If the case is seen in the shivering fit, every effort should be made to
cut it short, as the inflammation may be thereby greatly moderated, if not
checked. Copious drinks of warm water thrown in from horn or bottle;
equally copious warm injections; the application of heat in some form to
the surface of the body (by a rug wrung out of hot water; by hanging over
the back and loins bags loosely filled with bran, sand, salt, chaff, or
other agent previously heated in a stove; by the use of a flatiron or the
warming of the surface by a hot-air bath), or by active friction with straw
wisps by two or more persons; the administration of 1 ounce of ground
ginger may serve to shorten the attack. After half an hour's sweat the
animal should be rubbed and covered with a dry blanket.
If, on the other hand, there is little or no fever, and only a slight
inflammation, rub well with camphorated ointment or a weak iodin ointment,
and milk three, four, or six times a day, rubbing the bag thoroughly each
time. Milking must be done with great gentleness, squeezing the teat in
place of pulling and stripping it, and if this causes too much pain, the
teat tube (Pl. XXIV, fig. 4) or the spring teat dilator (Pl. XXIV, fig. 3)
may be employed. Antiseptic injections of the teats and udder are often
useful, and iodoform in water has been especially recommended. It may be
replaced by one of the injections advised for parturition fever, used with
the same careful precautions.
In cases in which the fever has set in and the inflammation is more
advanced, a dose of laxative medicine is desirable (Epsom salt, 1 to 2
pounds; ginger, 1 ounce), which may be followed, after the purging has
ceased, by daily doses of saltpeter, 1 ounce. Many rely on cooling and
astringent applications to the inflamed quarter (vinegar, sugar-of-lead
lotion, cold water, ice, etc.), but a safer and better resort is continued
fomentation with warm water. A bucket of warm water, replenished as it
cools, may be set beneath the udder, and two persons can raise a rug cut of
this and hold it against the udder, dipping it anew whenever the
temperature is somewhat lowered. A sheet may be passed around the body,
with holes cut for the teats, soft rags packed between it and the udder,
and kept warm by pouring water on every 10 or 15 minutes, as warm as the
hand can bear. When this has been kept up for an hour or two, the bag may
be dried, well rubbed with soap, and left thus with a soapy coating. If the
pain is great, extract of belladonna may be applied along with the soap,
and a dry suspensory bandage with holes for the teats may be applied.
Strong, mercurial ointment is very useful in relieving pain and softening
the bag. This is especially valuable when the disease is protracted and
induration threatens. It may be mixed with an equal quantity of soap and
half as much extract of belladonna. In cases of threatened induration
excellent results are sometimes obtained from a weak-induction current of
electricity sent through the gland daily for 10 minutes.
If _abscess_ threatens, it may be favored by fomentation and opened as soon
as fluctuation from finger to finger shows the formation of matter at a
point formerly hard. The wound may bleed freely, and there is a risk of
opening a milk duct, yet relief will be obtained; also a dressing twice
daily with a lotion of carbolic acid 1 part, water 20 parts, and glycerin 1
part will suffice to keep the wound clean and healthy.
_Gangrene_ of the affected part is often fatal. It demands antiseptics
(chlorid of zinc, 1 dram to 1 quart water) applied frequently to the part,
or, if the case can not be attended, smear the affected quarter with Venice
turpentine, melted, or even wood tar. Antiseptic tonics (tincture of
chlorid of iron, 4 drams) may also be given four times daily in a quart of
water.
CONTAGIOUS MAMMITIS (CONTAGIOUS INFLAMMATION OF THE UDDER).
As stated in the last article, that form of inflammation of the udder which
attacks the gland ducts and follicles, causing deep-seated, hard, nodular
swellings, is often contagious. Franck has demonstrated this by injecting
into the milk ducts in different cows (milking and dry) the pus from the
bags of cows affected with mammitis, or the liquids of putrid flesh, or
putrid blood, and in every case he produced acute inflammation of the gland
tissue within twenty-four hours. He thinks that in ordinary conditions the
septic germ gains access by propagating itself through the milk, filling
the milk canal and oozing from the external orifice. He points to this as a
reason why dry cows escape the malady, though mingling freely with the
sufferers, and why such dry cows do not suffer from inflammation of the
gland tissue when attacked with foot-and-mouth disease. In this last case
it is evident that it is not simply the inoculation with the milker's hand
that is lacking, for the skin of the bag is attacked, but not its
secreting, glandular parts. Now that in any case of abscess we look for the
cause in the chain forms of globular bacteria (_Streptococcus pyogenes_),
in the cluster form of white, globular bacteria (_Staphylococcus pyogenes
albus_), and in the golden and citron-yellow forms of clustered globular
bacteria (_Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus_ and _Staphylococcus pyogenes
citreus_), the formation of pus gives presumptive evidence of the action of
one or more of these germs. So in cases of mortification of the bag; in the
very occurrence there is fair circumstantial evidence of the presence of
erysipelas micrococcus or other germ which kills the local tissues. Again,
in tuberculosis affecting the bag (a not uncommon condition), the active
local cause is without doubt the tubercle bacillus.
It has been found that false membranes have formed in certain cases of
mammitis in the cow, and Klein, after inoculating the diphtheria of man on
the cow, found an ulcerous sore in the seat of inoculation and blisters on
the teats and udder, in which he found what he believed to be the bacillus
of diphtheria. The results are doubtful, even in the absence of false
membranes. Lˆffler, too, in the diphtheria of calves, found that the germ
was longer and more delicate than that of man, and that its pathogenesis
for rodents was less, guinea pigs having only a nonfatal abscess. The
presence of false membranes in one form of mammitis in cows does not
necessarily imply its communicability to man.
It has been asserted that scarlet fever has been transmitted from the cow
to man, and it can not be denied that in many cases the infection has been
spread by means of the milk. The facts, however, when brought out fully
have shown that in almost every case the milk had first come into contact
with a person suffering or recovering from scarlet fever, so that the milk
was infected after it left the cow. The alleged exceptional cases at Hendon
and Dover, England, are not conclusive. In the Hendon outbreak inoculations
were made on calves from the slight eruption on the cow's teats, and they
had a slight eruption on the lips and a form of inflammation of the
kidneys, which Dr. Klein thought resembled that of scarlatina. The cows
that had brought the disease to the Hendon dairies were traced back to
Wiltshire, where cows were found suffering from a similar malady, but no
sign of scarlet fever resulted. In the Dover outbreak the dairyman first
denied any disease in his cows, and brought a certificate of a veterinarian
to prove that they were sound at the time of the investigation; then later
he confessed that the cows had had foot-and-mouth disease some time
before, and consequent eruption on the teats. So the question remains
whether the man who denied sickness in the cows to begin with, and adduced
professional evidence of it, did not later acknowledge the foot-and-mouth
disease as a blind to hide the real source of the trouble in scarlatina in
his own family or in the family of an employee.
In America Dr. Stickler said that he had produced scarlatina in children by
inoculation with imported virus of foot-and-mouth disease, but his
contention is negatived by the facts that with foot-and-mouth disease
constantly present in Europe scarlatina does not accompany it, and that in
America, with scarlatina constantly prevailing at some point,
foot-and-mouth disease is unknown locally except at long intervals and as
the result of the importation of infected animals or their products. Man is
susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease, but it never appears during the
frequent epidemics of scarlatina.
Among other contagious forms of mammitis I may name one which I have
encountered in large dairies, starting as a sore and slight swelling at the
opening of the teat and extending up along the milk duct to the gland
structure in the bag, all of which become indurated, nodular, and painful.
The milk is entirely suppressed in that quarter of the bag, and from that
it may extend to the others as it does from cow to cow through the milker's
hands.
Another form almost universally prevalent in this district of central New
York in 1889 broke out on the teats and udders as blisters strongly
resembling cowpox, but which were not propagated when inoculated on calves.
It was only exceptionally that this extended through the teat to the gland
tissue, yet in some instances the bag was lost from this cause. Scarlatina
in man was very prevalent at the time (many schools were closed in
consequence), but no definite connection seemed to exist between this and
the cow disease, and on different dairy farms there were families of young
children that had never had scarlet fever and who did not at that time
contract it.
The most common cause of contagious mammitis in cattle is a spherical
bacterium in chain form (_Streptococcus_) (Moore, Ward). Yet it is clear
that contagious mammitis is not a single affection, but a group of diseases
which have this in common, that they attack the udder.
_Prevention._--Prevention is to be especially sought in all such cases. In
purchasing new cows see that they come from a herd where the teats and
udder are sound. If a new cow with unknown antecedents comes from a public
market, let her be milked for a week by a person who does not milk any
other cows. Keep her in a separate stall from others, so that there may be
no infection from litter or flooring. Wash the udder with soap and water,
and wet with a solution of two teaspoonfuls of carbolic acid in a pint of
water before letting the regular milker of the other cows take her. If any
cow in the herd shows the indurated end of the teat or the inflammation and
nodular tender character of the gland, sequestrate her at once and give her
a separate milker. If another cow is to be put into the stall she occupied,
first clean and scrape it, and wet it with a strong solution of bluestone,
5 ounces in a gallon of water. The milk may be drawn off with a teat tube,
or spring teat dilator (Pl. XXIV, figs. 3 and 4), and the milk ducts
injected frequently with a solution of peroxid of hydrogen or iodoform. I
have had little success in checking the upward progress of the disease
through the teat with carbolic acid or boric-acid solutions. Used on the
outside of the other teats, however, they may serve to prevent them from
becoming infected. In the absence of peroxid of hydrogen the affected teat
may be injected with a solution of 1 grain corrosive sublimate in a pint of
water, and the same may be used on the other teats, provided it is washed
off every time before milking.
As additional precautions, no cow with a retained afterbirth or unhealthy
discharge from the womb should be left with the other cows. Such cows
doubtless infect their own udders and those of the cows next them by
lashing with the soiled tail. If milkers handle retained afterbirth or
vaginal discharge, or unhealthy wounds, or assist in a difficult and
protracted parturition, they should wash the hands and arms thoroughly with
soap and warm water and then rub them with the corrosive-sublimate
solution, or if not, at least with one of carbolic acid. Clothes stained
with such offensive products should be thoroughly washed.
The general treatment of contagious mammitis does not differ from that of
the simple form, except that antiseptics should be given by the mouth as
well as applied locally (hyposulphite of soda, one-half ounce daily).
COWPOX.
This is another form of contagious inflammation of the udder which does not
spread readily from animal to animal except by the hands of the milker. It
is held to occur spontaneously in the cow, but this is altogether
improbable, and so-called spontaneous cases are rather to be looked on as
instances in which the germs have been preserved dry in the buildings or
introduced in some unknown manner. It is not uncommon in the horse,
attacking the heels, the lips, or some other inoculated part of the body,
and is then easily transferred to the cow, if the same man grooms and
dresses the horse and milks the cow. It may also appear in the cow by
infection, more or less direct, from a person who has been successfully
vaccinated. Many believe that it is only a form of the smallpox of man
modified by passing through the system of cow or horse. It is, however,
unreasonable to suppose that this alleged modified smallpox could have been
transmitted from child to child (the most susceptible of the human race)
for 90 years, under all possible conditions, without once reverting to its
original type of smallpox. Chauveau's experiments on both cattle and horses
with the virus of smallpox and its inoculation back on the human subject go
far to show that in the climate of western Europe, at least, no such
transformation takes place. Smallpox remains smallpox and cowpox, cowpox.
Again, smallpox is communicable to a person who visits the patient in his
room but avoids touching him, while cowpox is never thus transferred
through the air unless deliberately diffused in the form of spray.
The disease in the cow is ushered in by a slight fever, which, however, is
usually overlooked, and the first sign is tenderness of the teats.
Examined, these may be redder and hotter than normal, and at the end of two
days there appear little nodules, like small peas, of a pale-red color, and
increasing so that by the seventh day they may measure three-fourths of an
inch to 1 inch in diameter. The yield of milk diminishes, and when heated
it coagulates slightly. From the seventh to the tenth day the eruption
forms into a blister, with raised margins and a depression in the center,
and from which the whole of the liquid can not be drawn by a single
puncture. The blister, in other words, is chambered, and each chamber must
be opened to evacuate the whole of the contents. If the pock forms on a
surface where there is thick hair it does not rise as a blister, but oozes
out a straw-colored fluid which concretes on the hairs in an amber-colored
mass. In one or two days after the pock is full it becomes yellow from
contained pus and then dries into a brownish-yellow scab, which finally
falls, leaving one or more distinct pits in the skin. Upon the teats,
however, this regular course is rarely seen; the vesicles are burst by the
hands of the milker as soon as liquid is formed, and as they continue to
suffer at each milking they form raw, angry sores, scabbing more or less at
intervals, but are slow to undergo healing.
The only treatment required is to heal the sores. As milking is the main
cause of their persistence, that must be done as gently as possible, or
even with the teat tube or dilator. (Pl. XXIV, figs. 3 and 4.) It is
essential to check the propagation of the germ, and for this purpose the
sore teats may be washed frequently with a solution of half an ounce
hyposulphite of soda in a pint of water. This will usually check the
inflammation and cut short the malady.
SUPPRESSION OF MILK.
The absence of milk in the udder may result from ill health, debility,
emaciation, chronic disease of the bag, wasting of the gland from previous
disease, or insufficient feed, but sometimes it will occur suddenly without
any appreciable cause. The treatment consists in removing the cause of the
disease, giving rich albuminoid feed made into warm mashes, and
administering ounce doses of aromatic carminatives, like anise seed, fennel
seed, etc. Rubbing and stripping the udder are useful; the application of
oil of lavender or of turpentine, or even a blister of Spanish flies, will
sometimes succeed.
BLOODY MILK.
Blood may escape with the milk when the udder has been injured by blows;
also when it is congested or inflamed, when the circulation through it has
been suddenly increased by richer and more abundant feed, or when the cow
is under the excitement of heat. The milk frothing up and assuming a pink
tinge is often the first sign of red water, and it may result from eating
acrid or irritant plants, like the RanunculaceÊ, resinous plants, etc.
Deposits of tubercle or tumors in the udder, or induration of the gland,
may be efficient causes, the irritation caused by milking contributing to
draw the blood. Finally, there may be a reddish tinge or sediment when
madder or logwood has been eaten.
In milk which becomes red after it is drawn it may be from the presence in
it of the _Bacillus prodigiosus._ This also grows on bread, and is the
explanation of the supposed miracle of the "bleeding host."
The treatment will vary with the cause. In congested glands give 1 pound of
Epsom salt, and daily thereafter one-half ounce saltpeter, with a dram of
chlorate of potassium; the bag should be bathed with hot or cold water, and
rubbed with camphorated lard. If the feed is too rich or abundant it must
be reduced. If from acrid plants, they must be removed from pasture or
fodder. Induration of the udder may be met by rubbing with a combination of
iodin ointment 1 part, soft soap 2 parts; mercurial ointment and soap also
may be used. Careful milking is imperative.
BLUE MILK.
Watery milk is blue, but the presence of a germ (_Bacillus cyanogenes_)
causes a distinct blue shade even in rich milk and cream. It may reach the
milk after it has been drawn, or it may find its way into the opening of
the milk ducts and enter the milk as it is drawn. In the latter case
frequent milking and the injection of a solution of 2 drams of hyposulphite
of soda in a pint of water into the teats will serve to destroy the germs.
STRINGY MILK.
This may be caused by fungi developing in the liquid, and that the spores
are present in the system of the cow may be safely inferred from the fact
that in a large herd two or three cows only will yield such milk at a time,
and that after a run of 10 days or a fortnight they will recover and others
will be attacked. I have found that such affected cows had the temperature
raised one or two degrees above the others. Like most other fungi this does
not grow out into filaments within the body of the cow, but in five or six
hours after milking the surface layers are found to be one dense network of
filaments. If a needle is dipped in this and lifted the liquid is drawn out
into a long thread. In one case which I investigated near Ithaca, N. Y.,
the contamination was manifestly from a spring which oozed out of a bank of
black-muck soil and stood in pools mixed with the dejections of the
animals. Inoculation of pure milk with the water as it flowed out of this
bank developed in it the fungus and the stringy characters. By fencing the
spring in and giving the affected cows each 2 drams bisulphite of soda
daily, the trouble was arrested promptly and permanently.
CHAPPED TEATS.
These may be caused by anything which irritates them. The powerful sucking
of the calf; the sudden chilling of the teat in winter after the calf has
just let it go or after the completion of milking with a wet hand; contact
with cold water or stagnant, putrid water, or with filth or irritants when
lying down; slight congestions of the skin in connection with overstocking;
indeed, any source of local irritation may cause chapping. This may be
slight or extend into great, gaping sores and induce retention of milk or
even mammitis. Soothing applications of vaseline or a combination of equal
parts of spermaceti and oil of sweet almonds may be applied. If healing is
tardy, add 10 grains balsam of Peru to the ounce of ointment. If the
irritation is very great, wash first with a solution of 1 dram sugar of
lead in 1 pint of water and then apply benzoated zinc-oxid ointment.
WARTS ON THE TEATS.
These are often very troublesome, yet they may be greatly benefited or
entirely removed by smearing them thickly with pure olive oil after each
milking. If they persist they may be cut off with a pair of sharp scissors
and the sore touched with a stick of lunar caustic. They may now be oiled
and the caustic repeated as demanded to prevent their renewed growth.
_Scabby teats_ may be smeared with vaseline containing carbolic acid enough
to give it an odor.
TEAT BLOCKED BY CONCRETION OF CASEIN.
Under unhealthy conditions of the gland or milk ducts clots of casein form
which, pressed clear of most of their liquid and rolled into rounded
masses, may block the passage. They can be moved up and down by
manipulation of the teat, and if they can not be pressed out they may be
extracted by using the spring teat dilator (Pl. XXIV, fig. 3), being held
surrounded by its three limbs. Before extraction is attempted an ounce of
almond oil, boiled, should be injected into the teat.
TEAT BLOCKED BY CALCULUS.
When the calcareous matter of the milk has been precipitated in the form of
a smooth, rounded stone, a rough, conglomerated concretion, or a fine,
sandlike dÈbris, it may cause obstruction and irritation. These bodies are
felt to be much harder than those formed by casein, and the milk usually
contains gritty particles. Extraction may be attempted, in the case of the
finely divided gritty matter, by simple milking or with the spring dilator
(Pl. XXIV, fig. 3) in the case of the larger masses. Should this fail the
teat may be laid open with the knife and sewed up again or closed with
collodion, but such an operation is best deferred until the cow is dry.
TEAT BLOCKED BY A WARTY OR OTHER GROWTH INSIDE.
In this case the obstruction may be near the orifice of the teat or farther
up, and the solid mass is not movable up and down with the same freedom as
are concretions and calculi. The movement is limited by the elasticity of
the inner membrane of the teat from which it grows, and is somewhat freer
in certain cases because the growth has become loose and hangs by a narrow
neck. In the case of the looser growths they may be snared by a fine,
spring wire passed as a loop through a fine tube (like a teat tube open at
each end) and introduced into the teat. When this can not be done, the only
resort is to cut in and excise it while the cow is dry.
THICKENING OF THE MUCOUS MEMBRANE AND CLOSURE OF THE
MILK DUCT.