DISEASES OF YOUNG CALVES.

By James Law, F. R. C. V. S.,

Formerly Professor of Veterinary Science, etc., in Cornell University.

SUSPENDED BREATHING.

The moment the circulation through the navel string is stopped the blood of the calf begins to become overcharged with carbon dioxid (CO₂), and unless breathing is speedily established death promptly follows. Fortunately the desire to breathe, roused by the circulation of the venous blood and the reflex action from the wet and chilling skin, usually starts the contractions of the diaphragm at once and life is insured. Among the obstacles to breathing may be named suffocation before or during birth from compression of the navel cord and the arrest of its circulation; the detachment of the fetal membranes from the womb before the calf is born; a too free communication between the two auricles (foramen ovale) of the heart by which the nonaerated blood has mixed too abundantly with the aerated and induced debility and profound weakness; a condition of ill health and debility of the calf as a result of semistarvation, overwork, or disease of the cow; fainting in the debilitated calf when calving has been difficult and prolonged; the birth of the calf with its head enveloped in the fetal membranes, so that it has been unable to breathe, and the presence of tenacious phlegm in the mouth and nose, acting in the same manner.

Besides the importance of proper care and feeding of the cow as a preventive measure, attention should be given at once to relieve the newborn calf of its investing membrane and of any mucus that has collected in mouth or nostrils. Wiping out the nose deeply with a finger or feather excites to sneezing, hence to breathing. Blowing into the nose has a similar effect. Sucking the nostril through a tube applied to it is even more effective. Slapping the chest with the palm of the hand or with a towel dipped in cold water, compression and relaxation alternately of the walls of the chest, may start the action, and ammonia or even tobacco smoke blown into the nose may suffice. Every second is precious, however, and if possible the lungs should be dilated by forcibly introducing air from a bellows or from the human lungs. As the air is blown in through bellows or a tube the upper end of the windpipe must be pressed back against the gullet, as otherwise the air will go to the stomach. In a large dairy a piece of elastic tubing one-third of an inch in bore should be kept at hand for sucking and blowing in such cases.

BLEEDING FROM THE NAVEL.

This may occur in two conditions—when the cord is cut off too close to the navel and left untied and when it tears off at the navel. (Pl. XIV.) It may also bleed when torn across naturally, if it is sucked by the dam or another calf. In an animal with little plasticity to its blood it will flow under almost any circumstances. When any cord is left it is always safe to tie it, and it is only when it is swollen and may possibly contain a loop of the bowel that there is danger in doing so. By pressing upward any bulky contents such danger is avoided. If torn or cut too close to be tied the bleeding may be checked by applying alum, copperas, or for a fraction of a second the end of an iron rod at a dull-red heat. If much blood has been lost it may be requisite to transfuse several ounces of blood or of a weak, common-salt solution into the open, umbilical vein.

URINE DISCHARGED THROUGH THE NAVEL (PERSISTENT URACHUS).

Before birth the urine passes from the bladder by a special tube through the navel and navel string into the outer water bag (allantois). (Pl. XII.) This closes at birth, and the tube shrinks into a fine cord up to the bladder. It is only in the bull calf that it is liable to remain open, doubtless because of the long, narrow channel through which the urine must otherwise escape. The urethra, too, is sometimes abnormally narrow, or even closed, in the male. If part of the cord remains, it should be tied and the whole allowed to wither up naturally. If the cord has been removed and the tube (urachus) protrudes, discharging the urine, that alone must be tied. If there is nothing pendent the urachus must be seized, covered by the skin, and a curved needle being passed through the skin and above the duct, it may be tied along with this skin. A blister of Spanish flies, causing swelling of the skin, will often close the orifice—so with the hot iron. If the urethra of the male is impervious it can rarely be remedied.

INFLAMMATION OF THE URACHUS (NAVEL URINE DUCT).

This may originate in direct, mechanical injury to the navel in calving, or shortly after, with or without the lodgment of irritant or septic matter on its lacerated or cut end. The mere contact with healthy urine, hitherto harmless, can now be looked on as becoming suddenly irritating. The affection is usually marked by the presence of redness and swelling at the posterior part of the navel and the escape of urine and a few drops of whitish, serous pus from the orifice of the urachus. In those cases in which urine is not discharged a tender swelling, like a thick cord extending upward and backward from the navel into the abdomen, may be identified. The navel enlargement may be considerable, but it is solid, does not gurgle on handling, and can not be done away with by pressing it back into the abdomen, as in a case of hernia.

In cases at first closed the pus may burst out later, coming from the back part of the navel and the swelling extending backward. In other cases whitish pus may pass with the urine by the ordinary channel, showing that it has opened back into the bladder. In other cases the umbilical veins become involved, in which case the swelling extends forward as well as backward. Thus the disease may result in destructive disorders of the liver, lungs, and, above all, of the joints.

The disease may usually be warded off or rendered simple and comparatively harmless by applying antiseptics to the navel string at birth (carbolic acid 1 part, water and glycerin 5 parts each, or wood tar). Later, antiseptics may be freely used (hyposulphite of soda 4 drams, water 1 quart) as an application to the surface and as an injection into the urachus, or even into the bladder if the two still communicate. If they no longer communicate, a stronger injection may be used (tincture of chlorid of iron 60 drops, alcohol 1 ounce). Several weeks will be required for complete recovery.

ABSCESS OF THE NAVEL.

As the result of irritation at calving or by the withered cord, or by licking with the rough tongue of the cow, inflammation may attack the loose connective tissue of the navel to the exclusion of the urachus and veins, and go on to the formation of matter. In this case a firm swelling appears as large as the fist, which softens in the center and may finally burst and discharge. The opening, however, is usually small and may close prematurely, so that abscess after abscess is formed. It is distinguished from hernia by the fact that it can not be returned into the abdomen, and from inflammations of the veins and urachus by the absence of swellings forward and backward along the lines of these canals.

Treatment consists in an early opening of the abscess by a free incision and the injection twice a day of an astringent antiseptic (chlorid of zinc one-half dram, water 1 pint).

INFLAMMATION OF THE NAVEL VEINS (UMBILICAL PHLEBITIS).

In this affection of the navel the inflammation may start directly from mechanical injury, as in either of the two forms just described, but on this are inoculated infective microbes, derived from a retained and putrefying afterbirth, an abortion, a metritis, a fetid discharge from the womb, an unhealthy open sore, a case of erysipelas, from overcrowding, from filthy floor or bedding, or from an offensive accumulation of manure, solid or liquid. As the microbes vary in different cases, given outbreaks will differ materially in their nature. One is erysipelatoid; another purulent infection with the tendency to secondary abscesses in the joints, liver, lungs, etc.; another is from a septic germ and is associated with fetid discharge from the navel and general putrid blood poisoning. In estimating the causes of the disease we must not omit debility of the calf when the mother has been underfed or badly housed or when either she or the fetus has been diseased.

Symptoms.—The symptoms vary. With the chain-form germs (streptococci) the navel becomes intensely red, with a very firm, painful swelling, ending abruptly at the edges in sound skin and extending forward along the umbilical veins. The secondary diseases are circumscribed, black engorgements (infarctions) or abscesses of the liver, lungs, kidneys, bowels, or other internal organs, and sometimes disease of the joints.

With the ordinary pus-producing germs (Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes) the local inflammation in the navel causes a hot, painful swelling, which rapidly advances to the formation of matter (pus), and the raw, exposed surface, at first bright red, becomes dark red or black, soft, friable, and pultaceous. If the pus is white, creamy, and comparatively inoffensive in odor, the secondary formations in internal organs and joints are mainly of the same purulent character (secondary abscesses).

If, on the other hand, the discharge is very offensive and the pus more serous, watery, or bloody, there is reason to suspect the presence of some of the septic bacteria, and the results on the general system are a high fever and softening of the liver and spleen and no tendency to abscesses of the internal organs. Diarrhea is a common symptom, and death ensues early, the blood after death being found unclotted.

Complicated cases are common, and in all alike the umbilical veins usually remain open and can be explored by a probe passed at first upward and then forward toward the liver.

Prevention is sought by applying a lotion of carbolic acid or iodin solution to the navel string at birth, or it may be smeared with common wood tar, which is at once antiseptic and a protective covering against germs. In the absence of either a strong decoction of oak bark may be used.

Local treatment consists in the application of antiseptic to the surface and their injection into the vein. As a lotion carbolic acid, 1 ounce in a quart of strong decoction of oak bark, should be used, or salicylic acid or salol may be sprinkled on the surface. The interior of the vein should be swabbed out with a probe wrapped around with cotton wool and dipped in boracic salicylic acid.

If complications have extended to the liver or other internal organs, or the joints, other treatment will be demanded. In acute cases of general infection an early fatal result is to be expected.

PYEMIC AND SEPTICEMIC INFLAMMATION OF JOINTS IN CALVES (JOINT ILL).

This occurs in young calves within the first month after birth. It persists in the joints when once attacked, and is usually connected with disease of the navel. Rheumatism, on the other hand, rarely occurs in a calf under a month old. It tends to shift from joint to joint, and is independent of any navel disease. Again, it affects the fibrous structures of the joints, and rarely results in the formation of white matter, while the affection before named attacks the structures outside as well as inside the joints and, above all, the ends of the bones, and tends to the destruction and crumbling of their tissue, and even to the formation of open sores, through which the fragile bones are exposed. The microbes from the unhealthy and infected wound in the navel pass into the system through the veins, or lymphatics, and form colonies and local inflammations and abscesses in and around the joints.

Symptoms.—The symptoms are the swelling of one or more joints, which are very hot and tender. The calf is stiff and lame, lies down constantly, and does not care to suck. There is very high fever, accelerated breathing and pulse, and there is swelling and purulent discharge (often fetid) from the navel. There may be added symptoms of disease of the liver, lungs, heart, or bowels, on which we need not here delay. The important point is to determine the condition of the navel in all such cases of diseased and swollen joints beginning in the first month of life, and in all cases of general stiffness, for besides the diseases of the internal organs there may be abscesses formed among the muscles of the trunk, though the joints appear sound. Cases of this kind, if they do not speedily die, tend to become emaciated and perish later in a state of weakness and exhaustion.

Prevention.—Prevention must begin with the purity of the buildings and the navel, as noted in the last article.

Treatment.—Treatment is in the main antiseptic. The slighter forms may be painted daily with tincture of iodin, or an ointment of biniodid of mercury (1 dram) and lard (2 ounces) may be rubbed on the affected joints daily until they are blistered. In case of swellings containing matter, this may be drawn through the nozzle of a hypodermic syringe and the following solution injected: Compound tincture of iodin, 1 dram; distilled (or boiled) water, 2 ounces. Inter nally the calf may take 5 grains quinin twice daily and 15 grains hyposulphite of soda, or 20 grains salicylate of soda three times a day.

UMBILICAL HERNIA (BREACH AT THE NAVEL).

This may exist at birth from imperfect closure of the muscles around the opening; it may even extend backward for a distance, from the two sides failing to come together. Apart from this, the trouble rarely appears after the calf has been some time on solid feed, as the paunch then extends down to the right immediately over the navel, and thus forms an internal pad, preventing the protrusion of intestine.

Symptoms.—The symptoms of umbilical hernia are a soft swelling at the navel, with contents that usually gurgle on handling, and can be entirely returned into the abdomen by pressure. The diseases of the navel hitherto considered have no gurgling contents and can not be completely returned into the abdomen. The only exception in the case of the hernia is when the walls of the sac have become greatly thickened. These will, of course, remain as a swelling after the bowel has been returned; and when the protruding bowel has contracted permanent adhesion to the sac, it is impossible to return it fully without first severing that connection.

Treatment.—Treatment is not always necessary. A small hernia, like an egg, in a new-born calf, usually recovers of itself as the animal changes its diet to solid feed and has the paunch fully developed as an internal pad.

In other cases apply a leather pad 8 inches square attached around the body by two elastic bands connected with its four corners, and an elastic band passing from its front border to a collar encircling the neck, and two other elastic bands from the neck collar along the two sides of the body to the two bands passing up over the back. (Pl. XXIV, fig. 6.)

For small hernias nitric acid may be used to destroy the skin and cause such swelling as to close the orifice before the skin is separated. For a mass like a large goose egg one-half ounce of the acid may be rubbed in for three minutes. No more must be applied for 15 days. For large masses this is inapplicable, and with too much loss of skin the orifice may fail to close and the bowels may escape.

The application of a clamp like those used in castration is a most effective method, but great care must be taken to see that all the contents of the sac are returned so that none may be inclosed in the clamp.(Pl. XXIV, fig. 7.)

Another most effective resort is to make a saturated solution of common salt, filter and boil it, and when cool inject under the skin (not into the sac) on each side of the hernia a dram of the fluid. A bandage may then be put around the body. In 10 hours an enormous swelling will have taken place, pressing back the bowel into the abdomen. When this subsides the wound will have closed.

DROPSY OF THE NAVEL.

A sac formed at the navel, by contained liquid accumulated by reason of sucking by other calves, is unsightly and sometimes injurious. After making sure that it is simply a dropsical collection it may be deeply punctured at various points with a large-sized lancet or knife, fomented with hot water, and then daily treated with a strong decoction of white-oak bark.

BLUE DISEASE (CYANOSIS).

This appearing in the calf at birth is due to the orifice between the two auricles of the heart (foramen ovale) remaining too open, allowing the nonaerated (venous) blood to mix with the aerated (arterial) blood, and it is beyond the reach of treatment. It is recognized by the blueness of the eyes, nose, mouth, and other mucous membranes, the coldness of the surface, and the extreme sensitiveness to cold.

CONSTIPATION.

At birth the bowels of the calf contain the meconium, a tenacious, gluey, brownish-yellow material largely derived from the liver, which must be expelled before they can start their functions normally. The first milk of the cow (colostrum, beestings), rich in albumin and salts, is nature's laxative to expel this now offensive material and should never be withheld from the calf. If, for lack of this, from the dry feeding of the cow, or from any other cause, the calf is costive, straining violently without passage, lying down and rising as in colic, and failing in appetite, no time should be lost in giving relief by an ounce dose of castor oil, assisting its action by injections of soapsuds or oil. Whatever meconium is within reach of the finger should be carefully removed. It is also important to give the cow a sloppy, laxative diet.

INDIGESTION.

This may occur from many different causes, as costiveness; a too liberal supply of milk; milk too rich; the furnishing of the milk of a cow long after calving to a very young calf; allowing a calf to suck the first milk of a cow that has been hunted, driven by road, shipped by rail, or otherwise violently excited; allowing the calf too long time between meals, so that impelled by hunger it quickly overloads and clogs the stomach; feeding from the pail milk that has been held over in unwashed (unscalded) buckets, so that it is fermented and spoiled; feeding the milk of cows kept on unwholesome feed; keeping the calves in cold, damp, dark, filthy, or bad-smelling pens; feeding the calves on artificial mixtures containing too much starchy matter; or overfeeding the calves on artificial feed that may be appropriate enough in smaller quantity. The licking of hair from themselves or others and its formation into balls in the stomach will cause obstinate indigestion in the calf.

Symptoms.—The symptoms are dullness, indisposition to move, uneasiness, eructations of gas from the stomach, sour breath, entire loss of appetite, lying down and rising as if in pain, fullness of the abdomen, which gives out a drumlike sound when tapped with the fingers.

The costiveness may be marked at first, but soon it gives place to diarrhea, by which the offensive matters may be carried off and health restored. In other cases it becomes aggravated, merges into inflammation of the bowels, fever sets in, and the calf gradually sinks.

Prevention.—Prevention consists in avoiding the causes enumerated above or any others that may be detected.

Treatment.—Treatment consists in first clearing away the irritant present in the bowels. For this purpose 1 or 2 ounces of castor oil with 20 drops of laudanum may be given, and if the sour eructations are marked a tablespoonful of limewater or one-fourth ounce calcined magnesia may be given and repeated two or three times a day. If the disorder continues after the removal of the irritant, a large tablespoonful of rennet, or 30 grains of pepsin, may be given at each meal along with a teaspoonful of tincture of gentian. Any return of constipation must be treated by injections of warm water and soap, while the persistence of diarrhea must be met as advised under the discussion following this. In case of the formation of loose hair balls inclosing milk undergoing putrid fermentation, temporary benefit may be obtained by giving a tablespoonful of vegetable charcoal three or four times a day, but the only real remedy is to cut the paunch open and extract them. At this early age they may be found in the third or even the fourth stomach; in the adult they are confined to the first two and are comparatively harmless.

DIARRHEA (SCOURING) IN CALVES (SIMPLE AND CONTAGIOUS).

As stated in the last article, scouring is a common result of indigestion, and at first may be nothing more than an attempt of nature to relieve the stomach and bowels of offensive and irritating contents. As the indigestion persists, however, the fermentations going on in the undigested masses become steadily more complex and active, and what was at first the mere result of irritation or suspended digestion comes to be a genuine contagious disease, in which the organized ferments (bacteria) propagate the affection from animal to animal and from herd to herd. More than once I have seen such epizootic diarrhea start on the headwaters of a creek and, traveling along that stream, follow the watershed and attack the herds supplied with water from the contaminated channel. In the same way the disease, once started in a cow stable, is liable to persist for years, or until the building has been thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. It may be carried into a healthy stable by the introduction of a cow brought from an infected stable when she is closely approaching calving. Another method of its introduction is by the purchase of a calf from a herd where the infection exists.

In enumerating the other causes of this disease we may refer to those noted above as inducing indigestion. As a primary consideration any condition which lowers the vitality or vigor of the calf must be accorded a prominent place among factors which, apart from contagion, contribute to start the disease de novo. Other things being equal, the strong, vigorous races are the least predisposed to the malady, and in this respect the compact form, the healthy coat, the clear eye, and the bold, active carriage are desirable. Even the color of the hair is not unimportant, as in the same herd I have found a far greater number of victims among the light colors (light yellow, light brown) than among those of a darker tint. This constitutional predisposition to indigestion and diarrhea is sometimes fostered by too close breeding, without taking due account of the maintenance of a robust constitution; hence animals that are very much inbred need to be especially observed and cared for unless their inherent vigor has been thoroughly attested.

The surroundings of the calf are powerful influences. Calves kept indoors suffer to a greater extent than those running in the open air and having the invigorating influences of sunshine, pure air, and exercise; close, crowded, filthy, bad-smelling buildings are especially causative of the complaint. The presence in the air of carbon dioxid, the product of breathing, and of the fetid, gaseous products of decomposing dung and urine diminish by about one-fourth of their volume the life-giving oxygen and in the same ratio hinder the aeration of the blood and the maintenance of vigorous health. Worse than this, such fetid gases are usually direct poisons to the animal breathing them; for example, sulphureted hydrogen (hydrogen sulphid 2 SH₂) and various alkaloids (ptomaines) and toxins (neutral poisonous principles) produced in the filth fermentations. These lower the general health and stamina, impair digestion, and by leading to the accumulation in stomach and bowels of undigested materials they lay the foundation for offensive fermentations within these organs and consequent irritation, poisoning, and diarrhea. They further weaken the system so that it can no longer resist and overcome the trouble.

The condition of the nursing cow and her milk is another potent cause of trouble. The feed of the cow is important. The influence of this is shown in the following tables:

Influence of feed on milk

. (

From Becquerel and Vernois

.)

Character of feed. Water. Casein and extractive matter. Milk sugar. Butter. Salts.

Cows on winter feed: Parts in 1,000 Parts in 1,000 Parts in 1,000 Parts in 1,000 Parts in 1,000

Trefoil or lucern, 12-13 pounds; oat straw, 9-10 pounds; beets, 7 pounds; water, 2 buckets 871.26 47.81 33.47 42.07 5.34

Cows on summer feed:

Green trefoil, lucern, maize, barley, grass, 2 buckets water 859.56 54.70 36.38 42.76 6.80

Goat's milk on different feed:

On straw and trefoil 858.68 47.38 35.47 52.54 5.93

On beets 888.77 33.81 38.02 33.68 5.72

Normal mean 844.90 35.14 36.90 56.87 6.18

In these examples the deterioration of the milk in casein on the less nutritious winter feeding is very marked, although the relative quantity of butter remains almost unchanged. In the case of the goat the result is even more striking, the beet diet giving a very large decrease of both casein and butter and an increase of milk sugar.

The second table following, condensed from the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin, gives the results in butter and total solids when the same cows were fed on different rations in succession. Each cow was fed a daily ration of 12 pounds corn fodder and 4 pounds clover hay, besides the test diet of (1) 12¼ pounds corn-and-cob meal, and (2) 10 pounds sugar meal—a product of the glocuse manufacture. This special feed was given seven days before the commencement of each test period to obviate the effects of transition. The analyses of the special rations are given below:

Analyses of special rations

.

Constituents. Corn-and-cob meal. Sugar

Per cent. Per cent.

Moisture 13.37 6.10

Salts 1.43 1.17

Fat 2.81 11.16

Carbohydrates (heat formers). 65.99 52.66

Woody fiber 8.03 8.64

Proteids (flesh formers) 8.37 20.27

The great excess of fat and nitrogenous or flesh-forming principles in the sugar meal is very evident.

Influence of feed on milk

. (

Iowa station

.)

Animal. Milk. Fat. Solids. Fat. Solids. Ratio of fat to solids not fat.

Grade Shorthorn cow: Pounds P. ct. Per ct. Pounds Pounds

First period, 21 days, corn-and-cob meal 631.25 3.43 11.57 21.67 73.02 422.0:1,000

Second period, 21 days, sugar meal 641.50 4.04 12.53 25.93 83.38 476.2:1,000

Third period, 21 days, corn-and-cob meal 559.00 3.22 11.86 17.97 66.32 371.7:1,000

Grade Shorthorn cow:

First period, 21 days, corn-and-cob meal 604.75 3.57 11.95 21.56 72.28 425.1:1,000

Second period, 21 days, sugar meal 582.00 3.91 12.37 22.74 72.57 456.3:1,000

Third period, 21 days, corn-and-cob meal 527.00 3.37 12.05 17.78 63.48 389.1:1,000

Grade Shorthorn cow:

First period, 21 days, sugar meal 753.50 3.97 12.43 29.94 93.67 469.8:1,000

Second period, 21 days, corn-and-cob meal 601.50 3.15 11.45 18.97 68.89 380.0:1,000

Third period, 21 days, sugar meal 560.50 3.85 12.16 21.58 68.16 463.3:1,000

Grade Holstein cow:

First period, 21 days, sugar meal 487.50 4.15 13.27 20.25 64.69 455.6:1,000

Second period, 21 days, corn-and-cob meal 379.00 3.51 12.69 13.30 48.09 382.3:1,000

Third period, 21 days, sugar meal 374.50 3.72 13.01 13.95 48.74 401.0:1,000

Here we see in every instance a marked relative increase of the butter, and to a less extent of the other milk solids whenever the sugar meal—rich in fat and albuminoids—was furnished. The opposite theory having been largely taught, it becomes needful thus to sustain the old and well-founded belief of the dairymen.

Not only does the richness of the milk vary with the nature of the food, but it varies also according to the time of the day when it is drawn, the morning milk giving 7½ per cent of cream and the evening milk 9½ per cent (Hassall). Boedecker found that the morning milk had 10 per cent of solids, while the evening milk had 13 per cent. Again, the milk first drawn at any milking is always poorer than the last drawn. The first may have only one-half, or in extreme cases one-fourth, the cream of the last. Once more, when the cow is in heat the milk becomes richer in solids (casein and butter), and contains granular and white blood cells like the colostrum, and often disagrees with the young animal living on it. Now, while these various modifications in the amount of solid matters may prove harmless to a strong and vigorous calf, they can easily be the occasion of intestinal disorder in a weaker one, or in one with health already somewhat impaired by sickness, exposure, or unwholesome buildings. The casein of the cow's milk coagulates in one solid mass, and is much less easily penetrated by the digesting fluids than the fine, flaky coagula of woman's or mare's milk. An excess of casein, therefore, thrown on an already overtaxed stomach can all the more readily induce disorder. So it is with butter fat. While a most important element in nutrition, it may be present in the stomach in such quantity as to interfere with the action of the gastric juice on the casein, and with the interruption of the natural stomach digestion the fats themselves undergo decomposition with the production of offensive and irritating fatty acids.

The milk of the very young cow is usually more watery than that of the mature animal, and that of the old cow has a greater liability to become acid. It varies much with the breed, the Channel Island cattle being notorious for the relatively large quantity of cream, while the Holsteins, Ayrshires, and Shorthorns are remarkable rather for the quantity of casein. The milk of cows fed on potatoes and grass is very poor and watery; that from cows fed on cabbage or Swedish turnips has a disagreeable taste and odor (from the former an offensive liquid has been distilled).

Cows fed on overkept, fermented, and soured rations have acid milk, which readily turns and coagulates. Thus old, long-kept brewer's grains, swill, the refuse of glucose factories, and ensilage which has been put up too green all act in this way. The same may come from disease in the cow's udder, or any general disease of the cow with attendant fever, and in all such cases the tendency is to rapid change and unwholesomeness. If the milk is drawn and fed from a pail, there is the added danger of all sorts of poisonous ferments getting into it and multiplying; it may be from the imperfect cleansing and scalding of the pail; from rinsing the pails with water that is impure; from the entrance of bacterial ferments floating in the filthy atmosphere of the stable, or from the entrance of the volatile chemical products of fermentation.

In addition to the dangers coming through the milk, the calf suffers in its digestive powers from any temporary illness, and among others from the excitement attendant on the cutting of teeth, and impaired digestion means fermentations in the undigested masses and the excessive production of poisonous ptomaines and toxins.

Whatever may be the starting or predisposing cause of this malady, when once established it is liable to perpetuate itself by contagion and to prove a veritable plague in a herd or a district.

Symptoms.—The symptoms of a diarrhea may appear so promptly after birth as to lead to the idea that the cause already existed in the body of the calf, and it usually shows itself before the end of the second week. It may be preceded by constipation, as in retained meconium, or by fetid eructations and colicky pains, as in acute indigestion. The tail is stained by the liquid dejections, which are at first simply soft and mixed with mucus with a sour odor, accompanied with a peculiar and characteristic fetor (suggesting rotten cheese), which continually grows worse. The quantity of water and mucus steadily increases, the normal predominance of fatty matters becoming modified by the presence of considerable undigested casein, which is not present in the normal feces, and in acute cases death may result in one or two days from the combined drain on the system and the poisoning by the absorbed products of the decomposition in the stomach and bowels. When the case is prolonged the passages, at first 5 or 6 a day, increase to 15 or 20, and pass with more and more straining, so that they are projected from the animal in a liquid stream. The color of the feces, at first yellow, becomes a lighter grayish yellow or a dirty white (hence the name white scour), and the fetor becomes intolerable.

At first the calf retains its appetite, but as the severity of the disease increases the animal shows less and less disposition to suck, and has lost all vivacity, lying dull and listless, and, when raised, walking weakly and unsteadily. Flesh is lost rapidly, the hair stands erect, the skin gets dry and scurfy, the nose is dry and hot, or this condition alternates with a moist and cool one. By this time the mouth and skin, as well as the breath and dung, exhale the peculiar, penetrating, sour, offensive odor, and the poor calf has become an object of disgust to all that approach it. At first, and unless inflammation of the stomach and bowels supervenes (and unless the affection has started in indigestion and colic), the belly is not bloated or painful on pressure, symptoms of acute colicky pains are absent, and the bowels do not rumble; neither are bubbles of gas mingled with the feces. The irritant products of the intestinal fermentations may, however, irritate and excoriate the skin around the anus, which becomes red, raw, and broken out in sores for some distance. Similarly the rectum, exposed by reason of the relaxed condition of the anus, or temporarily in straining to pass the liquid dejection, is of a more or less deep red, and it may be ulcerated. Fever, with rapid pulse and increased breathing and temperature, usually comes on with the very fetid character of the feces and is more pronounced as the bowels become inflamed, the abdomen sore to the touch and tucked up, and the feces more watery and even mixed with blood.

Prevention.—The prevention of these cases is the prevention of constipation and indigestion, with all their varied causes as above enumerated, the selection of a strong, vigorous stock, and, above all, the combating of contagion, especially in the separation of the sick from the healthy, and in the thorough purification and disinfection of the buildings. The cleansing and sweetening of all drains, the removal of dung heaps, and the washing and scraping of floors and walls, followed by a liberal application of chlorid of lime (bleaching powder), 4 ounces to the gallon, are indicated. Great care must be exercised in the feeding of the cow to have sound and wholesome feed and water, so apportioned as to make the milk neither too rich nor too poor, and to her health, so that the calf may be saved from the evil consequences of poisonous principles that may be produced in the body of the cow. The calves should be carefully kept apart from all calving cows and their discharges. Similarly each calf must have special attention to see that its nurse gives milk which agrees with it, and that this is furnished at suitable times. If allowed to suck, it should either be left with the cow or be fed three times a day. If it becomes hungry twice a day, it is more liable to overload and derange the stomach, and if left too long hungry it is tempted to take in unsuitable and unwholesome feed, for which its stomach is as yet unprepared. So, if fed from the pail, it is safer to do so three times daily than twice. There should be the utmost cleanliness of feeding dishes, and the feeder must be ever on the alert to prevent the strong and hungry from drinking the milk of the weaker in addition to their own. In case the cow nurse has been subjected to any great excitement by reason of travel, hunting, or carrying, the first milk she yields thereafter should be used for some other purpose and only the second allowed to the calf. Indeed, one and all of the conditions indicated above as causes should be judiciously guarded against.

Treatment.—Treatment varies according to the nature and stage of the disease. When the disease is not widespread, but isolated cases only occur, it may be assumed to be a simple diarrhea and is easily dealt with. The first object is to remove the irritant matter from stomach and bowels, and for this 1 or 2 ounces of castor oil may be given, according to the size of the calf. Reduce the milk by one-half or two-thirds. If the stools smell particularly sour, the milk may be replaced by 1 ounce calcined magnesia, and in any case a tablespoonful or two of limewater must be given with each meal. Great harm is often done by giving opium and astringents at the outset. These serve merely to bind up the bowels and retain the irritant source of the trouble; literally, "to shut up the wolf in the sheep-fold." When the offending agents have been expelled in this way, carminatives and demulcent agents may be given—1 dram of anise water, 1 dram nitrate of bismuth, and 1 dram of gum arabic, three times a day. Under such course the consistency of the stools should increase until in a day or two they become natural.

If, however, the outbreak is more general and evidently the result of contagion, the first consideration is to remove all sources of such contamination. Test the milk of the cow with blue litmus paper; if it reddens, reject the milk until by sound, dry feeding, with perhaps a course of hyposulphite of soda and gentian root, the milk is made alkaline. The castor oil or magnesia will be demanded to clear away the (now infecting) irritants, but they should be combined with antiseptics, and, while the limewater and the carminative mixture may still be used, a most valuable addition will be found in the following: Calomel, 10 grains; prepared chalk, 1 ounce; creosote, 1 teaspoonful; mix, divide into 10 parts, and give one four times a day. Or the following may be given four times a day: One dram Dover's powder, 6 grains powdered ipecacuanha; mix, divide into 10 equal parts. Injections of solutions of gum arabic are often useful, and if the anus is red and excoriated, one-half dram of copperas may be added to each pint of the gummy solution. All the milk given must be boiled, and if that does not agree, eggs made into an emulsion with barley water may be substituted. As the feces lose their watery character and become more consistent, tincture of gentian in doses of 2 teaspoonfuls may be given three or four times a day. Counter-irritants, such as mustard, ammonia, or oil of turpentine, may be rubbed on the abdomen when it becomes tender to the touch.

ACUTE CONTAGIOUS SCOURING IN THE NEWBORN.

The most violent and deadly form of diarrhea in the newborn calf deserves a special mention. This may appear immediately after birth, and shows itself almost invariably within the first or second day. The most intense symptoms of white scour are complicated by great dullness, weakness, and prostration, sunken eyes, retracted belly, short, hurried breathing, and very low temperature, the calf lying on its side, with the head resting on the ground, lethargic and unconscious or regardless of all around it. The bowel discharges are profuse, yellowish white, and very offensive. As a rule death ensues within 24 to 36 hours.

A marked characteristic of this form of illness is that it attacks almost every calf born in the herd, or in the building, rather, and if the calf escapes an attack in the first two or three days of its life it usually survives. Those that recover from an attack, however, are liable one or two weeks later to suffer from an infective inflammation of the lungs. The infection clings to a stable for years, in many cases rendering it impossible to preserve and raise the calves. It has frequently coincided with abortions and failures to conceive in the same herd, so that it has been thought that the same infective germ produces one type of abortion. On the other hand, the removal of the calving cow from the herd to calve in a separate building, hitherto unused and therefore uninfected, usually effects the escape and survival of the offspring.

The disease has been traced by Nocard and Lignières to a small bacillus having the general characters of those that produce hemorrhagic septicemia, which is usually combined with a variety of others, but is in some cases alone and in pure culture, especially in the joints. The theory of Lignières is that this bacillus is the primary offender, and that once introduced it so depresses the vital powers of the system and tissue cells that the healthy resistance to other bacteria is impaired or suspended, and hence the general and deadly invasion of the latter.

Inoculations with this bacillus killed guinea pigs or rabbits in 6 to 18 hours, and calves in 30 hours, with symptoms and lesions of hemorrhagic septicemia, including profuse fetid diarrhea.

The predominance of the early and deadly lesions in the alimentary tract would seem to imply infection through the feed, and the promptitude of the attack after birth, together with the frequent coincidence of contagious abortion in the herd, suggest the presence of the germ in the cow; yet the escape of the calf when the cow calves in a fresh building is equally suggestive of the infection through germs laid up in the building. This conclusion is further sustained by the observation that the bacillus evidently enters by the raw, unhealed navel, that it is diffused in the blood, and that a very careful preservation of the navel against infection gives immunity from attack.

Prevention.—The disease is so certainly and speedily fatal that it is hopeless to expect recovery, and therefore prevention is the rational resort.

When a herd is small, the removal of the dam to a clean, unused stable a few days before calving and her retention there for a week usually succeeds. It is in the large herd that the disease is mainly to be dreaded, however, and in this it is impossible to furnish new and pure stables for each successive group of two or three calving cows. The thorough disinfection of the general stable ought to succeed, yet I have seen the cleanest and purest stable repeatedly disinfected with corrosive sublimate without stopping the malady. It would appear as if the germ lodged on the surface or in the bowels of the cow and tided the infection over the period of stable disinfection. Though insufficient of themselves, the supply of separate calving boxes and the frequent thorough cleaning and disinfection of both these and the stables should not be neglected. The most important measure, however, is the disinfection of the navel.

The cow should be furnished with abundance of dry, clean bedding, sprinkled with a solution of carbolic acid. As soon as calving sets in the tail and hips and anus and vulva should be sponged with a carbolic-acid solution (one-half ounce to the quart), and the vagina injected with a weaker solution (2 drams to the quart). Fresh carbolized bedding should be constantly supplied, so that the calf may be dropped on that and not on soaked litter nor manure. The navel string should be at once tied with a cord that has been taken from a strong solution of carbolic acid. The stump of the cord and the adjacent skin should then be washed with the following solution: Iodin, one-half dram; iodid of potassium, one-half dram; water, 1 quart. When dry it may be covered with a coating of collodion or tar, each containing 1 per cent of iodin.

Whenever a calf shows any sign of scouring it should be instantly removed to another pen and building, and the vacated one should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Different attendants should take care of the sound calves and the infected ones, and all utensils, litter, etc., kept scrupulously apart.

After one week the healthy calves may usually be safely herded together, or they may be safely placed in the cow stable.

OTHER AILMENTS OF THE CALF.

Among these may be named several congenital imperfections, such as imperforate anus, vulva, or prepuce, which are to be recognized by the inability to pass dung or urine, in spite of straining, and the formation of swellings in the anus, vulva, or sheath. Each must be carefully incised with the knife, taking care not to injure the muscles which circumscribe the respective openings; also tongue-tie, in which the thin, flaccid, mucous membrane passing from the median line of the lower surface of the tongue binds the latter too closely to the floor of the mouth and renders the tongue unfit for gathering in the food in after life. This must be cut with knife or scissors, so as to give the tongue a reasonable degree of liberty.

Aphtha, or thrush, is another trouble of the sucking calf, showing itself as a white, curdy elevation on the tongue, lips, cheeks, or gums, and when detached leaving a raw, red, angry surface. It is due to the growth of a vegetable parasite long recognized as the Oïdium albicans (Saccharomyces albicans). It is easily removed by rubbing with powdered borax, but inasmuch as other colonies are liable to start either in the mouth or in the pharynx, gullet, or stomach, it is well to give a dose of one-half dram of hyposulphite of soda in water day by day for several days.

Rickets is not a common disease in calves, and comes on, if at all, later than those we have been considering. It consists in softening and friability of the bones from a deficiency of lime salts, and appears to be mainly connected with an inherited weakness of constitution, unsuitable feeding, cold, close, damp buildings, microbian infection, and other conditions inimical to health. The prevention and treatment of rickets consists essentially in the improvement of the digestion and general health; hence sunshine, open air, exercise, nourishing food, and tonics are indicated. (See p. 267.)