-and-mouth disease is about stamped out of this country; but that remains to be seen. As the disease has caused terrible losses thus far, and may remain as a menace for some time to come, every owner of farm animals should perfectly under­stand its nature and characteristic symptoms.

The disease is technically known as aphthous fever, or epizootic aphtha. It is extremely contagious or commu­nicable; indeed, it is the most con­tagious disease of farm animals. It is peculiar to cloven-footed animals, but may affect persons who happen to drink the milk of an affected cow. It usually attacks from forty to fifty per cent. of the cattle of a district when it gets a start; but may, in some in­stances, be immediately stopped in its progress.

An Organism Too Small to See

It is caused by an organism too small to be seen by the strongest mi­croscope and which passes through a fine porcelain filter. It is therefore called an ultra-microscopic or filter­able virus. The virus is present in the liquid filling the vesicles characteristic of the disease, in the saliva, urine and manure, and to a less de­gree in the milk. It also is present in the blood during the stage of fever, but not after the vesicles have ap­peared. An outbreak of the disease always is due to a previous outbreak. It is impossible for it to appear spontaneously. The virus is easily de­stroyed by an effective disinfectant. A temperature of 165 degrees Fahren­heit will destroy it, but it with­stands freezing.

Infection, Direct or Indirect

The disease is contracted by way of the mouth in contaminated feed, or may enter by abrasions or wounds of the skin, or by infected dust get­ting into the lungs. Saliva of an af­fected animal rubbed into the eye of another will produce the disease. The fluid of the vesicles readily causes the disease if it gets into a cut or broken place on the skin. Direct infection comes from the secretions and excre­tions, saliva and milk. It affects the new-born calf of an affected cow.

Indirectly infection takes place by means of any object or substance con­taminated by the disease, such as milk from a creamery, dust, manure, cars, chutes, pens, yards, stock-yards, auctions, shows, water troughs, feed, hides, horns, hoofs, wool, hair, men, dogs, cats, birds, rats or mice, and an apparently well animal may carry it or it may be spread by contaminated hog cholera serum or vaccine against smallpox. It is suspected that cattle recovered from the disease may pos­sibly act as "disease carriers," in the manner in which typhoid is some­times carried and communicated by a recovered person. There is no definite immunity from an attack of the dis­ease. Immunity may last months or years.

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After exposure to the infection the disease appears in three to six days in cattle, or a little longer in some cases; hogs, one or two days; sheep, one to six days. The mouths of cattle are most severely affected, and the feet of hogs and sheep.

Symptoms Easily Recognizable

In three to six days the cow has a chill, which is at once followed by a fever running 104 degrees to 106 de­grees, and she droops, loses appetite and shrinks in milk. In one to two or three days more vesicles (blisters) appear upon the lining membrane of the mouth, inside of the cheeks, on the gums, on the tongue near the tip and along the borders of the hard palate (dental pad). The vesicles are from the size of a pea to that of a silver dollar, and are filled with colorless or yellowish fluid. The ani­mal slobbers profusely and smacks the lips loudly as soon as the vesicles appear. The vesicles rupture in one to three days more, quickly scab over and heal in ten days to two weeks.

Similar vesicles appear upon the skin between the toes and along the upper edges of the hoofs; also upon the teats. The animal is lame and stiff when the feet become affected and the vesicles on the teats make milking painful and lead to a shrink­age of fifty to seventy-five per cent. in the milk flow. When the vesicles rupture the remaining ulcers are very easily infected with filth, and the animal may die of such infection or be slow in recovering.

Ordinarily the attack kills only one to three per cent. of the affected ani­mals, but it may leave many injured, and always proves seriously hurtful. The disease is controlled by imme­diate slaughter, burial in quicklime and maintenance of strict quarantine.

Mouth Troubles of Stock

One would think that any man who found that one of his animals was slobbering and could not properly masticate feed, would open the beast's mouth and have a look at the teeth, gums, palate, tongue and throat, but such is not the case. We have had a number of letters within the past two months describing symptoms such as we have mentioned, and in not a sin­gle instance had the owner or attend­ant made the necessary examination. We had to tell him to do so, and then the cause was readily discovered. In every case where there is evident dif­ficulty in chewing, or swallowing, or if the feed forms "quids" and is ex­pelled or dropped from the mouth, or if saliva flows unnaturally, ex­amine the mouth or have some ex­pert do so.

"Under Tongue" and Lump Jaws

Called to determine why a cow would not eat properly and why sa­liva dropped from her mouth, we asked

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How To Do Things

Veterinary Various Troubles

the owner if he had examined the tongue, and he answered in the nega­tive. We then told him, on general principles, that he should have done so, as actinomycosis of the tongue was a common disease of cattle and was known as "wooden tongue." In this case that disease was found pres­ent and curable. It is caused by the ray fungus (actinomyces), which also causes lump jaw, getting into the tissues of the tongue through an ab­rasure, or is carried on a sharp spear of straw, fodder or hay, or on a grain hull. Barley awns are also a frequent cause of the disease.

The tongue enlarges, becomes hard and shows sores on its surface. Scari­fication, painting with tincture of iodine and administration of iodide of potash internally in the drinking water, generally cures the disease, and that was the effect of treatment in question.

Watch the Animals--They Can Not Speak

Observation was necessary for its detection. Observation is needed in diagnosing every ailment of animals, for the beasts cannot speak for them­selves. Let every owner learn to ob­serve the animal in normal health so that he will understand its signs and symptoms, then he will the more readily detect departures from the normal which indicate sickness. By making this his practice he often will find it unnecessary to employ a veterinarian, and, better still, he will be able to promptly save an animal from suffering.

Not as Bad as it Seemed

A few cases may be quoted where prompt examination and attention would have saved trouble. A cattle­man became convinced that his ani­mals were affected with contagious foot-and-mouth disease, because they drooled and acted sick. He sent a long distance for a veterinarian and when the doctor arrived he found the lips and tongues of the cattle filled with sharp needle-grass to which they had recently found access. The of­fending needles were extracted, so far as possible, and a simple mouth wash of borax prescribed, and soon the ani­mals recovered.

In another instance a man called a veterinarian a distance of seven miles to determine what caused a big, hard bunch on the face of his wean­ling colt. He thought the doctor should cut out the bunch or split it open, and so telephoned him to bring along the necessary instruments. But a forefinger did the work. A mass of fodder had lodged between the molar teeth and cheek and was easily pried loose. The owner looked "mad," but could not complain when he had to pay the veterinarian a pretty stiff fee for the long run and "operation."

The Deadly Rubber Band

In two other cases dogs showed hor­rible gaping wounds of the neck, and were brought to the veterinarian to be chloroformed. The owners were asked if they could tell what caused the awful wounds and answered, "No"; then the veterinarian made the needed examination, and in each case he found a small rubber band at the bottom of the wound, having eaten its way in as far as it could go, and stopped when in contact with wind­pipe and vertebrae. A lady put a nice warm flaxseed poultice upon the wounded foot of her big St. Bernard dog, and held it in place by means

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How To Do Things

Cuts Veterinary

of a small rubber band placed around the cloth and leg. Naturally the dog promptly ate the poultice, and nobody remembered the rubber band, or im­agined that it was the cause of a great wound above the foot and several discharging holes in the terribly swollen toes; but the veterinarian discovered that too late to save the foot. Assuredly here is need to ob­serve closely and correctly, and by so doing prevent suffering and loss.

Wire Cuts and Other Cuts

Horses running loose in pasture or barn-yard are quite apt to run into, or be crowded into, the fence, espe­cially if they are running with a number of others. Usually slight cuts heal quickly and are unnoticed; but, nevertheless, every cut and scratch, however trifling in itself, should be attended to, as serious cases of blood-poisoning come from small be­ginnings.

In a farm paper, lately, a man asked what could be done for one of his horses. Its leg, he said, was swol­len and stiff, apparently caused by a cut on the shoulder. Before the leg began to swell, he should have cleansed the wound with a weak solu­tion of carbolic acid and peroxide of hydrogen, and salved it with oxide of zinc ointment. As it is, his horse is laid up at the time he most needs its services. Better be safe than sorry.

Start in Time

Get after those insignificant wire­ cuts while they are insignificant. If your horse is working, tie a bandage over the cut to keep it from being chafed and rubbed. Liniments are more apt to irritate the raw flesh than to benefit. Some horses get a liniment bath whenever they com­plain, but if they could they would protest against it. One man who put liniment on his horse and started to the store, wondered what made his horse "act up."

A horse was turned out in a pas­ture to graze. Later, a loud rattle and commotion was heard in that direction, and investigation disclosed the fact that the horse had slipped or rolled under the fence. The tight wire prevented his getting up, he be­came panic-stricken and kicked and struggled till he was covered with a hundred cuts and gashes. The men folks cut the wire and helped the animal to stand, then heated water and got bandages to bind the wounds and stop the bleeding.

On examination it was found that one vein was severed in the left hind foot, and his chest and sides were covered with deep gashes that were sewed up with a needle and fine silk thread, after the cuts had been bathed with peroxide of hydrogen and salved with oxide of zinc ointment. The bandages were tied tightly to hold the stitches in place, and the horse was tied in his stall where he could be looked after. The cuts were dressed every day until they healed, and there were no scars left.

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How To Do Things

Veterinary The First Calf

The Heifer's First Calf

It is certainly alarming to most dairymen, but especially to the begin­ner, when a heifer that has been raised with much work and trouble approaches the calving with a big, hard, caked udder, and after calv­ing does not quickly get over the con­dition. In such cases the udder will be found to contain watery fluid (serum), when stripped before calv­ing, and after the calf comes this fluid changes rather slowly to true milk and is liable to be stained with blood. In the most severe cases there is also a dropsical swelling of the belly, around the navel, and in some instances the swelling is hard, but more often it "pits" under pressure like dough or putty. It is found necessary to strip away the fluid to relieve the congestion before calving, and milking three times a day is im­perative after calving.

Circulation is Not Sufficient

The condition we have described constitutes "congestion," by which term is meant a rush of blood to the part and failure of the circulation to quickly and perfectly remove the blood. The copious flow of blood to the udder is natural and necessary toward calving time and after calv­ing; for it is from blood that the milk ingredients come, and a large flow of blood indicates the probability of a correspondingly large secretion of milk as soon as the udder takes up its work in a normal and perfect way.

The serum mentioned above is forced out of the capillary blood-ves­sels and invades the connective tissues. As soon as the circulation of the blood, through the veins, becomes normal, the surplus serum is reab­sorbed. The lymphatic vessels also join in this work of removal. The condition largely is due to lack or circulation away from the udder through the "milk veins," which are seen as prominent vessels upon the abdomen of the adult cow. The en­largement of these veins is a gradual process and not complete until the adult age. The vessels are unde­veloped in the heifer, hence the young animal is most liable to have congestion of the udder. This congestion is almost absolutely certain as an indi­cation of large milk producing capa­city, and therefore is not alarming, but the reverse, provided the udder is given proper treatment.

Increased Exercise and Careful Feeding

Abundant daily exercise is neces­sary to stimulate perfect circulation of the blood. Such exercise should be given before calving and then daily when the cow has sufficiently recov­ered from calving. It also is important to keep the excretory organs ac­tive before and after calving, and for that reason, constipating feed, such as much corn, should not be allowed. The heifer, on the contrary, should have laxative feed, such as bran mashes with some flaxseed-meal added.

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Milk Fever Veterinary

A little sound silage or roots and clover or alfalfa hay will add the needed protein material.

When congestion is acute before calving, stripping away of the serum may become necessary and should be done twice daily; but the chief neces­sity of the case is to increase exer­cise, without causing chill, and to massage the udder patiently two or three times a day, also rubbing the dropsical swelling of the navel and abdomen toward the heart. It is well to use warm sweet-oil, melted lard or lanolin upon the palms of the hands when doing the rubbing. If the con­gestion persists, two drams of salt­peter may be given twice daily in water or soft feed, and a teaspoonful of turpentine may be added to each ounce of lard or oil used for the rub­bing of the udder.

After Calving

When congestion persists or is ag­gravated after calving, let the calf suck for a few days, but also strip away some of the milk or serum twice daily, if the calf does not take it all. Increase the saltpeter to a tablespoon­ful dose twice daily, adding an equal dose of powdered poke-root, and to the lard or oil used to rub the udder two or three times a day, add one tea­spoonful each of turpentine and fluid extract of pokeroot and belladonna. Do not use camphor in such cases, or much belladonna, as both tend to dry up milk secretions. In extra se­vere cases the treatment may well start with a full dose of saline pur­gatives, such as one pound of Glauber or Epsom salts, and half a cupful of blackstrap molasses in three pints of warm water as one dose to be admin­istered very slowly and carefully from a long-necked bottle. A very large cow takes from one and one-quarter to one and one-half pounds of salts as a pur­gative dose. The purgative never should be repeated sooner than twenty­-four hours, and seldom is found neces­sary after one good dose has been given. If the milk is bloody reduce the rich feed, milk gently and be care­ful that the udder is not bruised or chilled upon a hard, cold floor, such as one of cement.

Symptoms, Prevention and Treatment of Milk Fever

While milk-fever of the cow may attack the animal at any time of the year, it seems most prevalent in late winter or early spring. That at least is the experience of the writer; but locality and climate may alter the case in some circumstances. We think that it indicates lack of re­sistant power, and the disease will therefore be most liable to strike when resistant powers are at their lowest. That time often is when cows have been tied up in hot, badly ventilated stables for many months, and during that time have been heav­ily fed a ration rich in the protein necessary for milk production. It seems certain, at least, that pampered cows, of dairy breed, that have had two or more calves are most suscept­ible to attack, and it is such cows that are pampered for the maximum milk production.

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Veterinary Milk Fever

Having such a cow the owner hates to dry her off for six weeks before calving or to withhold rich feed. He wishes to have the cow give as much milk as possible and calve when in high condition, that she may again give a big "mess" of milk. That sys­tem of management is wrong and often disastrous.

A Disease of Pampered Cows

Milk-fever never attacks a cow that is in natural condition. It is un­known on the range where cattle run out. It is a disease of domestication, overfeeding for great production, and of weakened condition, the result of pampering, lack of exercise, pro­longed lactation, early breeding, stimulating feed and warm stables.

To prevent milk-fever every dairy cow should be "dried off" for at least six weeks before calving, and should have enough exercise every day throughout pregnancy to keep her muscular and to regulate her bowels. The pampered cow becomes soft, sluggish and constipated. Effete mat­ters of the blood are not eliminated by the liver and kidneys under such circumstances, and the system of the cow becomes poisoned as a result. Such a cow is subject to milk fever, or any other disease, and when at­tacked is liable to suffer or quickly succumb.

Treatment Before Calving

In addition to properly feeding, ex­ercising and stabling the adult cow that is nearing the calving time as preventives of milk-fever, it is impor­tant to treat her properly at the time of calving. If she is fat and constipated she should have bran mashes containing flaxseed-meal toward the time of freshening, and at calving a full dose of Epsom salts (one pound or more in warm water as a drench, or smaller doses, say four ounces a day, for a week before that time. It is best that the bowels should be active at calving time; exercise helps induce such a condition.

When the calf comes the udder should not at once be milked dry. That is a common and serious error in management. Let the calf suck for three or four days and milk-fever will not be likely to occur, or strip away only a little of the milk three or four times a day at first, for the disease strikes in its worst form a ­few hours to two or three days after calving.

Remember that it may also attack a cow that is going on lush spring grass. Keep the big milking adult cow off rich grass just before fresh­ening, and feed her dry hay and light, laxative mashes, as is done with the cow in winter. If the udder is greatly congested and distended before calv­ing, massage it well two or three times daily, and even strip away some of the serum which will be found present. Also give a physic and reduce rich feed.

Symptoms and Treatment

The first symptom of milk-fever usually is restlessness, as manifested by stepping up and down with the hind feet, thrusting out the tongue; then follows weakness of the hind parts, suppression of milk and feces, and finally paralysis and unconscious­ness.

It seems almost unnecessary to in­dicate treatment, so widely is that understood nowadays; but for those who may not have heard of it, it may be said that the udder is stripped clean, washed and then inflated with

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How To Do Things

Barrenness Veterinary

air, one teat at a time, by means of a special inflating apparatus or cleansed bicycle pump, fitted to a small rubber tube and large steril­ized milk tube through which air is pumped to the udder. The cow is kept upon her chest. If she is allowed to lie upon her side she will be likely to die of pneumonia.

Large quantities of medicine must not be administered by way of the mouth, for the cow cannot swallow and will choke. The veterinarian may give hypodermic treatment with strychnine, but usually the inflation suffices. When a quarter has been pumped full of air, a wide tape is lightly tied around the teat, and the other quarters are similarly treated; then the udder may be gently mas­saged. The treatment is repeated if the cow does not soon recover.

Barrenness--Causes and Treatment

The causes of barrenness in cows are many and different, so that there can be no one cure for all cases. In­deed, no specific remedy for barren­ness has been found.

First, we may set down the fact that when a heifer is heavily fed and not bred by the time she is sixteen months old she tends to become bar­ren, her generative organs suffer fatty degeneration. This is most likely to affect the heifers of beef breeds, but pampered dairy heifers are similarly affected. Heavy feeding, especially of corn, may also induce an acid condi­tion of the secretions or the organs, which prevents conception. It is im­portant, therefore, to raise the heifer in a natural manner and to breed her before the detrimental fattening stage is reached. The precocious fat heifer comes in heat very early, and if not bred may soon stop coming in heat.

When periods of heat cease, apart from the cause just stated, the cause may be the presence of a mummified fetus in the womb, or a diseased condition of the ovaries, or germ Infec­tion, notably that of contagious abor­tion.

Abnormalities

Local abnormalities also may cause barrenness. Of these the most com­mon is persistence of the web of tis­sue closing the vaginal passage. Tumors in the vagina, or twisting or abnormal closure of the mouth of the womb, cause barrenness. Other causes are change of climate, feed and water, semi-starvation, debility from any cause, retention of the afterbirth leading to a diseased condition of the womb, excessive nervousness, and ef­fects of prolonged in-and-in breeding.

To remedy barrenness the cause, so far as possible, should be ascertained and removed. When a heifer that is not a freemartin (twinned with a bulb) fails to come in heat, an exami­nation of the vagina should be made for removal of causes of barrenness already mentioned; then the veterina­rian should massage the ovaries two

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How To Do Things

Veterinary Castration

or three times at intervals of a week, to break cysts, which sometimes cause barrenness. The massaging is done by way of the rectum, and can be properly done only by a specially trained and experienced expert, who also may have to open the womb with special instruments. This most com­monly is necessary in the cow that has become barren after giving birth to one calf, or several. In such cases the mouth of the womb may be found blocked with dried catarrhal dis­charge substance; or adhesions may have resulted from laceration caused In difficult calving; or pus or a mum­mified fetus may be present in the womb. These foreign matters must be removed before conception can take place.

When a heifer or cow fails to come in heat there is a chance that she may do so if fed a quart of stove-dried whole oats the first thing each morning. Along with this she must live a natural out-door life, so far as possible; and a vaginal injection con­sisting of at least two quarts of luke­warm water containing a dram or coal-tar disinfectant to the quart should be given every other day. A solution containing a dram of pure phosphate of soda to the quart should be used if a cow comes in heat regu­larly but fails to conceive.

Castration of Young Animals

The castration of quite young ani­mals is commonly undertaken by the farmer, but older animals should have the attention of a trained surgeon or experienced expert. No matter who does the work, certain general princi­ples necessary to success should be carefully put in practice. A few of these principles will here be set down:

The colt should be castrated on a fine, dry day, when flies are not about. Castrate when the colt is sufficiently developed, but not so old that his neck has become coarse and thick and the general appearance that of a stallion. In most instances the colt is suffic­iently well developed at one year of age. If he is too effeminate at that age, better let him grow for another year. In our opinion it is a mistake to castrate the colt much under one year old, as often advised by writers on the subject. The geldings in such cases lack masculinity and fail to make well-grown horses. If possible operate with the colt cast on green grass. Avoid doing the work in a dirty place where infection is almost certain to be contracted. Avoid casting the colt upon a manure heap or bare ground. Tetanus (lockjaw) germs abound in such places.

Before the operation starve the colt for at least twelve hours and withhold drinking water. Lay him down gently. The standing operation is popular with

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How To Do Things

Castration Veterinary

some, but is somewhat dangerous to colt and operator. Take great care to use only clean instruments and with clean hands. Wash the seat of the operation with warm water containing

A standing operation is not advised. It is better to throw the colt gently in a clean place. By means of a web casting harness like the above this is easily done.

one teaspoonful of coal-tar disinfectant to the pint. Wash the hands with a similar solution and immerse the in­struments in a like solution. After removal of the testicles by means of an ecraseur or emasculator, cleanse again and let the colt up. The cuts in the scrotum should have been made large and in such a position as to allow free drainage. No pockets should be allowed to remain.

After the operation it is important to enforce exercise every day to keep down swellings, promote free circula­tion of blood and so induce healing. The day after the operation rip the scrotal wounds open with cleansed fin­gers, to allow drainage, and at the same time break down any adhesions that may have formed between the severed cord and wall of the scrotum. Repeat this once daily until white pus starts flowing. At that stage there will be no danger of tetanus or infection.

To castrate a calf, have an attend­ant set the calf on its rump, hold its fore legs firmly, the holder's back being in a corner. Now double a rope about two yards long and tie the free ends together to form a loop. Place one loop over one hind pastern, then twist the rope and place the other loop upon the other pastern. The operator should stand upon the rope, with his feet pressed against the calf's feet and so keep the calf's legs spread apart and prevent kicking. The operator now stoops down, cuts the end off the scrotum, or makes two free incisions upon the testicles, pulls these out and scrapes through the cord and artery as these are drawn away from the body.

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