USA > Michigan > Gratiot County > Gratiot County, Michigan, directory, 1917 > Part 26
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months when covered in the corners of pens, or filth of yards, or about an old straw stack; but when exposed to sun- light or dryness they lose vitality in a few days, and under some very drying sunlight conditions in a few hours. Care- fully observing these facts, ne has in forty years been clear of hog cholera the year following an attack, and on un- til the disease has become epidemic in his neighborhood. After the herd has been placed in quarantine away from the - permanent hog houses, lots and feeding floors, he kills and burns, or buries five feet deep, each animal as soon as it shows distinct symptoms of disease. They are burned or buried beside the quarantine, and in the field to be cul- tivated the following year. It requires nerve to kill breeding stock of great value, but they are as liable to spread and entail disease as any other, when once attacked.
If, by any means, we can prevent spread of germs, by so much do we hold the disease in check. A farm, with its feed lots and pens and shelters infected by the excrement of the diseased, be- comes as deadly a centre as the public stock-yards and filthy stock cars on the railroads, and these are so thoroughly infected that we can never safely take stock hogs from these to our farms. This is not theory, but well proven fact.
Pig ailments are numerous; we shall speak only of some of the most common.
It is always best to give medicines mixed with food or drink where possible. If the animal refuses food or drink and it is necessary to administer drugs, it may be done by placing a stout chain (an ordinary harness breast chain does very well) within the mouth and well back between the jaws, which are thus kept from crushing the bottle. Two or three men are necessary for the undertaking, one or two to hold the chain and one to pour the medicine. The head should be well elevated, which places the pig on his haunches. Do not pour the medicine fast enough to strangle the animal.
Hogs will not do well when the skin is covered with filth. Bad air will bring on coughs: all corn for food, fever; a wet bed. rheumatism : and a big bunch together will breed disease. With a clean skin, good air, a variety of food, a dry bed and a few together, and lots of out- of-doors, they will do well.
When at pasture they find many roots, nuts and pebbles, besides being continu- ally active, which does more than food
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for their hearty health, rapid and easy digestion and speedy, profitable growth.
THUMPS .- This disease is quite com- mon (especially in the early spring) and is exceedingly hard to handle when once contracted. More can be done to prevent than to cure. You visit the sow and lit- ter in the morning to give them their accustomed feed, and you notice that one of the fattest and plumpest ones does not leave his bed as do the others. You en- ter the sleeping room and compel him to come out, which he does somewhat reluctantly, and you will notice that his sides move with a peculiar jerking mo- tion, and if allowed he will soon return to his bed. Rest assured he has thumps, and nine chances to one he will die. It is caused by fatty accumulations about the breast, which interfere with its ac- tion, and the lungs work hard-pump for dear life to keep up the heart's action- to send the blood through the body. The pig is faint because of feeble circulation, and he is cold, and soon dies from ex- haustion or weakness. He has no strength to suck or move.
To prevent thumps, get over into the pen several times a day and hustle the little pigs about the pen; also stint the sow so that she will give less milk. Pigs when they stir about, and when they are thin in flesh, rarely have thumps.
Thumps rarely occurs among pigs far- rowed after the weather is fine, but does quite frequently occur among pigs far- rowed in early spring. If the weather is cold and stormy and the sow and litter keep their bed much, then be on the look- out for thumps. Guard against it by compelling both sow and litter to exer- cise in the open air.
CANKEROUS SORE MOUTH is a disease which is quite common and which if not promptly taken in hand is often quite fatal. When pigs are from a few days to two weeks old, you may notice a slight swelling of the lips or a sniffling in the nose. An examination will show a whitish spongy growth on the sides of the mouth just inside the lips or around the teeth. This is cankerous sore mouth, and if not taken promptly in hand will result in the death of the entire litter, and will sometimes spread to other litters.
Some claim the disease is caused by damp and filthy beds, others say it comes from a diseased condition of the sow, and still others claim it is caused by the little pigs fighting over the teats and wounding each other with their :tarp
teeth, and stoutly aver that if the teeth are promptly removed no case of sore mouth will ever occur.
Hold the pig firmly and with a knife or some cutting instrument remove all the spongy foreign growth, and be sure you get it all even though the pig may squeal and the wound bleed; your suc- cess in treating the disease will depend largely on the thoroughness with which you remove this foreign growth. After removing the fungous growth apply an ointment made of glycerine and carbolic acid in about the proportion of one part of the acid to from five to eight parts glycerine. Repeat this each day for three or four days and the disease will usually yield. You may discover in a day or two after commencing treatment that you did not succeed in removing all the cankerous growth at first, and if so, repeat the cutting operation till you do remove it all.
Another treatment which we have heard recommended is to catch the dis- eased pig and dip his nose and mouth up to his eyes in chlora naptholeum with- out diluting it. This is certainly easily done and is highly commended by the person suggesting it.
BLIND STAGGERS, INDIGESTION, SICK STOMACH, FOUNDER .- Causes, over-feed- ing, especially common with new corn; sour or decayed food. Sudden warm sultry weather predisposes in highly fed hogs. Insufficient exercise is also a pre- disposing cause.
Symptoms .- Loss of appetite, bowels constipated, or maybe diarrhoea. In some severe cases blind staggers and great paleness of mouth and nose, cold- ness of surface of body; abdomen may be distended and drum-like from con- tained gases.
Treatment .- Remove sick animals, pro- vide clean, dry, well ventilated quarters, with chance for exercise, and fresh earth and water. If animal will eat, give light feed. Give charcoal in lump form, also mix soda bicarbonate in food at rate of two tablespoonfuls per day to each half-grown animal. It is rarely neces- sary to drench with medicine. If recov- ery begins, use care not to again feed too much.
MILK FEVER occurs in sows immedi- ately after farrowing or within the first few days afterwards. The symptoms are loss of milk, swollen, hard condition of the milk glands, which are .nore or less painful on pressure. Sow may not allow the pigs to suck; she may lie flat on her
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belly or stand up, and in extreme cases the sow has spells of delirium, in which she may destroy her young.
·Cause .- Injudicious feeding, overfeed- ing on milk-producing foods. Do not feed sow quite full rations for few days just before and after farrowing.
Treatment .- Give sow plenty of cool clean water; bathe the swollen glands for half hour at a time with water as warm as she will bear, dry thoroughly with soft cloth and give good dry pen. If bowels seem constipated give the sow internally one-half pint pure linseed oil. (Never use the boiled linseed oil used by painters; it is poisonous.) If the sow starts killing her young, or has no milk for them, it is best to take most of them, or all, away from her and feed by hand with spoon or ordinary rubber nipple and bottle. For this use one part boiled water and three parts cow's milk. The pigs may be returned to the sow if her milk returns.
SCOURS among pigs is another common and very troublesome though not dan- gerous disease. This disease is not con- fined to any particular season, but is more common in the wet, damp weather of April and early May than in other seasons of the year.
As in thumps, remove the cause. This disease is almost invariably caused by . some improper food eaten by the sow. A sour swill barrel is often the cause It should be borne in mind that pigs once affected will be more liable to a recur- rence of the disease than those never affected, and greater care should be used with ther i for some weeks till they fully recover.
CONSTE 'ATION .- Cause, improper feed- ing, exclusive grain diet, lack of exer- cise. Not dangerous in itself, but fre- quently followed by prolapsus of the rec- tum, or what is commonly called piles. The constant straining causes this. The only remedy is laxative food and exer- cise. The protruding bowel must be washed clean as soon as seen and well covered with olive oil or lard. It should then be returned by applying firm pres- sure with the hand, and when once in place should be retained by three or more stitches of waxed linen or heavy silk thread, passed from side to side through the margins of the opening, care being used to take a deep hold in the skin.
While this operation is being done the animal should be held by the hind legs by two assistants, thus elevating the hind
quarters. Allow stitches to remain two or three weeks.
RHEUMATISM .- A disease of the joints, manifested by pain, heat and lameness, with swelling of one or several joints. There may be high fever and loss of ap- petite. May be acute and rapid in its course, or slow, chronic and resulting in permanent enlargements of the bones of the legs, especially the knee and hock.
Causes .- Primarily deranged digestion, lack of exercise; dampness and exposure to draughts of cold air also a cause. The tendency to rheumatism is heredi- tary in certain families of hogs.
Treatment .- Endeavor to prevent by proper exercise, food and attention to surroundings. Do not breed rheumatic specimens even if fully recovered from lameness. In acute cases an adult hog should have twice or three times daily one drachm salicylate soda.
ASTAMA sometimes occurs in adult hogs.
Symptoms .- Shortness of breath on lease exercise, noisy breathing, more or less intermittent. Do not breed; butcher early.
CONGESTION OF THE LUNGS sometimes occurs, the result of driving or chasing. May be rapidly fatal.
Symptoms. - Sudden shortness of breath and sudden great weakness. The hog is not adapted to rapid driving; if it". must be driven at all, give plenty of time.
PNEUMONIA (LUNG FEVER) may fol- low congestion of the lungs ; may be in- duced by crowding too many hogs to- gether, when they heat and become moist, after which they are in poor con- dition to withstand cold.
Symptoms .- Loss of appetite, chills, short cough, quick breathing.
Treatment .- Separate sick at once from the drove; give dry quarters with abundance of dry bedding: tempt appe- tite with small quantities of varied food. Apply to sides of chest, enough to moisten the skin, twice daily, alcohol and turpentine equal parts ; continue until skin becomes somewhat tender.
TETANUS (LOCK-JAW) .- Caused by in- troduction into the system of the tetanus bacteria, which gains entrance through a wound.
Symptoms .- A stiffness of more or less the entire muscular system. gener- ally most marked in the jaws, which are greatly stiffened. Eating very slow, or entirely stopped : appetite not lost.
Treatment .- Some cases recover if
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carefully nursed. Give nourishing drinks, elevate trough or bucket so the patient can get its snout into the drink; give dissolved in hot water and mixed with the slop forty grains bromide of potash two or three times daily until im- provement is noticed. Do not attempt to drench. Any wound which seems to be a cause should be cleansed and wet often with five per cent. solution of car- bolic acid and water.
LICE .- Very commonly found upon hogs. They are introduced by new pur- chases or by visiting animals.
Caution .- Examine the newly pur- chased hog well on this point before placing with the drove. Hog lice are quite large and easily detected on clean white animals, but not readily on dark or dirty skins.
Remedy .- Wash well with soap and water, if weather is not too cold, then warm water, if weather is not too cold, then apply enough petroleum and lard, equal parts, to give the skin a complete greasing. If weather is too cold for wash- ing, clean with stiff brush. Creolin one part to water five parts is also a safe and sure remedy. Two or more applications are necessary at intervals of four or five days to complete the job. The wood- work of pens and rubbing places must be completely whitewashed.
MANGE .- Caused by a microscopic parasite which lives in the skin at the roots of the bristles.
Symptoms .- Intense itching with red- ness of the skin from the irritation of rubbing. Rather rare, but very con- tagious.
Treatment. - Separate diseased ani- mals ; scrub them thoroughly with warm water and strong soap; apply ointment composed of lard, one pound; carbonate of potash, one ounce; flor. sulphur, two ounces; wash and re-apply every four days.
MAGGOTS .- The larvæ of the ordinary blow-fly frequently infests wounds on hogs during the summer months. Watch all wounds during hot weather; keep them wet frequently with creolin one part and water six parts, or five per cent. watery solution carbolic acid. If the maggots zain entrance to the wound, ap- ply either above remedies freely, or ordi- nary turpentine with a brush or common ·oil can.
ROUND WORMS. - Very common in shotes and young hogs, not apparently harmful, unless in great numbers, when they cause loss of flesh. They may be
exterminated by keeping the hog without food for twenty-four hours, and giving to each shote or old pig one tablespoon- ful of turpentine thoroughly beaten up with one egg and one-half pint of milk.
TUBERCULOSIS (CONSUMPTION ). - A contagious disease common in man, cat- tle and not rare in the hog.
Symptoms .- Loss of flesh, cough, diar- rhœa, swelling about the head and neck, which may open and discharge with little tendency to heal; death in from few weeks to months. Post mortem shows various sized tubercles, which may be situated in any part of the body, most commonly in the bowels, lungs, liver, or glands of the neck.
Causes .- Direct contagion from other hogs, but generally from feeding milk from tuberculous cows, or by eating butcher offal from such cows.
Prevention .- Care as to the source of the milk fed; if suspicious, boiling will render it safe. Do not feed butcher offal; separate suspicious hogs at once, and if satisfied they are tuberculous, kill and bury deep, or burn them. The tuber- culin test can be applied to the remainder of drove, as without it it is impossible to say how many may be diseased.
WOUNDS generally heal readily in the hog if kept clean and free from maggots. The result of neglected castration wounds is sometimes serious. Have the animal clean as possible when castrated, and endeavor to keep it clean and give opportunity for abundant exercise until wound is healed. There is probably nothing better and safer to apply to wounds of the hog than creolin one part, water six parts.
TRAVEL SICKNESS .- Similar to ordinary sea-sickness in man; very common in shipping pigs by wagon.
Symptoms .- Vomiting, diarrhea, great depression ; scldom if ever fatal. May be rendered must less severe by very light feeding before shipment.
To Find the Amount of Wall Paper Required to Paper a Room
Measure the distance around the room deduct the width of each window and door, take two-thirds of result. Divide this result by the number of strips that can be cut from each roll and you have the number of rolls required. A roll is generally a foot and a half wide, 24 feet long and contains 36 square feet, ₡ 4 square yards.
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H. B. THOMPSON
Jeweler and Optometrist ITHACA, MICH.
ESTABLISHED 1889
The Old Perrinton Bank OF W. H. Davis PERRINTON -: - -:- -: - MICHIGAN
CHAS. H. ROOT DEALER IN GENTS' FURNISHINGS, DRY GOODS AND GROCERIES Highest Price for Butter and Eggs Union Phone, No. 61 ASHLEY, MICH.
Buggies, Wagons, Sewing Little Gem Theatre Trunks, Grips, Suit Cases, Etc.
Machines
JUDD COX
Manufacturer of Fine Hand-Made Harness WHOLESALE AND RETAIL ALL KINDS OF FARM IMPLEMENTS Union Phone No. 17 - I. L. I. S. :-: BANNISTER, MICH.
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Poultry Diseases and Enemies (From the Biggle Poultry Book)
Many of the ills that poultry flesh is heir to are directly traceable to bad breeding and treatment. In-and-in- breeding is practiced and the law of the survival of the fittest is disregarded un- til the stock becomes weak and a prey to disease.
Yards and runs occupied for any con- siderable time become covered with ex- creta and a breeding ground for all man- ner of disease germs.
Dampness from leaky roofs or from wet earth floors, and draughts from side cracks, or from overhead ventilation slay their thousands yearly.
A one-sided diet of grain, especially corn, moldy grain or meal, decayed meat or vegetables, filthy water, or the lack of gritty material are fruitful sources of sickness.
In the treatment of sick birds much depends on the nursing and care. It is useless to give medicine unless some honest attempt be made to remove the causes that produce the disturbance. Un- less removed the cause will continue to operate and the treatment must be repeated.
It is an excellent plan to have a coop in some secluded place to be used ex- clusively as a hospital. If cases cannot be promptly treated it is better to use the hatchet at once and bury deeply, or burn - the carcasses. This is the proper plan in every case where birds become very ill before they are discovered.
Sick birds should in no case be allowed to run with the flock and to eat and drink with them.
In giving the following remedies we make no pretence to a scientific handling of the subject.
FEVERS, from colds, fighting of cocks, etc. Symptoms : unusual heat of body, red face, watery eyes and watery dis- charge from nostrils.
Give dessertspoonful citrate of mag- nesia and, as a drink, ten drops of nitre in half a pint of water.
APOPLEXY AND VERTIGO, from overfeed- ing or fright. Symptoms : unsteady mo- tion of the head, running around, loss of control of limbs. Give a purgative and bleed from the large veins under wing.
PARALYSIS, from highly seasoned food and over stimulating diet. Symptoms : inability to use the limbs, birds lie help- less on their side. Treatment-The same as for apoplexy.
LEG WEAKNESS occurs in fast-growing young birds, mostly among cockerels. A fowl having this weakness will show it by squatting on the ground frequently and by a tottering walk. When not hereditary it usually arises from a diet that contains too much fat and too little flesh and bone-making material, such as bread, rice, corn and potatoes. To this should be added cut green bone, oats, shorts, bran and clover, green or dry. Give a tonic pill three times a day made of sulphate of iron, 1 grain; strychnine, 1 grain; phosphate of lime, 16 grains; sulphate of quinine, 1/2 grain. Make into thirty pills.
CANKER OF THE MOUTH AND HEAD .- The sores characteristic of this disease are covered with a yellow cheesy matter which, when it is removed, reveals the raw flesh. Canker will rapidly spread through a flock, as the exudation from the sores is a virulent poison, and well birds are contaminated through the soft feed and drinking water. Sick birds should be separated from the flock and all water and feed vessels disinfected by scalding or coating with lime wash. Ap- ply to sores with a small pippet syringe or dropper the peroxide of hydrogen. When the entire surface is more or less affected, use a sprayer. Where there is much of the cheesy matter formed, first remove it with a large quill before using the peroxide. A simple remedy is an application to the raw flesh of powdered alum, scorched until slightly brown.
SCALY LEG, caused by a microscopic in- sect burrowing beneath the natural scales of the shank. At first the shanks appear dry, and a fine scale like dandruff forms Soon the natural scale disappears and gives place to a hard, white scurf. The disease passes from one fowl to another through the medium of nests and perches, and the mother-hen infecting her brood. To prevent its spread, coat perches with kerosene and burn old nest- ing material and never use sitting hens affected by the disease. To cure, mix 1/2 ounce flowers of sulphur, 14 ounce carbolic acid crystals and stir these into 1 pound of melted lard. Apply with an old tooth brush, rubbing in well. Make applications at intervals of a week.
WORMS in the intestines of fowls indi- cate disturbed digestion. Loss of appe- tite and lack of thrift are signs of their presence. Give santonin in 2-grain doses
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six hours apart. A few hours after the second dose give a dessertspoonful of castor oil. Or, put 15 drops of spirits of turpentine in a pint of water and moisten the feed with it.
BUMBLE-FOOT, caused by a bruise in fly- ing down from perches or in some simi- lar manner. A small corn appears on the bottom of the foot, which swells and ulcerates and fills with hard, cheesy pus. With a sharp knife make a cross cut and carefully remove all the pus. Wash the cavity with warm water, dip the foot in a solution of one-fourth ounce sulphate of copper to a quart of water and bind up with a rag and place the bird on a bed of dry straw. Before putting on the bandage anoint the wound with the oint- ment recommended for scaly leg or coat it with iodine.
GAPES, caused by the gape-worm, a parasite that attaches itself to the wind- pipe, filling it up and causing the bird to gasp for breath. The worm is about three-fourths of an inch long, smooth and red in color. It appears to be forked at one end, but in reality each parasite is two worms, a male and female, firmly joined together. This parasite breeds in the common earth worm. Chicks over three months old are seldom affected. If kept off of the ground for two months after hatching, or on perfectly dry soil, or on land where affected chicks have never run, chicks will seldom suffer from the gapes. Old runs and infested soil should have frequent dressings of lime.
In severe cases the worms should be removed. To do this put a few drops of kerosene in a teaspoonful of sweet oil. Strip a soft wing feather of its web to within an inch of the tip, dip in the oil, · insert feather in windpipe, twirl and withdraw. Very likely some of the para- sites and mucus will come with it. The rest will be loosened or killed, and event- nially thrown out. It may be necessary to repeat the operation.
To kill the worm in its lodgment, gum camphor in the drinking water or pellets of it as large as a pea forced down the throat is recommended. Turpentine in the soft feed, as advised in the treatment for worms in the intestines, is said to be effective. Pinching the windpipe with the thumb and finger will sometimes loosen the parasite.
When broods are quartered on soil known to be infested, air-slacked lime should be dusted on the floor of the coop, and every other night, for two or three weeks, a little of the same should
be dusted in the coop over the hen and her brood. To apply, use a dusting bel- lows and only a little each time.
CHOLERA is due to a specific germ, or virus, and must not be confounded with common diarrhea. In genuine cholera ligestion is arrested, the crop remains full, there is fever and great thirst. The bird drinks, but refuses food and appears to be in distress. There is a thickening of the blood, which is made evident in the purple color of the comb. The dis- charges from the kidneys, called the urates, which in health are white, become yellowish, deep yellow, or, in the final stages, a greenish-yellow. The diarrhoea grows more severe as the disease pro- gresses. A fowl generally succumbs in two days. The virus of cholera is not diffusible in the air, but remains in the soil, which becomes infected from the discharges, and in the body and blood of the victims. It may be carried from place to place on the feet of other fowls or animals. Soil may be disinfected by saturating it with a weak solution of sul- phuric acid in water. Remove at once all well birds to new and clean quarters and wring the necks of all sick birds and burn their carcasses and disinfect their quarters.
For cases not too far gone to cure give sugar of lead, pulverized opium, gum camphor, of each, 60 grains, pow- dered capsicum (or fluid extract of cap- sicum is better, 10 drops), grains, 10. Dissolve the camphor in just enough al- cohol that will do so without making it a fluid, then rub up the other ingredients in the same bolus, mix with soft corn meal dough, enough to make it into a mass, then roll it and divide the whole into one hundred and twenty pills. Dose, one to three pills a day for grown chicks or turkey, less to the smaller fry. The birds that are well enough to eat should have sufficient powdered charcoal in their soft feed every other day to color it slightly, and for every twenty fowls five drops of carbolic acid in the hot water with which the feed in moistened.
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