Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-07-18
Depraved Appetite in Cattle.

Occasionally, says the Western Rural,
we find disease occurring among cat
tie which is due to q deficiency of GER
tain elements in the food, necessary for
the animal economy. The disease is
rarely developed on farms that are fer
tile and rich, and where it appears it
seldom happens that solitary case oc-
ours; for all the milch cows, and per-
haps some of the younger stock, are
more or less affected by it. On certain
soils, especially such as are sandy or
gravelly and otherwise poor, or on
farms situated on high lands, possess
ing stunted hedges, and dry, short, in
nutritious herbs, or on low, swampy
grounds, with rank and coarse grasses,
deficient in earthly salts, a softening of
the bony structures of the body, not
unlike that occurring in the so-called
rickets, gradually develops. When we
refer to the poverty of the soil, it must
not be understood that we mean an ex-
hausted state of the soil, because many
of those places have not been broken
up with the plow to any extent, if at
all. If such ground were turned up by
the plow, the advantage it would de-
rive from exposure to the atmosphere
and rain water would be considerable.
Depending upon the extent of deticien-
cy of nutriment or earthly salts in the
herbage, the effects upon the animal
develop more or less rapidly. BY de-
grees they fall off in condition, the
up his head and walks off down the
bones become prominent, the skin tight,
and void of suppleness, and the hairs
present coarse appearance, losing its
naturally smooth appearance, and after
while the gait becomes unsteady, es-
pecially behind, as the bones of the
posterior part of the body are the first
to become affected. The chewing of
the cud is performed rather slow and
sluggishly. Among the earliest symp-
toms is a depraved appetite, with a
craving for materials that would indi-
cate excessive acidity of the stomach;
and among the agents which the ami
NAL takes in along with its food, we meet
with the greatest variety. Sand, stones,
iron, pieces of harness, old shoes, sticks
of wood, ETC., are all alike objects of
attraction to her. In some instances
the animal will not display any anxiety
to swallow the object, but merely de-
in the neighborhoOd of fence or hedge
where the farmers wife has displayed
her linen, she will indicate the phe-
nomenon of sulimia or depraved appe-
tite, by seizing with avidity the first
article she reaches, and chew it with
wonderful pleasure. In the pasture,
she will pick up bone, if such can be
found, and chew it for an hour at a
time, seeming to enjoy the occupation.
If possible, the cattle should be re-
moved to different pasture, contain
ing luxurious grasses, failing which,
they should be supplied with other sue
culent and nutritious food, such as
green oats and barley, besides a ration,
morning and evening, of equal parts of
ground oats and bran, with a handful
of ground oil-cake or ilaX-seed meal;
or, better, two ounces of raw linseed
oil, mixed with each ration of ground
oats or barley and bran. The admins
tration of lime water has proved very
beneficial in checking the disease. 1t
has been given in doses of one pint
three times daily during four days to
one week. Lime water is prepared by
shaking small quantity of freshly
burned lime, agitating it briskly with a
large quantity of water, allowing the
undissolved matter to subside, and
pouring off the clear and colorless solu-
tion. Only so much lime should be
slaked as is necessary for use in one
day, according to the number of cattle,
because the solution is apt to absorb
carbonic acid from the atmosphere,
which would render the fluid less eff
cient. In advanced stages of the dis
ease, mineral and vegetable tonics are
required, besides lime water, such as
gentian, peruvian bark, sulphate OF
iron, phosphate of iron, muriatic and
nitric acid, sulphate of soda, common
salt, etc. A decoction of the willow OF
poplar barks given in pint doses, will be
found an admirable tonic in advanced
] cases.