The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-01-19
Keeping Animals Healthy.

quently looked upon more as a vista
ton of Providence than the result of in
difference to the laws which govern ami
NAL lie. So long as animals remain
healthy, their owners. are usually salts,
fed to let what they consider .'weH
enough alone; but when sickness does
come. they are seldom prepared to com
bat it. 1t is not the loss sustained in
the death of the animals first diseased in
herd that should be considered but
what may follow; for when stricken by
disease they often become sources of
danger to other species, as web as to
mankind.
The bite of rabid dog may cause the
death of many other animals besides the
dog; so the well-known disease of the
horse, CHAMBERS, may pass to the groom
or others who may come within It's in
tiuencei and the tape-worm so common
in sheep in certain regions of our coun-
try may prove direful calamity to
hundreds who are so unfortunate as to
eat the injected mutton. These and
many other diseases of domestic animals
are directly transmissible from the
lower to higher, or from animals to
man; consequently the health of the
former becomes subject of the great
est Importance, and too much care can
scarcely be taken to maintain health as
protective measure. if for no other
purpose.
1t is not always an easy matter to
trace disease from man back to its
source among the lower animals, even
when we are quite certain that it orig
mated among them, for many of the
more common diseases change in APP
pearance, and do not invariably present
the same characteristics by which they
are usually identified; hence CHAMBERS in
horses my pass to man, and in the lat
ter receive quite another name. Hun
dreds of persons have, no doubt, in
days gone by, died from the attacks Of
trichina, when the presence of this nil
mute parasite was not suspe ted by at
tending physicians; and even if it had
| been discovered, the hog would not
have been accused of being the animal
guilty of distributing itamong mankind
Another disease of swine known at
present as hog cholera, and of late prev
alent in most of the Western States,
| while not supposed to be transmssible
to other animals, must render their flesh
unfit for human food How many in
fected animals are slaughtered. the pork
from which is packed for market, is of
course unknown, but it is sale to con-
clude that the quantity is very large in
q country where there is no Government
supervision over such matters, and
farmers, when the disease is sweeping
away hundreds per week in a county or
town, are not very likely to hesitate to,
save themselves from severe losses II 1T
can be done by anticipating the killing
time by few days or weeks. The same,
may be said of other diseases of ani-,
mails, and many an a'Iing steer and
| fever Smitten COW or fiuke-infected
sheep has gone to the shambles. when
their proper place was in the ground,
and that, too, with their Jackets on. -
Although much has been said and
written about bad meat from animals
sent to our large cities in close, i'll
ventilated cars, such meat is neverthe-
| less less dangerous as food than that
found in the stalls of country and village
butchers, which very frequently is from
such animals as we have referred to-
above, and of a quality that would not
pass inspection in our city markets. 1t
certainly speaks we'll for the climate OF
the United States that we have so few
diseased animals, considering the neg
lect of large majority of our farmers
to pay the least regard to the simplest
laws of hygiene From the State of Hi
nois westward to the Rocky Mountains,
we find hundreds and thousands OF
herds, large and small, that get all the
water they drink during the summer
months from stagnant pools, artificial or
natural, scattered here and there over
the prairies and plains. The water in
these pools is that drained from the
surrounding surface during the rainy
season, or from melting SHOWS, and
naturally this water takes with it the
filth from the surface of the soil; and
even if it appears to be at first clear and
pure, it soon becomes extremely filthy
from the droppngs of the animals fire.
quenting it These hollows or mud
holes are the principal source from
which stock on the Western plains get
water to drink, although in the valleys
and along streams they fare better, but
often not much better, as large pro-
portion of the brooks dry up in summer,
or near the mountains are polluted with
the mud from placer mines or chemicals
and pulp from the mills.
/ How all these abuses are to be recti-
fed it would be difficult to determine,
| for, as a recent European veterinarian
has said: "The art of preserving health
embraces a large and varied field of hui
man knowledge, comprehending all the
| Of
existence" Among these are the in
| fluences of climate, of habitation, air,
food, water, and employment. BY eli
mate is understood all those influences
that cause a region to be hot or cold,
wet or dry, due to differences of alti-
tude, latitude, proximity to the sea, or
distance from it. AS a rule, region OF
country healthy for man will be found
the same for all or nearly all of our do
mesticated animals.
In low-lying. marshy lands cattle are
as likely to suffer from fever as the in
habitants, and we have only to look to
the malarial and yellow fever infected
districts of the South and West to find
the home of that virulent malady known
as the Texas cattle fever. All marshy
| uiobllCbo o1C CopCNloiiJ ~
health during hot summers. when the
surface of the ground is exposed to
heat after beng covered with water
In low wet grounds in cool climates the
diseases known as ''foot rot in cattle
and oliver rot in sheep are always
more or less abundant than in the high,
| dry and arid, but stock are seldom as
healthy; consequently what is gained
in one direction is usually lost in an
other.
The ordinary farmer who has no
prevalent climatic disease to combat
need only give his animals proper food
and shelter to keep them almost or en-
tirely exempt from disease. He should
rely more upon keeping his animals in
a condition to resist diseases than upon
| the use of medicines when maladies APP
pear among them. The weak, poor
and old animals are usually the first to
fall victims to any of the internal or ex-
ternal parasites which are known to in
fest stock, for the very good reason that
they are not as well able to resist their
attacks as the strong and healthy. Good
care, good food and plenty of the latter
are the best of preventives against the
ordinary diseases among domestcated