The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-06-27
The Care and Treatment of Caked
 UdderA.

Extract from address of Dr. A. T. Peters. Veterinarian of Nebraska Ex- pertinent Station, at the Wisconsin Dairymen's Convention of 1904)
 wanted to take up this morning the diseases of the udder. Probably all dairymen know that each year they lose considerable from this source, and for that reason I have made it quite study so as to bring out some method by which we could save a large per cent of these udders that are caked soon after calving. We find very often a very good COW that has a diseased quarter, the quarter becoming diseased after the first or second calf. The usual methods that are adopted are something like this: They will put on. say, a hot fermentation, or a lini- ment, or some kind of vaseline, and then when the cistern becomes clogged they will use what is known as a probe, sometimes a alarming needle. and with that kind of material they usually ruin the udder They will have a large quantity of bloody milk and then in a little while there is no flow from that quarter at all. and the result Is the COW Is spoiled
 Now, the udder is to be considered something like a sponge; it is very porus, full of holes. and for that reason l 1t is a very delicate member and it wants to be treated in that way. I am not dairyman, but l am told that some milkers have less gentle touch than others and there is an irritation caused. and this irritation will produce serious results by clogging up these little tubes; and the result Is that the quarter will be gone, if not the entire udder. Now, then, the question is what to do. You have probably tried great many things. but l have found this the best remedy, and it Is some thing that farmers can do. The sec retary told me yesterday that the greatest trouble with us veterinarians
 is that we try to give the farmers something to do that is hard for them to do I have here an ordinary milk tube with a little bibb at the end of it. use a rubber tube something like an ordinary hand bicycle pump. Now, l insert this tube carefully into the quarter that is affected. and I fill 1t up with air. I do not probe in there with darning needles and other kinds of instruments, but fill up this spongy organ with water If the udder is caked, you put in as much air as you can. Then you massage or work with your hand, and work that air all through the quarter, and you will hear the bursting of these little vesicles, these little tubes. You can burst all of them in two or three application of that kind, and you will generally
 restore the udder. I have treated several hundred very bad cases and I know it works all right and any one of you can easily do it.
 Now. where the entire udder. soon after calving. has become caked. we use what is known as the compress. We take a piece of heavy cloth and put it on so that it lifts up the entire udder and tie 1t on top We usually use straw with it. so that we do not chafe the back of the animal. That is to relieve the pressure. You will notice that the udder is very heavy and that the pressure must be relieved before anything else is done. If you want to assist. take several small five or ten pound bags and fill them with bran. keep them hot and apply them to the udder. That is the treatment that we use where there Is a very gerat amount of congestion. Now, those about the simplest methods of treating diseases of the udder that l can ex- plain-the message for the diseased quarter and the compress for the whole udder.