If the services of a competent veterinarian can be obtained the results will be more satisfactory, as he will avoid the complications that sometimes arise. However, if a veterinarian cannot be obtained in a reasonable length of time, or if the cow is in the latter stages of the disease, the dairyman himself should inflate the udder with air. The so-called milk fever apparatus is best adapted for this, but if this cannot be obtained an ordinary bicycle pump may be used.

The procedure is simple, yet great care is required to prevent

FIG. 63.- THREE HOURS AFTER THE INJECTION OF AIR.

inflammation of the udder, which sometimes follows. Have the cow in a clean place with plenty of good straw. Wash the udder, teats, and especially the ends of the teats, with soap and warm water; follow with an antiseptic wash, such as from 3 to 5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid, or 2 or 3 per cent. creolin; boil the milking tube in water ten or fifteen minutes; place a small amount of sterile absorbent cotton in the metal cylinder to remove the particles of dust and germs from the air as it is forced through. (If the milk fever apparatus is used only a few times

a year it is better to sterilize the metal cylinder and use a new piece of cotton each time.) Wash the hands thoroughly with soap and water, followed by an antiseptic wash such as carbolic acid. When everything is ready, again disinfect the milking tube just before it is used, and also each time it is withdrawn from one teat and placed in another, by placing it for one or two minutes in a 5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid water.

When the air is being pumped into the udder it is advisable to have an assistant massage or rub that quarter of the udder to aid the passage of the air into its furthest parts. If the bicycle. pump is used great care should be exercised to see that the udder is not overdistended, as that might cause serious troubles. This can be determined by gently tapping the udder with the finger and if it sounds drumlike it is distended enough. It should be sufficiently inflated, however, that when the milking tube is withdrawn some of the air will ooze out. To prevent the air from escaping grasp the teat with the fingers and have an assistant tie a piece of tape or cloth at least half an inch wide, around the teat. As the tape will obstruct the flow of blood to the end of the teat, it should be removed in about three hours. When the tape is removed do not make the mistake of removing any of the milk or air. If this is done, a relapse is almost certain. Many cows will show improvement in from one to two hours after the injection of air. If the animal shows no improvement after four or six hours it is generally advisable to repeat the process.

As a rule it is very dangerous to give large quantities of medicine through the mouth to cows having milk fever. Most cows are unable to swallow, owing to the paralyzed condition of the throat, and anything given by the mouth usually goes directly to the lungs, producing mechanical pneumonia. Many animals have recovered from milk fever but died a few days later from pneumonia, caused by drenching the animal. It is safer not to give any medicine unless so ordered by a veterinarian.

Injections of water into the rectum and the removal of the manure is advisable, especially if the cow does not make a quick recovery. The emptying of the bladder is sometimes necessary with lingering cases. After the cow is up, do not remove any milk for from twelve to twenty-four hours, and only part of it the first two or three milkings.

PREVENTIVES

The fact that we have an almost infallible cure for this disease does not render preventive measures unnecessary; though they are not so important as before the introduction of the modern treatment. Though authorities are not agreed as to the exact cause of milk fever, they are all convinced that the distension of the udder is necessary for recovery. A very plausible argument is that milk fever is caused by a disturbance to the circulation, due to the sudden and excessive amount of blood in the udder at calving time, and therefore, the distension of the udder by potassium iodide, water or air, forces and keeps the excess of blood out of the vessels of the udder until the circulation can adapt itself to its new requirement.

Following along this same line of treatment many dairymen have practically eliminated this disease from their herds, by removing only a part of the milk from the udder the first two or three days after calving, simply easing the udder the same as the calf would do. It is better to remove an equal amount from each quarter. During the first day only a very small amount should be removed, about two pounds every six hours; the second day three or four pounds every six hours; the third day it is usually safe to remove half or three-quarters of the milk at each milking, and after the third day it is generally safe to remove all the milk.

The old idea of starving a cow for two or three weeks before calving is not advisable, though the administration of a dose of salts just a day or two before parturition is to be recommended.

organisms normally present in the digestive tract and which do no harm as long as the vitality of the animal is unimpaired, but which become very active, virulent poisons to a young animal in a run-down, weakened condition.

It happens quite frequently, however, that animals become affected immediately after birth and before they have taken any milk from the dam; in fact, before food of any character whatever has been taken into the digestive tract; so it would appear that the infectious agent was either present in the body of the young animal before or at the time of birth or that it gained entrance through some other channel than the mouth, by means of contaminated food.

ETIOLOGY

Bacterial investigations made in recent years by Poels (1899), and Joest (1902) and by Jensen (1893 and 1905) have established that white scours 66 was in most cases caused by the bacillus coli communis, or by one of its several virulent varieties." It has been demonstrated that colon bacilli from the bodies of calves. which have died from white scours, produce the disease in newly born calves in a severe form. When the bacilli are fed to newly born calves, a fatal infection is more easily produced in those animals in which "the organs have not yet performed their functions, than in those in which the stomach and intestines have already been set in activity by the ingestion of food."

SYMPTOMS

Usually, the first symptom is loss of appetite followed shortly by the passage from the rectum of pasty-yellowish fæcal matter. The calf seems weak and inclined to lie around and an examination shows coldness of the extremities and very pale, watery mucous membranes. The passage of fæcal matter is accompanied by more or less abdominal pain evidenced by straining, restlessness and lowing. Later, the bowel discharges become lighter in color, eventually very thin and white, mixed with curd and sometimes mucus and gas bubbles. These discharges soil the tail and buttocks, causing excoriations of the skin. The young animal now grows rapidly weaker, lies down most of the time, the manure