The Farmer's Veterinarian: A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Farm StockBurkett, Charles William
Science
The Farmer's Veterinarian: A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Farm Stock
Burkett, Charles William
Veterinary medicine
The stockman should at least know the fundamental principles of health
and of any departure from them that indicate disease. Hence a
superficial examination of the animal, as a whole, is in line of
diagnosing the disease. Note the general condition of the body. The
thermometer will advise you rightly. Is there pain? If possible
determine this point and locate the seat of it. Is the circulation
natural? An examination of the pulse will tell you if the blood is
racing rapidly or gliding slowly, and whether regular or rough. Is the
respiration as it should be? Count the number a minute that you may know
if the number is more or less, or is as it should be. On listening to
the lungs, heart, and blood vessels, certain sounds are heard which
change with disease--normal and heart murmurs. Whether or not an organ
contains air can be determined by percussion, since solid organs, the
lungs, for instance, in pneumonia, give a different sound from those
containing air as they are normally. Air-containing organs--lungs and
intestines--may thus be distinguished from the solid ones adjoining
them. In this way their varying size in health and disease may be
determined.
Your examination should go further and include the natural
discharges--the dung, the urine, the nose moisture and the “look of the
eye.” In cases of fever the urine is scanty and deeply colored. In Texas
fever, for instance, the urine is dark red. In azoturia in horses, it
varies from a light color to a deep brown or black. The nature of the
dung should be observed, if watery or dry, soft or hard, scanty or
profuse.
=Taking the Pulse.=--Stand at the left side of the horse and run the
finger along the lower jaw until you come to the point where the artery
crosses the jaw on its lower edge. This will be found about two inches
forward from its angle. Right here is the large muscle and at the front
edge the pulsations may be caught. To get the pulse of the cow, stand at
the left side, reach over the neck and take it from the right jaw.
In the horse the normal pulse beats are from 35 to 40 per minute and may
go to 100 in disease. In the cow the pulsations run from 45 to 50 in
health. The pulse relates its story very accurately and, with practice,
can be constantly used in diagnosing the nature of the ailment. For
instance, a soft pulse, one that is easily compressed by the finger,
indicates bronchitis. A hard pulse, one not easily depressed by the
finger, indicates acute inflammation. A hard pulse may be quick and
bounding and forceful. An irregular pulse, one that beats fast for a
time, then slowly, indicates a weakened heart condition. A slow, full
pulse, one that comes up gradually to the finger touch, indicates some
brain trouble.
[Illustration: FEELING THE PULSE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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