SOURING IN CALVES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 20 December 1913, Page 10

SOURING IN CALVES.

The following treatment for scouring in calves is recommended by an Australian Government veterinary surgeon Preventive measures include avoiding the cause of constipation and indigestion, absolute cleanliness, perfect drainage, the removal of dung heaps, and liberal application of chloride of lime'to the walls after scraping (solution 4oz. lime to a gallon of water). Calves should also be kept apart from calving oo.ws and their discharges. When the disease is not widespread and only occurs in isolated cases, it may -be assumed to be 6iiaple diarrhoea, and is easily dealt with. First remove the irritant from the bowels by giving loz to 2oz of castor oil, according to the size of the calf. Reduce the milk feed to one-half or two-thirds. If the stools smell offensive and sour, give loz magnesia or lime water every two hours. IK> not give opium, etc., at the beginning. These drugs only bind up the bowel and lock up the irritant. Follow this treatment up with one dram nitrate of bismuth, and one dram of gum arabic, three times a day. Under this treatment the faeces usually become more consistent and evenly normal. If the outbreak is more general, probably it is the result of contagion. Test the milk of the cow with a piece of blue litmus paper; if it reddens, reject the milk until sound. Feed on sound diet; give a course of hypbsulpEit* of soda, loz to 3oz daily, until the milk becomes alkaline, which can easily be detected by _ using a piece of the pink litmus, which will immediately be changed to blue on being placed in the milk. Give castor oil and magnesia with a little hyposulphite of soda. An injection of a starchy solution into the back passage has good effect.