DISEASE OF THE BONES OF HORNED CATTLE.

Colonist, Volume XV, Issue 1500, 9 February 1872, Page 3

DISEASE OF THE BONES OF HORNED CATTLE.

By J. Pottie, Vetebin'Aey Sueqeok to the G-OTEENMENT 03? . NEW SotTTH WaIiES. In many parts of this Colony the horned stock are very liable to bone disease. In simple language, it is an eating away of the bones, more generally about the head, jaw, or hips. This disease is hereditary ; that is, the bull or cow, or both, communicate it to the calf, not'necessarily in an aggravated form, or even in a form marked out and visible, but the seeds of degeneracy are sown and implanted in the system, only awaiting time and favorable opportunity to assume a decided, marked, and dangerous form. In all cases the disease has a chemical origin. It depends upon the absence of certain constituent elements in the soil and feed for its development. It is the absence of phosphates in the food which is principally the cause of the malady. Looking at the constituents of bone, we find it is clear that the phosphates form a large proportion of the bone structure, and, where they are absent, no proper formation of bone can take place; but there is more than this about the affair. There is also a want in the bone of the powers of assimilation; they fail to collect from the blood the particular. materials required. And this condition again can be traced further, for it is not simply the withering away of the bone, but the disease consists in the formation of new bone. True, this bone wants many of the elements, not at all unlike canker of the horse's sole. Here we have eimply inability on the part of the secretory glands to manufacture anything but a fungus growth, totally destitute of earthy materials. This we know is due to a peculiar form of life, but destroyed by pressure. Indeed, no medicinal form of application can equal pressure in this condition. It is of importance that we should say this much in a kind of scientific way, so that the form of action necessary to arrest and exterminate the malady may be seen by the minds of reasonable men. Symptoms of the disease are often variable. In young cattle we have small weakly legs, swollen joints, or chronic cough, with diarrhoea. In old cattle, the first, thing noticed is a small enlargement, about the ■cheeks and gums. The animal has a difficulty in chewing, for the gum bones are diseased j but if this swelling is not near any vital organ, it will go on uutil it gets large and spreads ultimately in ciroumference until the bone is honey-combed, and rendered useless. Some call the disease canoersof the bone, because of its eating away. Of course the animal cannot feed, and rapidly pines away, and the whole system becomes like diseased sheep. There is derangement of the stomach, bowels, lungs, liver, &o. Worms are sometimes found in enormous quantities. Treatment of the disease will very much depend on the stage of the complaint at which we begin. If our form of treatment is not begun until all is wrong, then all must be put to rights ere we touch the complaint. Stomach, bowels, and lungs must be put in good working order with constitutional medicine, and then begins the more serious part of the business. If the disease has gone very far, the best way is to kill an ordinary animal, but if it be an animal of great value, send for a veterinary surgeon who thoroughly understands the devastating influence of the disorder ; for this malady, though mastered at one point, may next day begin at another, and hence not only is external application needed, but a long course of constitutional medicines. However, there are many things of considerable importance which every owner may at once attend to. 1. The disease is hereditary. Do not breed from diseased animals, unless you change the soil in which thoy run. It will not pay to breed diseases. 2. The disease depends for its existence, growth, and development, on the absence ; of phosphates in the soil and food. See that these agents are added at onoo; use plenty of nitrate of soda or phosphate for manure. If you begin to treat the calves, then give food rich in phosphates of lime, and the food must be nutritious, and given in small quantities. The post-mortem appearances sometimes present the most remarkable condition ; bones in which the disease existed get, of course, quite fragile, and'often are fractured. Nature attempts to heal this, but not in the ordinary way, for great blocks of material are thrown out, and stays from1 one point to' anotherffas if it had been effected by an architect using bad materials, but the work executed shows sometimes the most ingenious system of action. The muscles, too, of the body waste away, and the blood is scanty and deficient in consistency it is like brackish water. *;