Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1913-05-14
DISEASES AND PREvENTIoNs
DIR. Porter Gives Pointers on Animal
Plaques and Remedies

4 EDITOR CENSOR: There are two dis
eases of cattle that are causing a con-
siderable loss to farmers of Vernon
county every year. One is contagious
abortion, and the other black leg. The
l fret is already widely spread over the
county and many farmers have raised
few calves for two or three years.
Backlog, what is il? Is It anthrax?
, No, anthrax attacks horses, mules, cat
tie, sheep and man, but blackleg is a
disease of only young cattle, and of no
other animals. IL is the most virulent
disease that cattle are liable to. It has
destroyed calves in this county for forty
years, ard they are liable to contract it
anywhere, especially in valleys, in the
| the fall, when the feed in short. There
is generally a swelling on the flank or
shoulder, which craekles when you press
it, and the animal dies soon after. In
one calf lost. the swelling was around
the throat. If your cattle are insured
be very careful about claiming loss by
| lightning for calves and yearlings found
dead in the fall. Insurance com; Inies
had better not insure cattle under two
years of age from death by lightning.
No doubt they have paid many losses
from death by blackleg. There is no
cure for blackleg and most of the ami
mails afflicted die.
PREVENTION, VACcINATE EARLY AND
OFTEN
If calves under three months are vac
cinated they should be re-vaccinated in
two or three months. After six months
the protection may last half year, and
after twelve months, year. Cattle
over thirty months of age hardly re-
quire vaccination, especially if they
have been vaccinated. The best time
to vaccinate is in May, just before the
stock is sent to pasture. or in the fall
! after they come to the barn. Vaccine
tion conveys a mild form of blaekleg to
the animal, and it requires shelter for
week. 1t should not be done at the
same time as dehorning, castration or
vaccinating against anthrax, nor in a
young heifer near the time of Jcalving.
| prefer the blackleg pills 20 the powder
or string form. A little pellet the size
of mustard seed is placed in the needle
of an injector and the needle pushed
| through the Skin into the cellulas tissue.
The point of the needle is kept highest
or the pellet is lost. 1t is essential that
we vaccinate every young bovine or we
may have heavy losses. | thought
had protected every one of the dozen
! little Jersey heIfers | sent to the valley
pasture last year, but two of the best
ones died when the feed got short in
September and they got the germs
! from the soil. Those germs are al
most everywhere and we might as
well inoculate every calf twice for it
only costs thirty cents for each calf.
For a good many years | have been
/ spraying the cows every night and
morning at milking time with pure
kerosene oil, used in tin sprayer. In
this way | know have kept the flies
down and saved the cows lot of tor
ment. 1t is humane thing to do and
then, like lot of other humane acts, il
pays in dollars and cents. We spray
| the oil to kill the flies, and not to keep
them off. Do you know the big farm
journals and dairy papers will hardly
publish this treatment of the fly, be-
cause they advertise "Shoo.hy" and
other repellents? The Shoe, fly makers
remind me of the Arab mother in Cairo
and Luxor with dirty baby, its face
covered with flies and the mother with
switch shooting them away. 1t is
against her religion to kill them. 1t is
| just as easy to kill the fly with kero-
sene as to apply repellents and not kill
it.
And now come the Harvard college
fellows. who tell US the stable fly's bite
is the cause of that dread disease, In
fantie paralysis. They have caused
paralysis in young monkeys in that way
and we had better believe they are
right 1t will pay to begin now TO kill
the very first flies, the progenitors of
bilious, by spraying and by pouring
oil on the manure piles where they
breed. Two flies beginning now can
produce 19l quintilleons of flies by
September. 1t is our religious duty to
kill them. c. V. PORTER.