DAIRY HERD AILMENTS.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 109, 5 December 1918, Page 4

DAIRY HERD AILMENTS.

Symptons and Remedies. Regarding"some of the common ailments of dairy stock, a Canadian experimental farm bulletin says that bloat is usually caused by a too heavy feed of damp green feed. The best preventative is to have animals partially satisfied before turning on to such feeds or to drive them out before they have a chance to gorge. In moderate cases a dose of two tablespoonfuls of turpentine in a pint of raw linseed oil will work a wonderful recovery. If the case is severe, immediate tapping with a trocar and cannula at a point equi-distant from the kook point, loin edge and last rib on the left side. This should be followed by a dose of turpentine and raw oil mentioned above, and light feed for three successive days. Tying a short piece of fork or broom-handle cross-wise in the animal's month has also been found to give quick relief. Blind teats arise from different causes, but are usually the result of a growth in the milk channel, following an attack of mammitis or garget. They are sometimes caused from a deep wound such as a barb wire cut. Should the trouble commence while the cow is in full milk, little can be done except to milk with a milk tube, kept clean and sterilised, and when the cow goes dry the growth can be partially removed with a teat bistoury. This operation must be performed only by a competent veterinary surgeon. An injury to one or more quarters of the udder, or an attack of garget, are usual causes of blood in milk. Frequent milking of the affected quarter and bathing with hot water twice daily usually effects a cure. Cow pox is a common trouble during spring with cows when they are first turned out to pasture, and is usually spread from cow to cow by the hands of the milker. The use of zinc oxide, carbolic salve, or even vaseline and sulphur, after each milking is the best treatment. When the disease first appears, the affected cow should be milked last to avoid spreading to other animals. Sometimes, from the presence of dirt between the toes, the animal's, foot will become swollen and sore. The foot should be scraped, and washed clean with a disinfectant every day, and foot wrapped in a sack containing a gallon of moist bran. A. natural swelling of the udder at calving time must not be confused with the garget or mammitis, which may occur at any time in the milking period. Caked udder is another common name for the trouble. The usual cause is a chill, due to cold in the udder brought on by draught or contact of the udder with the cold damp floor or ground. If taken at the beginning a cure is usually effected by keeping the cow in a warm dry place and dosing her with Epsom salts or raw oil. Frequent massaging of the quarter, followed by rubbing with sweet oil, castor oil, or lard, is also to be advised. Should the case become severe, fomentations with hot water three times a day will be necessary. The udder must then be rubbed perfectly dry and camphorated-oil rubbed in. This is rather severe treatment and may cause the temporary drying up of the quarter. The worst cases may require the use of a hot poultice of flaxseed, bran, or hot wet rags. The disease, or at least one form of it, is contagious, so that in all cases milk or fluid from the affected udder should be drawn into a separate pail and destroyed, and the udder disinfected externally with a five per cent, solution of carbolic acid.