The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-05-09


mon remedy, recommended by some
veterinarians, is drench of one pound
of epson salts and one ounce of pow
dered ginger, administered in a bran
mash week or so before calving. But
in certain delicate constitutions the
risks of the dose might be equal to the
danger from the fever"
We can not agree with the writer
that the disease is too well known TO
need description, for "milk fever" and
"puerperal fever" are names applied
indiscriminately to almost any disease
attacking a COW after she drops her
calf, whether il be three hours or three
weeks after. Another correspondent of
the Tribune has this to say:
$50 many cows die each spring of
milk fever that | repeat the remedy:
Give no physic, but give an injection
of laudanum (one-half or three-fourths
of an ounce in some thin starch), and
keep her easy with laudanum until ma
ture cures her. Some diuretic Ga little
saltpeter water) helps her. So does a
few drops of aconite. But prevention
is best. This can be done by feeding
the COW sparingly just before she comes
in and for few days after. Take the
chill off her drink for two or three days
after coming in. Should you be caught,
however, with case of milk fever,
keep the cow easy with laudanum Gt is
likely to take six or eight days. and
keep her bladder empty as soon as she
is better and you will surely save her."
Milk fever is not a disease more likely
to attack cows in the spring than at
any other time, unless more cows may
drop their calves then than at any other
season of the year. A writer Gin the
Maine Farmer, we believe) tells how
Mr.. E. F. Bowditch of birmingham,
Mass, prevents milk fever. He says:
"As soon as a COW is dry before calv-
ing, usually four to six weeks, | begin
to feed old-process oil-meal, gradually
increasing the quantity from pint per
day till get up to two quarts per day,
and | continue that amount till the calf
is dropped. AS soon as the calf is born
give, in quart of warm water, with
the addition of a tablespoonful of
ground ginger or a tea-spoonful of cay
enne pepper, dose of salts, varying
the quantity from a pound (for small
two-year-old) to nearly two pounds Qor
a full-sized COW, POO pounds). If this
does not operate in fifteen or sixteen
hours give another dose of one pound
of salts, prepared as before, or one and
one-half pints of raw linseed oil. Keep
the COW short of food and water till her
bag and general condition are right
and then increase her feed gradually to
the usual rations. While on starvation
diet the bowels must be kept loose by
linseed Cruel, or something of that
nature"
The first part of the above is well
enough, but we have never had any
success in trying to physic cow. Mr..
William Fairweather, in the Ohio
Farmer, has still another theory, as
follows:
"The best way to save a COW from
milk fever is to prevent it if you can,
for if she gets it all the chances are
against her. In state of nature COW
gives only small quantity of milk
that is, comparatively small. The calf
is generally able to take all she secretes,
and the probabilities are that cows in
wild state are not troubled with milk
fever. Yet even in their natural state
| should imagine that for the first few
days the calf would not be able to take
all the milk, especially on the first day
and on the first attempt at sucking.
Therefore, taking nature as a guide,
does it not seem reasonable that some
milk ought to be left in the udder at the
first milking? The general rule is to
milk the COW dry as soon as she has
calved or as soon as the calf has had all
it will take. When the udder is full of
milk, enlarged and infamed, as often
happens at the time of parturition, the
sudden withdrawal of all its contents
must of necessity render it liable to
cold and congestion, resulting in gar
get and its attendant evils. A more ra-
tional mode of treatment would be to
milk only portion (say half or three
quarters) of what is in the udder at the
first milking, and milk at intervals of
six or eight hours for the first day or
two after calving, each time reducing
the proportion of milk left in the udder.
The domesticated COW by high breed
ing and special adaptation has been
converted into a milking-machine
yielding gallons where her wild sister
only yields quarts, but she has not ar
rived at this high state of perfection as
specially without a corresponding
loss of native vigor and constitution,
thus rendering her more liable to at
tacks of disease. Taking all these
things into consideration, we are the
better able to see how great a strain
the modern mich COW has to stand at
the time of parturition and to prepare
for the amelioration of its attendant
dangers"
From these various theories and
methods of treatment it must be seen
that different diseases are referred to in
the several coSes. hut whatever the