Cow Giving Curdled Milk.

Opunake Times, Volume VI, Issue 256, 19 February 1897, Page 3

Cow Giving Curdled Milk.

A Victorian farmer, writing to Australian Farm and Home for information concerning a supposed disease in a milking cow, thus described the symptoms:— " We have a good cow that every few days gives ' lumpy ' or ' string ' milk out of two of her teats, the left fore teat and the tbe right hind teat, and sometimes out of all of them; then she will appear to be all right again for several days, then the same will occur again. The milk looks just like sour milk would if beaten up. She appears to be well in every other way; eats heartily and looks well; and is in good condition. This same trouble occurred last spring when she calved. She calved again about four weeks ago, and she appeared to be all right up to within ten days ago. She will only give that kind of milk for two or three milkings, then be all right again for several days." The reply given by the paper was: —" The form of mammitis, though very frejnently met with, is nevertheless one which as yet has never been treated with much success. Alkaline injections, such as lime water, given through the teats, together with constant attention to milking, have in some cases, for a time, seemingly made a cure, but oftener the disorder recurs again aud again until finally it becomes chronic in its character. The trouble is attributed to an acid principle in the milk. Primarily, however, tbis principle is only active in this direction when certaiu morbid conditions of the system exist; this may even be tuberculosis, but in such a latent form and so localised that only by such attacks may its presence be disclosed. Under these conditions the saccharine principle largely contained in certain plants become diverted from its normal use, and, by contact with the casein the milk, is converted into latic acid—a constituent that possesses the property of curdling milk. That it attacks only the one quarter is no evidence against its being constitutional. Sometimes one quarter is weaker than the others, and that is the part to succumb, whereas, the rest of the udder being normal, the deleterious principle is resisted. The only advice that can be suggested is to change the food ; this sometimes averts these attacks, but in such cases, where the animal is predisposed to the annoyance, the quicker she is. dried up and fitted for the butcher the better."