USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Kalamazoo County, Michigan, rural directory, 1919 > Part 25
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Of course the udder must not be in- flated unreasonably. After inflation, re- move the tube and leave the udder full of air for five to eight hours. Then the air may be worked out gently, and, if necessary, the inflation may be re- peated.
Cows so treated usually show marked signs of improvement within two hours.
ACTINOMYCOSIS (LUMP JAW) is a con- tagious disease due to a germ known as "Ray fungus." There are well-defined swellings about the jaw, head and throat, or may be on the tongue or in the lungs. These soften and open after a time and discharge matter; appetite good until well advanced. The treatment is, re- move by surgical means; late experi- ments indicate iodide of potash two to three drachms daily to be a cure. Ad- vanced cases should be killed at once. The meat should never be used for food.
MILK SICKNESS (TREMBLES) is a dis- ease of cattle communicable to man and other animals by use of meat or milk; dry cattle most commonly and far more severely affected. Milch cows may trans- mit this disease through the use of their milk and yet show no trace of the dis- ease themselves. The symptoms are trembling upon least exertion as walk ing, great prostration and delirium. Treatment is only prevention; do not use pastures known to produce this dis- ease; unbroken land of certain districts unsafe.
RHEUMATISM is shown by hot, painful swellings at the joints, generally the hocks, stiffness in walking or may be unable to rise. Bathe joints with cam- phor and alcohol and give internally two drachms salicylate of soda every three hours until four ounces have been given; keep warm and dry and give laxative food.
TEXAS FEVER, a disease of Southern cattle which, when transmitted to North- ern cattle, is generally fatal in a few days. The spread of the disease is gen- erally due to ticks; those from dis- eased animals contain the germs of the disease and by their bites transmit it. The indications are a high fever, stag- gering gait, urine of reddish brown to black, great prostration, unconsciousness, death. Most common in summer months; unknown in the north after heavy frost. Prevention, avoidance of cattle from Southern fever districts ; dipping of Southern cattie to destroy the ticks.
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"The Best is the Cheapest and the Cheapest Place to Buy the Best is at SHELDON'S" HAS BEEN OUR AIM SINCE 1879 Our Specialties are Pure Seeds and Good Coal. We sell Cements, Lime, Wall Plaster, Hand Tools, Tires, Pure Paints and Oils, etc. SHELDON BROS., Climax, Mich.
Double Purpose Short Horns Breed for Beef and Milk
A Good Selection of Reds Young Stock For Sale SMITH BROS. R. D. 1 SCOTTS, MICH.
TAYLOR TITLE CO. 214-216 W. Main St. Opposite Court House RELIABLE ABSTRACTS OF TITLE Rates the same as before the war. If You Have MONEY TO INVEST or Want to Borrow on Real Estate, We Can Give You Satisfactory Service KALAMAZOO, - MICHIGAN
Park Hotel and Park Club
Cigars Cigarettes Tobacco
BILLIARDS, POOL and RESTAURANT
Soft Drinks Candies Ice Cream
STERNFIELD & MAURY, Proprietors AUGUSTA, MICH.
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Hog Ailments and How to Treat Them
(From the Biggle Swine Book)
More has been spoken and written on the subject of hog cholera than upon any other one subject connected with hogs. It has ever been a fruitful source for discussion at farmers' in- stitutes and an endless theme on which to write. The Government has appro- priated large sums of money and has employed learned men who have la- bored with seeming diligence for years, and yet after all these years of waiting and all this expenditure of money we are forced to admit, whether humili- ating or not, that we know but very little that is of practical benefit about the whole matter.
But two things are absolutely known about the disease. One is that it sweeps unrestrained over vast areas of country, leaving death and destruction in its wake; and the other is that hogs which contract the disease usually die.
We shall not attempt to deal with this subject in a scientific way, but shall deal with it rather from a practical standpoint.
A somewhat recent means of preventing the disease is the serum or antitoxin cure. It consists in introducing into the system of the animal a serum which enables the body to more successfully combat the disease. The Government officials seem to be highly pleased with the results so far and seem to believe that relief from the dread disease is likely to come through this means. The serum produced last year, wherever used in cholera-infected herds, saved over eighty per cent. of the animals. It is easily applied, and its good effects in sick hogs are seen almost immediately.
Page after page has been written as a means of telling hog cholera, but much of it is difficult of comprehension to the average reader. If you have never had it in your herd you are to be congratu- lated on your good fortune; and if you ever do, when you are done with it you may not have as many hogs as you did before, but rest assured of one thing, and that is you will know hog cholera when you see it again. As a rule hogs do not look well for weeks before an attack. At other times it will come like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky. The first thing noticeable is a loss of appetite: the hair will look harsh and dry; sometimes a slight cough will be noticeable, at other times not.
The disease is sometimes of slow devel- opment, at other times quite rapid. In- stead of the sprightly, rapid movement so characteristic of the young and grow- ing hog, he moves slowly and indiffer- ently ; he looks gaunt and tired; his back is arched, and he moves his hind legs with a dragging motion; his tem- perature will most likely be high, prob- ably from 104 to 108-the normal tem- perature of the hog is from 100 to 102. His bowels may be costive or the dis- charges may be thin and watery in sub- stance, but usually blach or dark in color, emitting an offensive odor peculiar to the disease.
The disease may be of a lingering character and the animals linger for weeks, or they may die in three of four days. Usually the lingering type is less fatal than the more rapid forms of the disease. Hogs which discharge freely in the first stages of the disease are more likely to recover than when the bowels remain constipated. Dark blue spots will often appear under the skin. The bowels will be more or less inflamed inside; in
the small intestines and sometimes in the stomach will be found ulcers; this, how- ever, is not common in the first stages of the disease. The bladder will most likely be full of a dark thick substance, show- ing that the kidneys, and in fact the whole internal organism, are affected.
If we were to say what we thought was the best thing that could possibly be done when cholera appears in a herd, we would unhesitatingly say, take the well hogs to clean new quarters where no hogs have been for years. Then if more of them take sick move them again, and it -is our belief based on actual experi- ence that more can be accomplished in this way than by the use of all the medi- cine in the country. For various reasons it is not always possible to move hogs, and in that case treatment may be re- sorted to, sometimes with fairly good re- sults. The treatment should consist in separating the well from the sick hogs, and in dividing the sick hogs according to age and size and severity of the at- tack. Not more than four or five hogs should be in the same pen, and fewer would be still better. Feed but little, and let that be food which is easily digested. Use air-slacked lime and crude carbolic acid freely as a disinfectant. Use it both on the hogs and on the ground, in
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the sleeping places, on the fences and in the drinking vessels. As much depends on "a thorough use of disinfectants as upon any other thing. If the bowels are constipated give something to move them. If too loose give something to check them. In short, use good common horse sense (so to speak) and you will usually suc- ceed very well. There is nothing better than salts or oil to move the bowels, and nothing shows better results in checking them than a few drops of crystal carbolic acid. We know of no food better, if indeed as good, for sick hogs than ship stuff, or middlings as it is sometimes called; it seems to digest easily and is pothing to the bowels.
If the weather is wet and cold keep the hogs dry and warm. In wet weather (if not too warm) keep the hogs in a floored pen, or at least in a pen where no water will lie in sinks or holes, as dirty water is one of the worst things a sick hog can possibly have. If the weather is warm, shelter the hog from heat. In other words, make him as comfortable as possible.
Let it be borne constantly in mind that much depends on good nursing. It would seem natural and reasonable that an animal afflicted as he is would do best if allowed plenty of fresh water to drink, but actual experience demonstrates that a greater number recover when the sup- ply of water is limited than when it is not.
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Hogs that are very sick should be kept by themselves, as others seem to disturb them, and often their recovery depends on being perfectly still at the critical pe- riod of the disease. As a rule hogs that are too sick to eat die. All hogs that die of cholera, or of any other disease for the matter of that, should be burned and not buried, as abundant evidence can be produced to prove that the carcasses of hogs dying of cholera have been the cause of an outbreak years afterward. By all means burn all dead hogs as the only absolutely safe way of disposing of them. The burning operation is very simple. Lay the bodies across two logs, sticks or pieces of iron that will keep them up off the ground so that the fire can get under them, and the grease from their own bodies will usually do the work, with a little wood or corn cobs added occasionally.
Experience teaches that the disease more commonly appears in large herds than in small ones. The moral of this, then, is easily understood. Do not keep
hogs in large droves. Not over twenty- five or thirty hogs at most should long remain together, and half the number would be infinitely better and safer in every way. Hogs of different sizes and ages should not be kept together, except- ing of course sows and suckling pigs. Hogs should not be kept on the same ground from year to year if it can pos- sibly be avoided. Plow up the lots and pens and cultivate them for a year or two; it will greatly assist in keeping your lots free from the germ. The dis- ease is much more prevalent in the sum- mer and fall months than in other sea- sons of the year. Then as far as is pos- sible reduce the number of hogs on the farm at this season of the year.
If your neighbor's hogs have the dis- ease, stay away from his pens and be sure he stays away from yours. Shoot a crow, a buzzard, or a stray dog that comes on your place as unhesitatingly as you would kill a mad dog. This trio does more to scatter the disease than all the other causes combined. If your hogs are fit or any way near fit to go to mar- ket when the disease makes its appear- ance in the neighborhood, sell them with- out delay. "A bird in hand is worth two in a bush." If your hogs have chol- era this year, don't get discouraged and quit, but try it again, on fresh ground.
If your brood sows have passed through the cholera, keep them ; they are valuable. They will never again have the disease, and their pigs are not nearly so apt to contract it as pigs from sows that have not had the disease. Look out for streams which come down from some neighbor above you. This has been found a frequent cause of cholera out- breaks. The germs of hog cholera pos- sess great vitality, and will live in the soil, in moist matter and especially in water, for months.
If you feed corn, rake the cobs to- gether often and burn them; pour water on the coals and then put salt on the charcoal thus made and you have an excellent preventive for diseases, with little or no cost. Keep your hogs, ex- cepting brood sows, ready for market. It may come handy some day. Strong, vigorous hogs are less liable to contract the disease than hogs of less strength and vigor. Then breed and feed for both these things. Eternal vigilance in hog breeding, as in other kinds of busi- ness, is the price of success.
Here is a formula for the treatment of hog cholera that is probably as good as
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any, which is not saying much. It is suggested by the Department of Agri- culture :
Sulphur 1 pound.
Wood charcoal. .1 pound.
Sodium chloride. .2 pounds. Sodium bicarbonate ... 2 pounds.
Sodium hyposulphite. . 2 pounds. Sodium sulphate .... .. 1 pound. Antimony sulphide .. .. 1 pound.
Thoroughly mix and give a large table- spoonful to each 200-pound hog, once a day. If the animal does not eat, add the medicine to a little water, thoroughly shake and give from a bottle by the mouth. If the animal will eat, mix the medicine with sloppy food. The same remedy is recommended as a preventive to those animals that do not as yet show signs of disease.
If you have had cholera on your place, and you have small, inexpensive pens, burn them at once. In a piggery, burn all the litter and loose inexpensive parts ; renew the floor, if possible, and disinfect the remainder by washing it with hot water and washing soda. After wash- ing, apply with a whitewash brush, or better yet a spray pump, a solution of one part of carbolic acid to fifty parts of Then thoroughly whitewash. Treat the fences in the same way. Earth floors should be removed to a depth of at least six inches and the ground sprin- kled with chloride of lime and a few days later a good coating of air-slacked lime. Don't put pigs in the quarters for at least six months, and, if possible, have them vacant over the first winter.
An Ohio breeder of large experience, in the Miami valley, where hog cholera first appeared in 1856 and has recurred at frequent intervals, holds that drugs, virus and antitoxin have all been fairly tried sundry times by him and his neigh- bors. He believes that prevention will do more to hold in check the plague than drugs and hypodermic infusions. The most important help to prevent spread of disease is not to allow the hog farm to become infected with the excrement of diseased hogs. This can be done by quarantining the herd in a field, that is to be put under cultivation the following year. This quarantine must be estab- lished as soon as the first pig is taken sick. If the disease is in the neighbor- hood. carefully watch for first symptoms of disorder. Do not wait until several are sick and scouring, for this excre- ment is loaded with germs of disease, and these germs may retain vitality many
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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CHRISTIAN P. REY Contractor and Builder SPECIAL ATTENTION TO COUNTRY WORK 204 Bleyker St. - Kalamazoo, Mich. Bell Telephone 2058
C. W. KRUM 3 SON AUTOMOBILES and ACCESSORIES Buggies and Horse Goods Garage and Vulcanizing Bell Phone 182 SCHOOLCRAFT, MICHIGAN
1
SMALL CALVES AND POULTRY BOUGHT REAL ESTATE-INSURANCE
FINGERS MAPLE VILLA STOCK FARM Hogs, Cattle and Sheep Bought, Sold or Exchanged 3/4 Mile South of Pretty Lake MATTAWAN, MICHIGAN
FRANK WHALING, Proprietor
General Blacksmithing FORGING A SPECIALTY AUTO REPAIRING
-
OVER
40 YEARS
IN KALA- MAZOO
110 North Edwards St.,
KALAMAZOO, MICH.
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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.
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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 .more 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 thet 1 for some weeks till they fully recover.
CONSTIPATION .- 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.
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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.
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