First Aid to Farm Stock

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 69, Issue 2, 15 August 1944, Page 97

First Aid to Farm Stock

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G. A. THOMSON,

M.R.C.V.S.,

Veterinarian, Auckland.

Although every farmer hopes to avoid serious losses in his animals through disease or accident, there are occasional injuries and illnesses sustained by animals which no amount of care will prevent. Some of these may require the attendance of the local veterinary surgeon, but many are of a minor nature which can be attended to quite successfully by the farmer himself. Even in the more serious cases it is as well to know what preliminary treatment to undertake in the interval before the veterinary surgeon arrives, provided that his calling to the case is not postponed until the animal is past all help.

THIS article discusses some of the simpler troubles such as cuts and galls, foot injuries, torn teats, and . eye injuries. A few simple instruments are necessary in the farm first-aid - kit—a good, sharp knife, a sharp pair of scissors, a small pair of forceps, and a needle or two. These should be kept together in a clean box or tin, and should not be used for anything but first-aid work. When required for use, no matter how clean they look, they should be boiled or soaked in a strong disinfectant solution. A recommended supply of common-ly-used antiseptics and medicines is: — An Boz. bottle of iodine; lib. of boracic acid powder; copper sulphate (better known as bluestone), which may be required in small or large quantities, depending on the condition to be treated; a small bottle of Condy’s crystals, called potassium permanganate by chemists, and a tin of a reliable antiseptic or one of the eucalyptus preparations. I think it is better to buy a gallon tin of these antiseptics than to rely on a small bottle, which costs relatively more and which is often . empty when required. A few pounds of epsom salts, . raw linseed oil, Stockholm tar and molasses, and a few bandages and clean rags should complete the list. Restraining Patients Before introducing the first casualty it is necessary to lay down a few rules of general procedure. Firstly, the animal should be restrained so that it is easy and safe to proceed with treatment, for while it may be possible to

treat an injury with the animal uncontrolled, it is rarely possible to treat it well. Take, for example, a horse which has been mixed up with some barbed wire. It won’t stand for its skin cuts to be treated unless a good headstall is provided and perhaps a

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIBIIIIIIIIIIIIIII rope to pull up a leg. A twitch on the lip or a blind over the eye is often useful. Very often a cow must be thrown before it is possible to apply treatment. Those not familiar with the easy method, that is, a rope looped first around the neck, then behind the shoulders, and again in front of the hips, and pulled from behind, should have it demonstrated. Treating Wire Cuts The main essentials, whether the patient is a horse, cow, dog, or pig, are

cleanliness and disinfection, stoppage of bleeding, and aids to natural healing. In treating wire cuts first clean the wound, using cottonwool, or a clean cloth soaked in the disinfectant solution, which may be prepared from Condy’s crystals, a reliable antiseptic, or a solution of loz. of common salt in about threequarters of a gallon of warm water. Hydrogen peroxide is very useful where particles of dirt or hairs have entered the wound, particularly if the wound is a deep one. Powdered sulphanilamide is probably the best thing to use but is not always available at present. Next clip the hair with the scissors as short as possible for a distance of an inch or two around the wound, taking care that the hairs do not fall into the wound. If bleeding has not stopped by this time, take a clean pad of cotton-wool or cloth soaked in cold water and press gently but firmly on the wound for sufficient time to stop the bleeding. If you cannot stop bleeding in this way, there is probably a torn blood vessel which . needs to be tied. Unless you have had experience with such cases it is best to send for the veterinarian. When the wound is clean and all bleeding stopped, all that remains to be done is to bring the skin edges together, ■ if necessary, with a stitch or two placed directly across the lips of the wound. These should be tied just sufficiently firm to hold the edges together. If too tight, they delay healing by compressing the blood supply, while if too loose, dirt will get in again. Do not stitch the wound unless it is necessary, as in many cases it will heal up better

without such aid. It is usually impossible to bandage wounds except on the lower part of the legs, and in any case a bandage is of use only to keep the wound clean. Sometimes sticking plaster applied over a piece of lint will keep things clean. A gentle application of disinfectant should be made once a day until healing is well advanced. If stitches have been necessary, they can usually be removed after four or five days, unless the wound is extensive, in which case they should be removed a few at a time according to the degree of healing. Eye Troubles A complaint with which practically all horsemen and many dairymen are familiar, a small piece of chaff or other material in the eye, can do a great deal of damage if left unattended. It may lead to permanent blindness or bursting of the eye, and even in mild cases causes considerable dis- , tress to the animal. Often the first symptoms seen are a watery discharge down the face from the eye, frequent blinking, and redness of the surface of the eye. Sometimes the cause of the trouble is difficult to see, as the animal may object to any manipulation of the eylids, and the offending matter may be well in under the eyelid. If found within a day or two, it is easily removed, either by flushing out the eye with a solution of boracic acid or by catching it on a camel-hair brush or other soft-ended instrument. Sometimes when castor oil is poured into the eye the chaff will be gradually pushed out or may be removed easily the following day. ,■ When it has been in place for a few days it becomes firmly attached to the eyeball, and covered with a fine layer of mucus .which makes it impossible to brush or wash out. If this has happened, obtain a small bottle of 1 per cent, solution of silver nitrate or zinc sulphate from the chemist and pour a few drops into the eye each day until the chaff is loosened. Continue to bathe the eye for a few days afterwards until all signs of inflammation have disappeared. The treatment just described should be used for any simple inflammation of the eye, such as “pink-eye” in sheep and cattle. If, however, the inflammation becomes serious and there is an obvious whiteness within the eyeball, or very marked inflammation of the membranes, it would be advisable to call in the veterinarian immediately. Treating Horses’ Feet Foot troubles in horses are mostly injuries caused by picked-up nails or other sharp objects, while in cattle and sheep footrot and foot abscess cause a lot of trouble. While most horsemen have little difficulty in diagnosing lameness due to foot injury,

the main signs being resting the leg, holding the foot off the ground, heat ' in the hoof, and pain on application of pressure, many have great difficulty in finding the actual injury. For this reason treatment by the farmer himself without plenty of experience is not recommended; better to call in a veterinarian, or, if he is unavailable, to obtain, the help of someone experienced in the work. If the job must be done without veterinary assistance, adopt this procedure. Ascertain where the pain is most pronounced by tapping with a hammer or squeezing with pincers. Remove the shoe carefully, examining each nail to see if there is any sign of blood or pus either on the nail or in the nail hole. If there is no obvious injury, you must gradually pare the sole of the foot in the area suspected to be involved with a hoof knife. In these cases the injury is generally at the junction of the-sole and the wall of the hoof. Care must be exercised in this operation not to pare the sole too much or to cut the frog or the bars of the foot unless absolutely essential. If you are successful you will find a small spot, dark in colour and tending to be softer than the normal tissue, and smelling unpleasantly. On cutting further you should get a discharge of thin, greyish or blackish pus. Once the seat of the trouble is found it is necessary to open up the tissues around the diseased spot to remove all diseased and dead tissue and to provide drainage, and then to clean up the wound as well as possible. Hydrogen peroxide is very useful in such cases, as it brings loose debris and pus to the surface. Finally, disinfect by pouring a little iodine into the wound and plug the hole with a wad of cotton-wool soaked in Stockholm tar, if necessary using a plated shoe to hold in the plug. Aftertreatment consists of regular dressing until the. sole of the foot grows again? Often regular bathing for two or three days in a bucket of water as hot as the animal can stand is of great assistance.

As a precautionary measure, when a nail is accidentally driven too far

into the foot at shoeing, withdraw the nail, pour iodine into the hole, or reinsert a hot nail for a moment, and then plug the hole with Stockholm tar. Any foot lameness which occurs within a < week or so after shoeing should lead you .to suspect that a nail has been driven too close to the soft tissues of the hoof and is causing pressure and pain. A word of warning about cases where the injury is not easy to find: often in such cases there is a marked swelling and tenderness above and behind the heels, which may mislead you into supposing that the injury is not in the foot itself. But these signs generally mean that the injury is deepseated in the foot and that pus which cannot escape through the sole of the foot is travelling upwards through the softer tissues. Such cases are usually of a serious nature and are better left for the veterinarian to deal with. Footrot and Foot Abscess In cattle and sheep there are two conditions affecting the foot, both of which are very painful, and result in marked lameness, loss of condition, and, in cattle, a drop in milk produced. Probably the same drop in milk production occurs in ewes, which suggests that ewes suffering from footrot will not “do” their lambs so well as healthy ewes. These two conditions are called footrot and foot abscess. Footrot is due .to certain definite bacterial organisms which gain entrance to the tissues through abrasions between and behind the claws. It is a highly infectious disease, given favourable conditions, which are a combination of mud to contain the germs and rough metal or other material to cause abrasions in the foot. After a cow first shows lameness several days pass before the condition comes to a head and the abscess breaks. Then it takes another week or two <to heal. During the entire period of lameness there is a loss of condition and fall in production. Treatment consists of cleaning the affected foot, applying a suitable mixture, such as bluestone in Stockholm tar, and bandaging to keep clean. Daily bathing in hot water

helps to bring the condition to a head, and eases the pain. „ .. The most serious aspect of the disease is its infectiousness, as it may run right through the herd. Once it makes its PP ea^ every endeavour must be made to protect the rest o the herd. Affected animals should be completely isolated. If a footbath is available, as is desirable at the yard entrance fill it with a bluestone so ution so that all animals pass Through it: twice daily. Otherwise it is advisable to clean all possible mud from the yards and race, and to broadcast powdered bluestone over all muddy places around the yards and gateways. Foot abscess is caused by the ordinary pus-forming organisms which enter by the same channel, but which are not so contagious as those causing footrot. Foot abscess should be treated the same as foot troubles in horses, That is, open up the site of infection, cutting away sufficient hoof to provide drainage, bathe regularly, apply an antiseptic solution, and bandage .to Clean ' p ’ » Collar and Saddle Galls Many a good horse is rendered ternporarily useless by collar or saddle galls. Such injuries are often a reflection on the teamster or rider, as they are usually caused by ill-fitting or carelessly-applied harness. A collar which fits one horse is unlikely to fit most other horses unless adjusted, and a saddle with wrinkled, badly worn,

or hard pads, or with a round-seamed or hard-edged girth is almost bound to cause injury. For effective treatmen o these injuries rest is essential, Apart from the cruelty of working sucb an j n j ur ed animal, a constantly t rr ttated skin takes longer to heal and . g to form excessive scar tissue, Keep the affected area clean, clipping ba - r On an aroun( j it if necessary, and apply regularly a dressing which , g . an ti Septic and astringent. An edic j ent an( j often used dressing is known as “ w hite lotion” and can be obtained from a chemist for a few pence, TTjj. r Twmvioc u ® aer The udder of a cow is the part of the body most liable to injury from barbed wire, sharp horns, stray tins, and sharp stones and sticks. Cows that have the habit of jumping fences are specially liable to injury, and • should be controlled by harness of ’ some kind to prevent jumping. Superficial wounds of the udder can be treated in the same way as a s l ™? l ® wound elsewhere, but those which penetrate deeply into the tissues are more difficult to deal with. Where milk oozes through the wound complete healing is unlikely to occur until the cow has been dried off. Similarly with wounds of the teat which penetrate to the teat canal. These cases are serious also because of the danger of entrance of disease germs whic i cause mastitis. Proper and regular cleaning is all that can be recommended, and drying off the affected

quarter as soon as possible. Later the veterinarian should be called in to treat and finally close the opening. A simple cut on the teat should be cleansed with a weak antiseptic solution, loose shreds of tissue clipped off with clean scissors, and after drying with a clean cloth me surface of the wound may be painted with iodine, or with carbolic acid in glycerine (1 part in 16 parts) obtained from your chemist. Before and after milking the wound should be thoroughly cleaned and a little antiseptic ointment applied. It is, in most cases, a bad practice to stitch the wounds, especially the part from which milk escapes. Sometimes it is necessary to use a teat siphon for a few days on account of the pain caused by pressure when milking. When this is done great care is necessary to avoid later complication with mastitis. The siphon should be boiled before use and placed in a weak antiseptic solution. When it is being inserted into the teat any contact with the . lesions on the teat should be avoided. Where the actual opening of the teat canal is affected it is better not to use a siphon, as it is impossible to avoid carrying infection into the teat canal. Drenching Young Animals There is one more condition which is worth mentioning at this period of the year, though in no way connected with accidental injuries. Young animals, which should be receiving the best of feeds to maintain a good growth rate, are forced to exist on the relatively poor pastures at present available, with perhaps a certain amount of supplementary foods. This is also the period at which internal parasites are most harmful, and the combination of poor feeding ’ and parasites produces some sorrowful-looking animals in the spring. Calves should be weaned on to the driest and sunniest paddocks available. Recent experiments have shown that it is a good practice to graze the calves in front of the herd. In this way they are continually put on clean pasture, which is certainly not the case when they follow the herd or when they are constantly restricted to the usual calf paddock. In any case it is worthwhile to drench them once a month from weaning with 4-5 oz. (depending on age) of a mixture of 2 oz. of bluestone and one ounce of 40 per cent, nicotine sulphate per gallon of water.

The advice given above should be regarded purely as advice on first aid or for occasions when no help is available. The veterinary surgeon stands in the same relation to your farm animals as your local doctor does to you, and his assistance should be called early for any serious complaint, without waiting until even skilled professional attention is of no avail.