Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 1 (of 5)Law, James
Science
Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 1 (of 5)
Law, James
Veterinary medicine
_Regimen._ An antiphlogistic diet will consist in a moderate or very
sparing amount of non-stimulating food of easy digestion (wheat bran or
oil meal in warm, sloppy mash, carrots, turnips, beets, potatoes,
apples, pumpkins; fresh, tender, green grass or in winter a little
scalded hay, may be taken as examples). _Ruminants_ should have no food
necessitating chewing of the cud; thus the roots, etc., should be pulped
or boiled, and hay and even grass must be interdicted until rumination
is re-established. When food is absolutely refused for days in
succession well-boiled gruels of oatmeal, barley-meal, linseed meal,
bran, etc., may be given from a bottle or by injection. _Dogs_ and
_cats_ should have only vegetable mush (unbolted flour, barley, or
oatmeal) with just enough beef-juice to tempt the animal to eat a
little. Milk with an admixture of oxide of magnesia, or even lime water
is often at once palatable and cooling. _Drink_ should be pure water,
cool, if kept constantly fresh before the animal, but warmed to
something less than tepid if supplied only at long intervals, so that
the thirsty patient is not tempted to drink to excess and chill himself.
_Rest_ in a clean, well-aired building, free from draughts of cold air
and with a southern exposure, is desirable, especially in winter. The
best temperature is usually sixty degrees to seventy degrees, especially
in inflammations in the chest, and extremes of temperature are to be
avoided. _Clothing_ will depend on the weather. In warm weather it may
be often discarded, while in winter it should always be sufficient to
obviate the access of _chill_ and consequent aggravation of the disease.
Whenever the atmosphere can be kept warm only at the expense of impurity
it is better to secure the comfort of the patient by the requisite
clothing than to subject him to impure air. As the extremities are the
first to suffer from cold, loose flannel bandages to the limbs are often
imperative.
_Remedies._ _General bleeding_, a great resort of our fore-fathers, has
been long all but discarded from modern practice. Today it is rarely
resorted to, except to save from an urgent and extreme danger, as in the
plethoric cow merging into parturient apoplexy, or the fat and
overdriven horse, gasping for breath and life, in general acute
congestion of the lungs. There are other cases of extensive acute and
dangerous congestions, especially in a strong, vigorous, and plethoric
patient, in which general bleeding in beneficial in warding off
threatened death; but sound, discriminating judgment is necessary to its
safe employment. When resorted to at all, the blood should be drawn from
a large orifice, in a full stream, to secure the desired depressant
effect with the smallest loss of blood, and the patient should be kept
especially quiet and apart from all excitement which would tend to
counteract the sedative action.
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