Robert Alexander Craig

“ As a rule, the more crowded and filthy the stable, the more impurities there are in the air. If any of the animals are affected with an infectious disease, such as tuberculosis or glanders, the moisture and dust may act as carriers of the disease-producing germs. Infectious diseases spread rapidly in crowded, poorly ventilated stables. The two factors responsible for this rapid spread of disease are the lowered vitality of the animal, due to breathing the vitiated air, and the greater opportunity for infection, because of the comparatively large number of bacteria present in the air. ”

“ Parasitic diseases are very common among domestic animals. This class of disease is caused by insects and worms, as for example, lice, mites, ticks, flies, and round and flat worms that live at the expense of their hosts. They may invade any of the organs of the body, but most commonly inhabit the digestive tract and skin. Some of the parasitic insects, mosquitoes, flies and ticks, act as secondary hosts for certain animal microorganisms that they transmit to healthy individuals through the punctures or the bites that they are capable of producing in the skin. ”

“ The ration fed and the method of feeding are not only important in considering the causes of diseases of the digestive tract, but diseases of other organs as well. The feeding of an excessive, or insufficient quantity of feed, or a ration that is too concentrated, bulky and innutritious, poor in quality, or spoiled may produce disease.
An impure water supply is a common cause of disease. A deep well that is closed in properly and does not permit of contamination from filth, does not insure a clean water supply if the trough or tank is not kept clean. ”

“ HYGIENE OF PREGNANT ANIMALS.—Pregnant animals that are confined in a pasture that is free from injurious weeds and not too rough or hilly, and where the animals have access to clean water and the necessary shelter, seldom suffer from an abnormal birth. Here they live under the most favorable conditions for taking exercise, securing a suitable diet and avoiding injury. It may not be possible in managing breeding animals to provide such surroundings at all times, but we should observe every possible hygienic precaution, especially if the animal has reached the later periods of pregnancy. ”

“ An individual may suffer from an attack of pneumonia that so weakens the disease-resisting powers of the lungs as to result in a tubercular infection of these organs. In the horse, one attack of azoturia predisposes it to a second attack. One attack of an infectious disease usually confers immunity against that particular disease. Heredity does not play as important a part in the development of diseases in domestic animals as in the human race. A certain family may inherit a predisposition to disease through the faulty or insufficient development of an organ or group of organs. ”

“ EXCESSIVE URINATION.—The horse is the most common sufferer from excessive secretion of urine. The most common causes are musty feeds, such as hay, grain and shipped feeds. New oats, succulent feeds and acrid plants may sometimes cause it. In the fall of the year, when the season is changing from warm to cool weather and the horse eliminates less water from the body by way of the skin, the kidneys may become more active and the quantity of urine secreted be greatly increased. This, however, is a normal physiological condition and should not be confused with this disease. ”

“ Pregnant animals should be fed carefully. We may feed animals that are not in this condition in a careless fashion, but if pregnant, over-feeding, the feeding of a fattening ration, or spoiled feed, and sudden changes in the feed can not be practised with any degree of safety. A bulky ration of dry feed and drinking impure, or too little, water may cause constipation, acute indigestion and abortion. The ration fed should contain the necessary inorganic and organic elements for the building up of the body tissues of the foetus. ”

“ The treatment of lung-worm diseases in lambs and calves is largely preventive. We should use every possible precaution against introducing the infection into the herd or flock. It is not advisable to bring animals from an infected herd onto the premises, without subjecting them to a careful examination and a long quarantine before allowing them to stable or pasture with the other animals. Calves or lambs that show marked symptoms of disease should be given comfortable quarters, and special care and feeding. The entire herd or flock must be given the best care and ration possible. ”

“ A contagious disease is one that may be transmitted by personal contact, as, for example, influenza, glanders and hog-cholera. As these diseases may be produced by indirect contact with the diseased animal as well as by direct, they are also infectious. There are a few germ diseases that are not spread by the healthy animals coming in direct contact with the diseased animal, as, for example, black leg and southern cattle fever. ”

“ A curb may, if it produces lameness, be classed as an unsoundness. If it does not cause the animal to go lame, and the enlargement on the posterior border of the hock is small, it is classed as a blemish. A high splint may place the animal in the unsound class, but usually a low splint is not considered a serious blemish. This classification is based to a certain extent on the relative economic importance of the disease, or the influence that the disease may have on the value of the animal, as well as any interference with the animal's ability to work. ”

“ In breeding, we should always strive to get strong, vigorous, healthy young. The care given the mother in the way of exercise and feeding is an important factor here.
The first milk of the mother should not be withheld from the young, especially if the animal is raised by hand. We must also feed it regularly and not too much at any one time. Any change in the milk should be made gradually, and it is usually advisable to reduce the ration slightly when such a change is made, so as not to overwork the digestive organs. Pails and bottles from which the animal feeds should be kept clean. ”

“ Non-specific diseases have no constant cause. A variety of causes may produce the same disease. For example, acute indigestion may be caused by a change of diet, watering the animal after feeding grain, by exhaustion and intestinal worms. Usually, but one of the animals in the stable or herd is affected. If several are affected, it is because all have been subject to the same condition, and not because the disease has spread from one animal to another. ”

“ The lungs are the essential organs of respiration. The tissue that forms them is light, will float in water, is elastic and somewhat rose-colored. Each lung is divided into lobes, and each lobe into a great number of lobules by the supporting connective tissue. The lobule is the smallest division of the lung and is formed by capillary bronchial tubes, air cells and blood-vessels. It is here that the external respiration or the exchange of gases between the capillaries and the air cells occurs. ”

“ The treatment of intestinal worms in hogs is both preventive and medicinal. If the conditions in the pens and houses are such as to enable the eggs and embryos to live for a long time, or the surroundings are favorable for infection of the animals through their feed and water supply, the herd may become badly infested with intestinal parasites. The preventive treatment consists in keeping hogs in clean, well-drained yards or pastures, and feeding them from clean troughs and concrete feeding floors that can be washed, when necessary, in order to keep them clean. ”

“ On warm days, the female may be seen depositing eggs on the body of the animal, especially in the region of the heels. This seems to greatly annoy the animal, and it is not uncommon for cattle to become stampeded. The egg reaches the mouth through the animal licking the part. The saliva dissolves the shell of the egg and the larva is freed. It then migrates from the gullet, wanders about in the tissue until finally it may reach a point beneath the skin of the back. Here the larva matures and forms the well-known swelling or warble. In the spring of the year it works out through the skin. ”

“ Young and immature animals are more prone to attacks of infectious diseases than are old and mature animals. Hog-cholera usually affects the young hogs in the herd first, while scours, suppurative joint disease and infectious sore mouth are diseases that occur during the first few days or few weeks of the animal's life. Lung and intestinal parasites are more commonly found in the young, growing animals. Old animals are prone to fractures of bones and degenerative changes of the body tissues. As a general rule, the young are more subject to acute diseases and the old to chronic diseases. ”

“ ANTHRAX, CHARBON.—This is an acute infectious disease affecting many different species of animals. Anthrax is one of the oldest animal diseases, and early in the history of the race it existed as a plague in Egypt. It most commonly affects cattle, sheep and horses. Man contracts the disease by handling wool and hides from animals that have died of anthrax, and by accidental inoculation in examining the carcass of animals that have died of the disease. ”

“ The symptoms come on very suddenly in congestion of the brain. The disease may manifest itself as soon as the animal is moved out of the stall or bed, or it may come on while it is feeding. In slight cases, the animal appears excited and restless, the eyes are bright, the pupils are dilated, and the pulse beats and respirations quickened. If the animal is moving about, it may stop suddenly and show marked symptoms of a nervous disorder, such as turning around, running straight ahead and falling down. ”