The American Reformed Cattle Doctor Part 8

5 " in 24 " " "

3 " in 30 " " "

2 " in 36 " " "

1 " in 72 " " "

"It appears, then, from the above, that after the twentieth and twenty-fourth hours, the animals, comparatively speaking, may be considered as safe from the disease; and that after the seventy-second or seventy-third hour, all danger may be considered as past, beyond doubt.

"Thirdly. _What is the average rate of mortality amongst cows attacked with this disease?_ Out of the 29 cases, 12, I find, recovered and 17 died; which loss is equivalent to somewhere about 59 per cent.--a loss which, I am inclined to think, is not so great as that of many other pract.i.tioners. [It will be still less if you reject poison as well as the lancet.]

"Mr. Cartwright, in the May number of the Veterinarian of the present year, states that, 'Although I have seen at least a hundred cases, chiefly in this neighborhood, [Whitchurch,] during the last twenty-five years, yet I am almost ashamed to confess that I cannot call to recollection that I ever cured a single case, [neither will you ever cure one as long as the lancet and poison are cooperative,] nor have I ever heard of a case ever being cured by any of the quacks in the neighborhood.' [Of course not, for the quacks follow in the footsteps of their prototypes, the _regular_ veterinary surgeons.]

"Fourthly. _What is the best method to pursue with cattle, in order, if possible, to_ PREVENT _the disease?_ This is a question which I hope to see amply discussed by veterinarians. I have but little to offer respecting it myself; but I labor under a kind of feeling that something valuable may not only be said, but done, by way of prevention. With reference to preventing the disease, Mr. Barlow, in his Essay, says, 'There is a pretty certain preventive in milking the cow some time before calving in full _blood-letting_ before or immediately after; in purgatives, very limited diet, and other depletive measures; each and all tending to ill.u.s.trate the necessity of a vascular state of the system for its development!'"

Mr. Hayc.o.c.k continues: "So far as my own experience is concerned, it is at variance with almost every one of my observations. In the table which I have given respecting question 2, the reader will recollect that I stated that puerperal fever supervened in five cows immediately after parturition. Now, it is worthy of remark, of these five cases, that every animal had been milked many hours previous to calving. The full udder, under such circ.u.mstances, is a powerful excitant to the uterus: this is a well-known fact, and the consequence is, that if this natural excitant be withdrawn, the action of the process at once becomes diminished. I have known many cases, in addition to those already given, where the parturient process was prolonged for hours in consequence of the animal's being milked, in whom fever supervened almost immediately afterwards. The prolonged process, I think, greatly weakens the animal, and, as a natural result, the vital energies become less capable of maintaining their normal integrity. With reference, again, to bleeding and purging as preventives, I have nothing to offer in favor of either mode. I do not believe that they are preventives. [Good, again, doctor: you are one of the right stripe. It would give us pleasure to see a few such as you on this side of the water.] First of all, we require to know what percentage of calving cows are liable to be affected with puerperal fever; then, whether that percentage becomes reduced in number in consequence of such preventive measures being brought into force: these are the only modes whereby the matter can be proved; and, so far as I know, no one has ever brought the question to such a test. That bleeding and purging are considered as preventives by people in general, I know perfectly; but, like many other popular opinions, the thing which is believed requires first to be proved ere it becomes truth.

"I perfectly agree with Mr. Barlow in recommending spare diet. I regard it, in fact, as the great preventive.... When I say spare diet, I do not mean poor diet. The food should be good, but they should not have that huge bulk of matter which they are capable of devouring, and which they appear so much to desire. I should commence the process for eight or ten days prior to calving, or even, with some animals, much earlier; and the diet I would give should consist of beans, boiled linseed, and boiled oats, with occasionally small portions of hay. I should not always feed upon one mixture. I might occasionally subst.i.tute boiled barley in place of oats; and when the time for calving was very near at hand, say within a day or so, I should become more sparing with my hay, and more copious with my allowance of bran. With regard to the diet after calving, I should pursue much the same course I have named: perhaps for the first thirty hours I might allow the animal nothing but gruel and bran mash, in which I should mix a little oatmeal, or very thick gruel. I have sometimes thought--_but hitherto it has not gone beyond a thought with me_--that a broad cotton or linen bandage, fixed moderately tight round the cow's body immediately after calving, might prove of some a.s.sistance as a preventive. I have had no experience in its benefit myself; I merely suggest the thing; and if it did nothing more, it would prevent, in some measure, the animal from feeling that sensation of vacuity which must necessarily exist immediately and for some time after calving, and which, I think, under some conditions of the system, may be injurious to the animal. I am told by a medical friend of mine, that he has known puerperal fever produced in women solely from midwives' neglecting to bandage them after delivery; at any rate, a bandage, or a broad belt having straps and buckles attached, and placed securely round the cow's body immediately after calving, and kept there for a day or two, could do no harm, if it failed of doing good.

"Fifthly. _Which is the best method of treatment to pursue with cows when attacked with puerperal fever?_ Upon this question I feel that I could say much; but at present I defer its consideration.... Suffice it to say, then, that I never either bleed or administer purges. I used once to do both, but my experience has shown me, in numerous cases, that neither is necessary.... This malady I have written upon is fearfully destructive; and if such diseases cannot be met with powers capable of wrestling with it, I, for one, shall say that it is a stigma upon our art--I will say that when we are most wanted, we are of the least use."

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Inflammation of the peritoneum.

[6] Water very frequently acc.u.mulates in the belly or chest, after blood-letting.

[7] On remonstrating with a man who was about to administer half a pint of turpentine to a cow, he replied, "She has no business to be a cow!"

We presume that some of the regulars have just as much, and not a particle more, of the milk of animal kindness as this man seemed to show.

NATURE, TREATMENT, AND CAUSES OF DISEASE IN CATTLE.

The pathology, or doctrine of diseases, is, as we have previously stated, little understood. Many different causes have been a.s.signed for disease, and as many different modes of cure have been advocated. We shall not discuss either the ancient or modern doctrines any further than we conceive they interfere with correct principles. In doing so, we shall endeavor to confine ourselves to truth, reason, and nature.

We entirely discard the popular doctrine that _fever_ and _inflammation_ are disease. We look upon them as simple acts of the const.i.tution--sanative in their nature. Then the reader may ask, "Why do you recommend medicine for them?" We do not. We only prescribe medicine, for the purpose of aiding nature to cure the diseases of which _they_ (the fever and inflammation) are symptoms, and we do not expect to accomplish even that by medicine alone. Ventilation, diet, and exercise, in nine cases out of ten, will do more good than the destructive agents that have hitherto been used, and christened "cattle medicines."

The great secret of curing diseases is, by accurately observing the indications of nature to carry off and cure disease, and by observing by what critical evacuations she does at last cast off the morbid matter which caused them, and so restores health. By thus observing, following, and a.s.sisting _nature_, agreeably to her indications, our practice will always be more satisfactory.

Whenever the great outlets (skin, lungs, and kidneys) of the animal body are obstructed, morbific and excrement.i.tious substances are retained in the system; they irritate, stimulate, and offend nature in such a manner, that she always exerts her power to throw them off. And she acts with great regularity in her endeavors to expel the offending matter, and thus restore the animal to a healthy state.

Suppose an animal to be attacked with disease, and fever supervenes; the whole system is then aroused to cast out this disease: nature invariably points to certain outlets, as the only pa.s.sages through which the enemy must evacuate the system; and it is the province of the physician to aid in this wise and well-established effort; but when such means are resorted to as in the case of the cow at Waltham, (p. 98,) instead of rendering nature the necessary a.s.sistance, her powers and energies are entirely crushed.

Let us suppose a horse to have been exercised; during that exercise, there is a determination of heat and fluids to the surface: the pores of the skin expand and permit the fluids to make their exit: now, if the horse is put into a cold stable, evaporation commences, leaving the surface cold and the pores constricted, so that, after the circulating system has rested a while, it commences a strong action again, to throw off the remaining fluids that were thus suddenly arrested; there is no chance for their escape, as the pores are closed; the skin then becomes dry and harsh, the "coat stares," and the animal has, in common parlance, taken cold, and "it has thrown him into a fever." Now, the cold is the real enemy to be overcome, and the fever should be aided by warmth, moisture, friction, and diffusables. If, at this stage, the cold is removed, the fever will disappear; but if the disease (the cold) has been allowed to advance until a general derangement or sympathetic action is set up, and there is an acc.u.mulation of morbific matter in the system, then the restorative process must be more powerful and energetic; constantly bearing in mind that we must a.s.sist nature in her endeavors to throw off whatever is the cause of her infirmities. Instead of attacking the disease with the lancet and poison,--which is on the principle of killing the horse to cure the fever,--we should use remedies that are favorable to life. It matters not what organs are affected; the means and processes are the same, and therefore the division of inflammation and fever into a great number of parts designated by as many names, and indicated by twenty times as many complications of symptoms which may never be present, only serve to bewilder the pract.i.tioner, and render his practice ineffectual.

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

As very little is, at present, known of the nature of this disease, we give the reader the views of Mr. Dun, who received the gold medal offered by the Agricultural Society for the best essay on this subject.

"The causes of the disease, both immediate and remote, are subjects full of interest and importance; and a knowledge of them not only aids in the prevention of disease, but also leads the pract.i.tioner to form a more correct prognosis, and to pursue the most approved course of treatment.

It is, however, unfortunate that the causes of pleuro-pneumonia have not as yet been satisfactorily explained. No department of the history of the disease is less understood, or more involved in doubt and obscurity. But in this respect pleuro-pneumonia is not peculiar: it is but one of an extensive cla.s.s which embraces most epidemic and epizootic diseases. And if the causes which produce influenza, fevers, and cholera, were clearly explained, those which produce pleuro-pneumonia would, in all probability, be easy of solution.

"Viewing the wide-spread and similar effects of pleuro-pneumonia, we may surmise that they are referable to some common cause. And although much difference of opinion exists upon this subject, it cannot be denied that _contagion_ is a most active cause in the diffusion of the disease.

Indeed, a due consideration of the history and spread of pleuro-pneumonia over all parts of the land will be sufficient to show that, in certain stages of the disease, it possesses the power of infecting animals apparently in a sound and healthy condition, and otherwise unexposed to the action of any exciting cause. The peculiarity of the progress of this disease, from the time that it first appeared in England, is of itself no small evidence of its contagious nature. Its slow and gradual progress is eminently characteristic of diffusion by contagion; and not only were the earlier cases which occurred in this island distinctly proved to have arisen from contact with the Irish droves, but also subsequent cases, even up to the present day, show numerous examples in which contagion is clearly and unequivocally traceable.... Although pleuro-pneumonia is not produced by the action of anyone of these circ.u.mstances alone, [referring to noxious effluvia, &c.,] yet many of them must be considered as predisposing to the disease; and although not its immediate exciting causes, yet, by depressing the physical powers, they render the system more liable to disease, and less able to withstand its a.s.saults. Deficient ventilation, filth, insufficient and bad food, may indeed predispose to the disease, concentrate the animal effluvia, and become the _matrix_ and _nidus_ of the organic poison; but still, not one, alone, of these circ.u.mstances, or even all of them combined, can produce the disease in question. There must be the subtle poison to call them into operation, the specific influence to generate the disease."

"On the other hand, it appears probable that the exciting cause, whether it be contagion, or whatever else, cannot, of itself, generate the disease; but that certain conditions or predisposing causes are necessary to its existence, and without which its specific effects cannot be produced. But although these _remote_ or _predisposing_ causes are very numerous, they are often difficult of detection; nay, it is sometimes impossible to tell to what the disease is referable, or upon what weak point the exciting cause has fixed itself. A source of perplexity results from the fact.... The predisposing causes of the disease admit of many divisions and subdivisions; they may, however, be considered under two general heads--_hereditary_ and _acquired_.

"With reference to the former, we know that good points and properties of an animal are transmitted from one generation to another; so also are faults, and the tendencies to particular diseases. As in the same families there is a similarity of external form, so is there also an internal likeness, which accounts for the common nature of their const.i.tution, modified, however, by difference of age, s.e.x, &c.

"Among the acquired predisposing causes of pleuro-pneumonia may be enumerated general debility, local weakness, resulting from previous disease, irritants and stimulants, exposure to cold, damp or sudden changes of temperature, the want of cleanliness, the breathing of an atmosphere vitiated by the decomposition of animal or vegetable matters, or laden with any other impurity. In short, under this head may be included every thing which tends to lower the health and vigor of the system, and consequently to increase the susceptibility to disease.

"The primary symptoms of pleuro-pneumonia are generally obscure, and too often excite but little attention or anxiety. As the disease steals on, the animal becomes dull and dejected, and, if in the field, separates itself from its fellows. It becomes uneasy, ceases to ruminate, and the respirations are a little hurried. If it be a milk-cow, the lacteal secretion is diminished, and the udder is hot and tender. The eyes are dull, the head is lowered, nose protruded, and the nostrils expanded.

The urine generally becomes scanty and high-colored. It is seldom thought that much is the matter with the animal until it ceases to eat; but this criterion does not hold good in most cases of the disease, for the animal at the outset still takes its food, and continues to do so until the blood becomes impoverished and poisoned; it is then that the system becomes deranged, the digestive process impaired, and fever established. The skin adheres to the ribs, and there is tenderness along the spine. Manipulation of the trachea, and percussion applied to the sides, causes the animal to evince pain. Although the beast may have been ill only three days, the number of pulsations are generally about seventy per minute; but they are sometimes eighty, and even more. In the first stage, the artery under the jaw feels full and large; but as the disease runs on, the pulse rapidly becomes smaller, quicker, and more oppressed. The breathing is labored, and goes on accelerating as the local inflammation increases. The fore extremities are planted wide apart, with the elbows turned out in order to arch the ribs, and form fixed points for the action of those muscles which the animal brings into operation to a.s.sist the respiratory process. In pleuro-pneumonia, the hot stage of fever is never of long duration, [_simply because there is not enough vitality in the system to keep up a continued fever_.] The state of collapse quickly ensues, when the surface heat again decreases, and the pulse becomes small and less distinct. We have now that low typhoid fever so much to be dreaded, and which characterizes the disease in common with epizootics.

"... The horse laboring under pleuro-pneumonia, or, indeed, any pulmonary disease, will not lie down; but, in the same circ.u.mstances, cattle do so as readily as in health. They do not, however, lie upon their side, but couch upon the sternum, which is broad and flat, and covered by a quant.i.ty of fibro-cellular substance, which serves as a cus.h.i.+on; while the articulation between the lower extremities of the ribs admits of lateral expansion of the chest. In this position cattle generally lie towards the side princ.i.p.ally affected, thus relieving the sounder side, and enabling it to act more freely. There is sometimes a s.h.i.+vering and general tremor, which may exist throughout the whole course of the disease. (This is owing to a loss of equilibrium between the nerves of nutrition and the circulation.) ... As the case advances in severity, and runs on to an unfavorable termination, the pulse loses its strength and becomes quicker. Respiration is in most cases attended by a grunt at the commencement of expiration--a symptom, however, not observable in the horse. The expired air is cold, and of a _noisome_ odor. The animal crouches. There is sometimes an apparent knuckling over at the fetlocks, caused by pain in the joints. This symptom is mostly observable in cases when the pleura and pericardium are affected. The animal grinds its teeth. The appet.i.te has now entirely failed, and the emaciation becomes extreme. The muscles, especially those employed in respiration, become wasted; the belly is tucked, and the flanks heave; the oppressive uneasiness is excessive; the strength fails, under the convulsive efforts attendant upon respiration, and the poor animal dies.

"In using means to prevent the occurrence of the disease, we should endeavor to maintain in a sound and healthy tone the physical powers of the stock, and to avoid whatever tends to depress the vital force.

Exposure to the influence of contagion [and infection] must be guarded against, and, on the appearance of the disease, every precaution must be used to prevent the healthy having communication with the sick. By a steady pursuance, on the part of the stock proprietor, of these precautionary measures, and by the exercise of care, prudence, and attention, the virulence of the disease will, we are sure, be much abated, and its progress checked."

As the reader could not be benefited by our detailing the system of medication pursued in England,--at least we should judge not, when we take into consideration the great loss that attends their _best efforts_,--we shall therefore proceed to inform the reader what the treatment ought to be in the different stages of the disease.

_General Indication of Cure in Pleuro-Pneumonia._--Restore the suppressed evacuations, or the secretions and excretions, if they are obstructed.

If bronchial irritation or a cough be present, s.h.i.+eld and defend the mucous surfaces from irritation. Relieve congestions by equalizing the circulation. Support the powers of the system. Relieve all urgent symptoms.

_Special Practice._--Suppose a cow to be attacked with a slight cough.

She appears dull, and is off her feed; pulse full, and bowels constipated; and she is evidently out of condition.

Then the medicines should be anti-spasmodic and relaxant, tonic, diaph.o.r.etic, and lubricating.

The following is a good example:--

Powdered golden seal, (tonic,) 1 table-spoonful.

" mandrake, (relaxant,) 2 tea-spoonfuls.

" lobelia, (anti-spasmodic,) 1 tea-spoonful.

" slippery elm or mallows, (lubricating,) 1 table-spoonful.

" hyssop tea, (diaph.o.r.etic,) 1 gallon.

After straining the hyssop tea, mix with it the other ingredients, and give a quart every two hours.

In the mean time, administer the following injection:--