USA > Ohio > Medina County > The Farm Journal directory of Medina County, Ohio : (with a complete road map of the county) 1916 > Part 24
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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 water. 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, he 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 sharp
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 diarrhea. 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 them 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.
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.
ASTHMA 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 gain 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; seldom 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, or 4 square yards.
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