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Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/273

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DOCTORING STOCK.
269

perfect health there should be forty beats per minute, but close, hot stables, or the result of heavy feeding will cause some variation in the beating of the horse’s pulse.


In Cattle.—The pulse is most easily found over the middle of the first rib, or on the artery passing over the ankle joint, and the beats are from 52 to 55 per minute in health.


In Sheep.—The best place is in the middle of the inside of the thigh, and the number of beats in health, from 75 to 80.


The Pig is the same.


A REMEDY FOR WORMS IN HORSES.

Mix together 1 pint of linseed oil, and 2 ozs. of turpentine, and give on an empty stomach. This will also improve the horse’s coat greatly.

Another remedy is to give for about ten days, 2 drams of powdered sulphate of iron mixed in with his food night and morning. Then give one pint of cold drawn linseed oil.


SWELLED SHEEP AND CATTLE.

Very often both sheep and cattle eat too geeedily of trefoil, or the common clover, when they can get it, and as a result they swell up to a dreadful size, and, indeed, in many instances, I have known of them bursting.

The best thing to give when you notice them swelled and in great pain is: Epsom salts, 1 lb.; ground ginger, ½ oz.; carbonate of ammonia, 1 dram. Mix in a quart of cold water, and give a dose to each animal affected. In very bad cases there is a way of pricking the paunch and so letting out the gas, but it requires to be seen before one could learn to do it, though when a beast is very bad one might try to relieve its sufferings, as it will only die, whether or no.


WORMS IN HORSES.

The symptoms are wasting and general lowness of condition. Fast the horse for a few hours, then give a powder as follows: Tartar emetic, 40 grains, and calomel, 30 grains. Repeat in twelve hours, and in another twelve hours give a dose of physic.


For SPRAINS or BRUISES in CATTLE or HORSES.

Mix equal parts of olive oil, turpentine, solution of ammonia and water in a bottle. Shake well, and rub in to the affected part. It can be made stronger by adding more turpentine and ammonia.