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Plague

Every farmer who keeps many cattle should divide them into several classes; thus: - First.

The sound and healthy that have had no direct or indirect intercourse with tainted cattle, and these must be kept carefully isolated. Second.

Cattle which, though unaffected, have been exposed in cars, ships, or markets. These are to be made the subject of treatment the moment the first sign of the disease shows itself. Third. Cattle actually smitten with the plague, to be treated according to each stage of the disease.

The healthy cattle must be removed from the farm, or, if they remain at the rack, must be taken out twice daily for the twofold purpose of taking wholesome exercise and allowing their stalls and sheds to be thoroughly cleaned. Their feeding should also be carefully watched, and the following provisions added to their daily supplies:

Pounded oats Pounded juniper berries Powdered gentian Sulphate of iron Carbonate of soda 4 pounds. 1 pound. 1 ounce. 2 drachms. 2 drachms.

Whilst in the fields, the cattle should not be allowed to drink out of ponds or at any stagnant or muddy water.

Cattle belonging to our second class (having been exposed to infection) must receive the same strengthening and tonic ration in the morning, and twice every day take the following anti-contagious preparation: Chlorate of potash. 2 drachms.

Water pint.

Dissolve and mix with one gallon sage or hysop tea; to be given when drink is given them.

The use of this anti-contagious drink is of the highest importance. It should be continued even after the plague has broken out.

During the absence of those cattle which are undergoing the preventive treatment, let the healthy condition of their stalls and sheds be looked to.

Be careful to take out the litter every day; wash the floor and cleanse it thoroughly; ventilate the place well; fumigate it with burnt sulphur or dried juniper berries, sage and rosemary, salted with saltpetre, and a little arsenic. This will burn readily if placed on a pan of coals. At night, tar, creosote, benzine, petroleum or iodine may be left in the stable, to diffuse their vapors and modify the air.

As the cattle plague, or ox typhus, when once developed in the ox, cow, or sheep, usually pursues its course, the various functions of the body are so changed that they vary during the different stages of the disorder, the fever at first producing excitement, but in the latter stages great exskill, practical experience, and vigilance. During the disorder the ox undergoes in two weeks all the feverish commotion which a man laboring under typhoid fever would be subject to in a month.

The phenomena succeed each other with terrific swiftness, leaving barely time for the medicines to act.

At the outbreak of the disorder, abolish solid feeding. This is easily done, as the animal has lost his appetite. Give him, instead, half a pailful of soaked hay, adding to it a sprinkling of salt; or give water, whitened with bran and flour, with a little vinegar, three or four times daily.

When the animal coughs and his breathing is oppressed, give him warm drinks, such as steamed barley and oats, or a hot mash, and cover him well with blankets, but don't exclude the fresh air." The following "hygienic measures" are to be taken against the extension of the plague: