Cattle and Their Diseases: Embracing Their History and Breeds, Crossing and Breeding, and Feeding and Management; with the Diseases to Which They Are Subject, and the Remedies Best Adapted to Their CureJennings, Robert
Science
Cattle and Their Diseases: Embracing Their History and Breeds, Crossing and Breeding, and Feeding and Management; with the Diseases to Which They Are Subject, and the Remedies Best Adapted to Their Cure
Jennings, Robert
Cattle -- Diseases
"It was introduced into my stock, in the fall of 1853, by one of my own
cows, which, in the spring of that year, I had sent down to my brother
in Brooklyn, to be used during the summer for milk. She was kept
entirely isolated through out the summer, and in November was sent up
by the boat. There were no other cattle on the boat at the time, nor
could I learn that she had come in contact with any in passing through
the streets on her way to the boat; and she certainly did not, after
leaving it, until she mingled with her old companions, all of whom were
then, and long afterward, perfectly well. After she had been home about
two weeks, we noticed that her appetite failed, and her milk fell off:
she seemed dull and stupid, stood with her head down, and manifested a
considerable degree of languor.
"Soon her breathing became somewhat hurried, and with a decided catch in
it; she ground her teeth; continued standing, or, if she lay down, it
was only to jump up again instantly. Her cough increased, and so, too, a
purulent and, bloody discharge from her nostrils and mouth. The
excrement was fetid, black, and hard.
"In this case, we twice administered half a pound of Epsom-salts, and
afterward, a bottle of castor-oil. Very little, but a temporary effect
was produced by these doses.
"The symptoms all increased in intensity; strength diminished; limbs
drawn together; belly tucked up, etc.; until the eight day, when she
partly lay, and partly fell down, and never rose again.
"In a _post-mortem_ examination, the lungs were gorged with black, fetid
blood; the substance of them thickened and pulpy. The pleura and
diaphragm also showed a good deal of disease and some adhesion. This
cow, on her arrival here, was put in her usual place in the stable,
between others. She remained there for two or three days after she was
taken sick, before we removed her to the hospital.
"In about three weeks from the time she died, one and then the other of
those standing on either side of her were attacked in the same way, and
with but two days between. This, certainly, looks very much like
contagion; but my attention had not before been called to this
particular disease, and to suppose inflammation or congestion of the
lungs contagious was so opposed to my preconceived notions, that I did
not even then admit it; and these animals were suffered to remain with
the others until their own comfort seemed to require the greater liberty
of open pens.
"One of them was early and copiously bled twice, while Epsom-salts were
administered, both by the stomach and with the injective-pump. The other
we endeavored to keep nauseated with ipecacuanha, and the same time to
keep her bowels open by cathartic medicine. All proved to be of no
avail. They both died,--the one in ten, the other in thirteen days.
Before these died, however, others were taken sick. And thus, later, I
had eight sick at one time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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