One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered Part 71

My cows are healthy and calves all right, but seem to have trouble throwing the afterbirth.

Wash out twice daily with about 1 gallon of normal salt solution (teaspoonful of salt to each pint of warm water). Give internally the following powder: Pulv. gentian, 4 ounces; puv. slippery elm, 1 ounce; puv. charcoal, 1 ounce; pulv. hyposulphate of soda. 8 ounces. Mix and give a heaping teaspoonful twice daily.

Treatment for Caked Bag.

I have a cow whose udder is caked hard and has been swollen from the udder to the forelegs. This latter swelling has gone down by applying equal mixture of turpentine and lard, but the udder itself still remains hard. When first noticed, one teat caked, then another, until all four are caked alike.

Insert a milk tube and inject the following: Hydrogen dioxide, 8 ounces; tincture iron chloride, 1 ounce; water, 7 ounces. Inject into each affected teat. Apply the following externally: Camphorated oil, 8 ounces; tincture belladonna, 2 ounces; oil eucalyptus, 2 ounces. Mix and apply twice daily.

Garget.

I have a cow which gave rich milk all the time, but now every time I milk her some yellow, hard substance will come out instead of milk.

First from one teat, then the next, and when I strain the milk the strainer will be full of hard yellow specks.

Your cow has undoubtedly been affected with garget. This milk should not be used. The condition is best treated by ma.s.saging the udder every day with camphorated oil. It will also be necessary for you to continue to milk her regularly until about six weeks before she is due to freshen, at which time you should proceed to dry her up.

Infectious Mast.i.tis.

We have a 2-year-old heifer, which, two weeks before she was due to freshen, had a large udder slightly caked. Upon pressing the teat a discharge of blood issues from each teat.

This is infectious mast.i.tis. It may be due to a bruise or blow or infection introduced through the milk duct. The first is most likely.

Apply camphorated oil externally and inject into the affected udder some hydrogen dioxide (peroxide of hydrogen. - EDITOR.). After ten minutes, milk out again. Repeat once daily.

A Mangy Cow.

I have a milk cow with some trouble about her head, neck and shoulders, which causes her to rub herself enough to make raw spots and take off most all of the hair from the parts affected. The trouble has been standing for 18 months, but I have been using medicine at different times, which stops the rubbing, and the part will cover with hair nicely again, but in due time the trouble shows up again.

This cow seems to have mange or scabbies, which is caused by a parasite and is easily spread by contact to other cattle. It should be treated by two or three applications, ten days apart, of a hot solution of creolin, well scrubbed into the skin. The solution is made by mixing five tablespoonfuls of creolin in a gallon of hot water. The treatment should be applied pretty well over the body to cover all the affected parts, and needs to be repeated in ten days to destroy the younger generation.

The sheds should be cleaned and whitewashed.

Irritation on Back of Udder.

I have a yearling heifer which has sore teats and blotches just back of her bag which seem to itch. Her mother had a sort of eczema on her neck.

I fear her sore teats will spoil her for milking when she comes in next year.

The following treatment is advised: Drench with 1 pound of Epsom salts dissolved in a couple quarts of water. The sores may be treated by was.h.i.+ng them with a 2 per cent solution of one of the coaltar disinfectants, such as creolin. After the sores have been allowed to dry naturally, a very little powdered calomel may be dusted thereon. Do this every other day for a few days.

Enlarged Gland on Neck.

I have a calf that has a lump on her neck, which appeared when she was two days old. The lump is getting larger.

This is probably an enlarged thyroid gland. Apply the following once daily for several weeks and let it alone unless it becomes too large or gets very soft, which is unlikely. Churchill's tincture iodine, 8 ounces; turpentine, 1 ounce; sulphuric ether, 2 ounces; oil aniseed, 1/2 ounce. Mix and apply once daily.

Lumpy Jaw.

Some of my cows have hard lumps on their jaws, or lumpy jaw. Can that be cured, and how?

This is Actinomycosis (lumpy jaw) and is due to ray fungi (actinomyces) which are found originally on plants which enter the body in various ways. The trouble usually appears in the upper or lower jaws of cattle, where it generally produces tumors of bone or soft tissues. For treatment give 1 1/2 drachms of iodide of potash in 1/2 pint of water daily for 14 days. Increase to 2 drachms for 14 more days, and then gradually decrease. Divide the tumor and insert gauze saturated with tincture of iodine for 4 days. In 8 days a visible improvement will be noticed,

A Neck-Swelling.

My cow has a swelling under her neck between her jaw bones about the size of a baseball and almost as hard. It is not attached to anything apparently, but largely suspended by the skin at the entrance to the throat.

Cut directly through the center of the enlargement, clean to the bottom, splitting it wide open. Clean it out with peroxide of hydrogen, after which saturate absorbent cotton with tincture iodine, pack in tight and sew the skin to hold it in place. Remove the dressing in 48 hours and wash with sheep dip (tablespoon to 1 quart of warm water) twice daily.

This may be tubercular, or the result of foxtail, etc.

Cow Chewing Bones.

One of my cows is continually chewing bones. What can I do to prevent it?

Give the cow good clean hay; some root crop, cocoanut meal, bran or soy-bean meal. If the cow does not stop mix in the drinking water twice daily a little dilute hydrochloric acid. Also, have boxes arranged near feeding stalls which contain wood ashes, slaked lime and salt.