ANIMAL AILMENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5179, 27 October 1877, Page 2 (Supplement)

ANIMAL AILMENTS.

INJURED FETLOCK, If the horse has received some severe injury in the region of the fetlock joint, keep him as quiet as possible, and apply cooling applications to the inflamed leg until the inflammation has entirely subsided. The leg may then be blistered with biniodido of mercury and lard—one part of the former to eight parts of the latter. If may be necessary to repeat the blister in two weeks. FISTULA. Slit the fistula open to the bottom with a sharp knife, and dress the wound for a few days with some of the following lotion: Take of corrosive sublimate, one drachm; hydrochlorate acid, one-half ounce; water, two ounces. Mix. Apply carefully with a feather. After two or three days the wound may be dressed daily with a lotion made of carbolic acid, one drachm; water, ten ounces. Mix. DIARKHCEA IN HOGS. Hogs should always have plenty of range, and their resting place should be high and dry, with plenty of dry leaves or straw. No pure air can be found where the surroundings are damp or wet. Frequent and entire change of food is serviceable—often more so than a quantity of so-called preventatives. If the whole sty could bo changed, or removed from an eighth to a quarter of a mile, every three months, we doubt much whether the health of the hogs would ever be a source of anxiety to the owner, In the case of diarrhoea, succulent food ought to be withheld, and dry, nutritive food should be given. Aromatic and astringent remedies are generally beneficial. Three drachms each of powdered catechu, ginger and gentian, mixed with two ounces of treacle, should be smeared upon the root of the tongue morning and evening. Alum whey is a very useful preparation, especially for small and weakly animals. It is prepared by boiling together, for ten minutes, half an ounce of alum and two quarts of milk ; when strained, a very useful agent is obtained, and may be given twice daily. Starch emulsion forma a very good material for injections, in diarrhoea, and thin wheateu flour gruel may also be allowed the patients to drink, when dry food Is refused. This disease is brought on from various causes; among the most common are imprudent feeding, both as to quantity and quality —either feeding too much at a meal or feeding damaged provender ; watering too soon, either before or immediately after feeding, or exhausting the animal by over-working, A-,c. This disease is the result of acute indigestion. The food, instead of undergoing the normal process of digestion, ferments, the gas is given off in large quantities, which no distends the stomach and bowels as to threaten immediate death by asphyxia or rupture of the stomach. It is a common practice to compel horses suffering from this disease to take violent exercise, which, to say the least, is not only cruel, but very imprudent, often endangering the life of the animal. Walking exercise is always proper,- particularly it the anitoal is inclined to throw himself violently on the ground ; but in no case should the sick animal be urged faster than a walk. The best remedies we know of to arrest the fermentation and neutralise the gases in the stomach are aromatic spirits of ammonia and tincture of camphor. Give six drachms of the former with four drachms of the latter, in six ounces of water. The dose may be repeated in one or two hours, if necessary, or hyposulphite of soda and tincture of ginger—half an ounce of the former with one ounce of the latter, suspended in eight ounces of water. The dose may be repeated as. often as necessary. In the latter stages of this disease chloride of lime and chlorinated soda have been given with excellent success, often proving successful when other remedies had failed. Dahvv Noees. —Dr. Shorthouse urged the advisability of following nature as closely as possible. He pointed out that cattle turned loose in the fields almost invariably eat only three times a day, and remain in a recumbent position the greater part of the time during which they are not taking food. The doctor drew a comparison between horses treated as he advised and those continually eating. He alluded to the baneful efforts of pampering and over-feeding young horses. Of oats, the best to use for food, according to authorities quoted, are those of light weight, and hayracks should never be placed above the manger, ds they used to be. With reference to the feeding of store cattle, he said that cattle should never be fed oftoner than four times a day, oven three times being preferable. The supply of water, too, should not only ho pure, but unlimited in quantity. He recommended his.hearers not to milk cows in the prevalent fa»hion, which he would describe as the "beU-ropo method." Young animals sucking their mothers do exactly the reverse of the usual method, not attempting to extract the milk by sheer brute force, but giving a sort of push upwards upon the udder, that having the effect of relaxing the sphincter, and the milk flows freeljr. The suction power exercised is very trivial. The teat should not be grasped or seized, still less ought it to bo pulled downwards,— English Farmers' Club,