CHAPTER X.

Diseases of Farm Animals 101

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page 1. Health Frontispiece 2. Common Sheep Scab 3 3. Hog House and Feeding Floor 5 4. Poulticing the Throat 8 5. How a Cell Divides 10 6. Bones of Skeleton of a Horse 16 7. One of the Parasites of the Hog 18 8. Circulation and Digestion 22 9. Diseased Kidney 25 10. Stomach of Ruminant 27 11. Circulation of Blood in Body 30 12. Lumpy Jaw (jaw bone) 36 13. Bad Attitude Due to Conformation 41 14. Ewe Neck 46 15. Anatomy of the Foot 49 16. Fractures 54 17. Bandaging a Leg 57 18. Rickets in Pigs 63 19. Round Worms in Hog Intestines 66 20. Tetanus Bacilli 71 21. Ready for the Drench 81 22. Bacteria As Seen Under the Microscope 85 23. Result of Bone Spavin 90 24. Feeling the Pulse 94 25. How Heat Affects Growth 96 26. Diseases of the Horse 102 27. Lumpy Jaw (external view) 105 28. Where to Tap in Bloating 118 29. Bog Spavin 122 30. Horse Bots in Stomach 124 31. Colic Pains 138 32. Retention of the Urine 141 33. Curb 145 34. Fistulous Withers 156 35. Foot Rot in Sheep 160 36. Founder 163 37. Bad Case of Glanders 170 38. Ventral Hernia 180 39. An Attack of Cholera 182 40. The Result of Hog Cholera 186 41. Kidney Worms in the Hog 205 42. Liver Fluke 207 43. Lockjaw 209 44. Lymphangitis 215 45. Natural Presentation of the Foal 225 46. Abnormal Presentation of the Foal 227 47. Quittor 235 48. A Cattle Bath Tub 241 49. Side Bones 244 50. Splint 248 51. Twisted Stomach Worms 252 52. Tuberculosis Germs 264 Health and Disease Plate 1 Making Post Mortem Examinations Plate 2 A Victim of Tuberculosis Plate 3 Exterior Points of the Horse; Castration Plate 4 Texas Fever Plate 5 A Typical Case of Foot and Mouth Disease Plate 6

INTRODUCTION

Facing Disease on the Farm

To call a veterinarian or not--that is the question. Whether your horse or cow is sick enough for professional attendance, or just under the weather a little, is a problem you will always be called upon to face. And you must meet it. It has always faced the man who raises stock, and it is a problem that always will. Like human beings, farm stock have their ailments and troubles; and, in most cases, a little care and nursing are all that will be required. With these troubles all of us are acquainted; especially those who have spent much time with the flocks and the herds on the farm. Through experience we know that often with every reasonable care, some animals, frequently the healthiest-looking ones, in the field, or stable, give trouble at the most unsuspected times. So the fault is not always with the owner.

There is no reason, however, why an effort should not be made, just as soon as any trouble is noticed, to assist the sick animal to recover, and help nature in every way possible to restore the invalid to its usual normal condition. The average observing farmer, as a rule, knows just about what the trouble is; he usually knows if treatment is beyond him, and if not, what simple medical aid will be effective in bringing about a recovery with greater dispatch than nature unaided will effect.

Now, of course, this means that the farmer should be acquainted with his animals; in health and disease their actions should be familiar to him. If he be a master of his business he naturally knows a great deal about his farm stock. No man who grows corn or wheat ever raises either crop extremely successfully unless he has an intimate knowledge of the soil, the seed, the details of fertilization and culture. He has learned how good soils look, how bad soils look; he knows if soils are healthy, whether they are capable of producing big crops or little crops.

So with his stock. He must know, and he does know, something as to their state of health or ill health. With steady observation his knowledge will increase; and with experience he ought to be able to diagnose the common ailments, and not only prescribe for their treatment, but actually treat many of them himself. Unfortunately, many farmers pass health along too lightly and the common disorders too seriously. This is wrong. The man who deals with farm animals should be well acquainted with them, just as the engineer is acquainted with his engine. If an engine goes wrong the engineer endeavors to ascertain the trouble. If it is beyond his experience and knowledge he turns the problem over to an expert. It should be so with the stock raiser. So familiar should the owner be with his animals in case of trouble he ought to know of some helpful remedy or to know that the trouble is more serious than ordinary, in which case the veterinarian should be called.

All of this means that the art of observing the simple functions should be acquired at the earliest possible moment--where to find the pulse of horse or cow, how many heart beats in a minute, how many respirations a minute, the color of the healthy nostril, the use of the thermometer and where to place it to get the information, the character of the eye, the nature of the coat, the passage of dung and water, how the animal swallows, the attitude when standing, the habit of lying down and getting up--all of these should be as familiar to the true stockman as the simplest details of tillage or of planting or of harvesting.

Moreover, the stockman should be a judge of external characters, whether natural or temporary. He should have a knowledge of animal conformation. If to know a good plow is desirable, then to know a good pastern or foot is desirable. If the art of selecting wheat is a worthy acquisition, then the art of comparing hocks of different horses is a worthy accomplishment also. If experience tells the grower that his corn or potatoes or cotton is strong, vigorous and healthy or just the reverse, observation and experience ought also to tell him when his stock are in good health or when they lack thrift or are sick and need treatment.

LEARN TO RECOGNIZE ANIMAL DISEASES

Few farmers there are, indeed, who are not acquainted with crop diseases. Smut is readily recognized when present in the wheat or corn or oat field; so colic, too, should be recognized when your horse is affected by it. The peach and the apple have their common ailments; so have the cow and pig. In either case the facts ought to be familiar. So familiar that as soon as diagnosed and recognized prompt measures for treatment should be followed that the cure may be effected before any particular headway is at all made. Handled in this way, many cases that are now passed on to the veterinarian would never develop into serious disturbances at all.

PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE

The old saying, “Prevention is better than cure,” is both wisdom and a splendid platform on which to build any branch of live stock work. Every disease is the result of some disturbance, somewhere. It may be improper food; the stockman must know. Moldy fodder causes nervous troubles in the horse. Cottonseed meal, if fed continuously to pigs, leads to their death. Hence, food has much to do with health and disease. Ventilation of the stable plays its part. Bad air leads to weakness, favors tuberculosis, and, if not remedied, brings about loss and death. Fresh air in abundance is better than medicine; and the careful stockman will see that it be not denied.

Good sanitation, including cleanly quarters, wholesome water and dry stables, has its reward in more healthy animals. When not provided, the animals are frequently ill, or are in bad health more or less. As these factors--proper food, good ventilation, and effective sanitation--are introduced in stable accommodations, diseases will be lessened and stock profits will increase.

DISINFECT FREQUENTLY; IT NEVER HURTS AND IT MAY DO A WORLD OF GOOD

As disease is better understood it becomes more closely identified with germs and bacteria. Hence, to lessen disease we must destroy, so far as possible, the disease-producing germs. For this purpose nothing is better than sunlight and disinfectants. Sunlight is itself death to all germs; therefore, all stables, and the living quarters for farm animals, should be light and airy, and free from damp corners and lodgment places for dust, vermin, and bacteria. Even when animals are in good health, disinfection is a splendid means for warding off disease. For sometimes with the greatest care germs are admitted in some manner or form. By constantly disinfecting, the likelihood of any encroachment by germs is greatly lessened.

Fortunately we have disinfectants that are easily applied and easily obtained at small cost. One of these disinfecting materials is lime, just ordinary slaked lime, the lime that every farmer knows. While it does not possess the disinfecting power of many other agents, it is, nevertheless, very desirable for sprinkling about stables and for whitewashing floors, walls, and partitions. When so used the cracks and holes are filled and the germs destroyed. Ordinary farm stables should be whitewashed once or twice each year, and the crumbled lime sprinkled on the litter or open ground. It is not desirable to use lime with bedding and manure, for the reason that it liberates the nitrogen contained therein. Hence the bedding and manure should be removed to the fields as frequently as possible, where it can be more helpful to the land. Thus scattered, the sunlight and purifying effects of the soil will soon destroy the disease bacteria, if any are present in the manure.

Another splendid disinfectant is corrosive sublimate, mercuric chloride, as it is often called. Use one ounce in eight gallons of water. This makes one-tenth of one per cent solution. In preparing this disinfectant, allow the material to stand for several hours, so as to permit the chemical to become entirely dissolved. This solution should be carefully guarded and protected, since it is a poison and, if drunk by animals, is liable to cause death. If infected quarters are to be disinfected, see that the loose dirt and litter is first removed before applying the sublimate.

Carbolic acid is another satisfactory disinfectant. Usually a five per cent solution is recommended. It can be easily applied to mangers, stalls, and feed boxes. Enough should be applied so that the wood or iron is made wet and the cracks and holes more or less filled. Chloride of lime is a cheap and an easily prepared disinfectant. Use ten ounces of chloride of lime to two gallons of water. This makes a four per cent solution, and should be applied in the same way as the corrosive sublimate.

Formalin has come into prominence very recently as a desirable disinfectant. A five per cent solution fills the bill. Floors and cracks should be made thoroughly wet with it. By using one or more of these agents the living quarters of farm animals can be kept wholesome, sweet, and free from germ diseases. In fact, the use of disinfectants is one of the best aids of the farmer in warding off disease and in lessening its effects when once present.

PUT SICK ANIMALS OFF BY THEMSELVES

Many diseases are introduced into a herd or flock by thoughtlessness on the part of the owner. I have known distemper to be introduced into stables and among horses, Texas fever and tuberculosis into herds of cattle, and hog cholera among hogs, because diseased animals, when purchased, were not separated off by themselves, for a short time at least. If this were done, farmers would lessen the chance of an introduction of disease into their healthy herds. Consequently quarantine quarters should be provided; especially is this true if new animals are frequently purchased and brought to the farm where many animals are raised and handled. These quarantine quarters need not be expensive, and they ought to be removed far enough from the farm stock so that there may be no easy means of infection. When newly purchased animals are placed in the quarantine quarters they should be kept there long enough to determine if anything strange or unusual is taking place.