Veterinary Remedies

Pow-Wows, or Long Lost Friend, by John George Hoffman, [1820], at sacred-texts.com

PHYSIC BALL FOR HORSES.

Cape aloes, from six to ten drachms; Castile soap, one drachm; spirits of wine, one drachm; syrup to form the ball. If mercurial physic be wanted, add from one-half a drachm to one drachm of calomel.

Previous to physicking a horse, and during its operation, he should be fed on bran mashes, allowed plenty of chilled water, and have exercise. Physic is always useful; it is necessary to be administered in almost every disease; it improves digestion, and gives strength to the lacteals by cleansing the intestines and unloading the liver; and if the animal is afterward properly fed, will improve his strength and condition in a remarkable degree. p. 74 Physic, except in urgent cases, should he given in the morning and on an empty stomach, and, if required to be repeated, a week should intervene between each dose.

Before giving a horse a ball, see that it is not too hard nor too large. Cattle medicine is always given as a drench.

PHYSIC FOR CATTLE.

Cape aloes, four drachms to one oz.; Epsom salts, four to six oz.; powdered ginger, three drachms. Mix and give in a quart of gruel. For calves, one-third of this will be a dose.

SEDATIVE AND WORM BALL.

Powdered white hellebore, one-half drachm; linseed powder, one-half oz. If necessary, make into a ball with molasses. This ball is a specific for weed. Two ounces of gargling oil, in one-half bottle of linseed oil, is an effectual remedy for worms in horses and cattle.

ASTRINGENT BALL FOR LOOSENESS IN HORSES.

Opium from one-half to one drachm; ginger, one and a half drachms; prepared chalk, three drachms; flour, two drachms. Powder, and make into a ball with molasses.

MIXTURE FOR ULCERS AND ALL FOUL SORES.

Sulphate of zinc, one oz.; corrosive sublimate, one drachm; spirit of salt, four drachms; water, one pint; mix.

YELLOW WATER IN HORSES.

Take Venetian soap, juniper oil, saltpetre, sal prunella, sweet spirits of nitre, of each one ounce; make it into a ball with pulverized licorice root, and give the horse two ounces at once, and repeat if necessary. If attended with a violent fever, bleed, and give bran mashes; or,

p. 75

Take a. gallon of strong beer, or ale, add thereto two ounces of Castile soap and one ounce of saltpetre; stir, and mix daily of this with his feed.

The following is also highly recommended in a German work:

Take pulverized gentian and calamus, of each one-half ounce; sulphate of potassa, two ounces; tartar emetic, liver of sulphur, and oil of turpentine, one-eighth of an ounce each; mix it with flour and water, and give the above in the incipient stage of the disease.

The dose, if necessary, may be given daily for several days.

A VALUABLE RECIPE FOR GALLS--WINDGALLS IN HORSES.

An intelligent and experienced farmer, rising of seventy years of age, residing in Allen township, Cumberland county, has assured us that the following ointment, if applied two or three times a day, will cure the most obstinate windgalls.

Take one pound of the leaves of stramonium (Jamestown weed) bruised; two pounds of fresh butter or hog's lard, and one gill of the spirits of turpentine; put the whole of the ingredients into a clean earthen crock and place it with the contents over live coals for twenty or thirty minutes, stirring it occasionally: then strain it through a coarse cloth or canvas, and it forms a consistent ointment, with which anoint the windgalls two or three times a day.

Fifty dollars had been offered for the above receipt, so says our informant, who kindly furnished it.

WIND-BROKEN HORSES.

The excellent ball for broken-winded horses, that has made a perfect cure of over seven hundred in less than nine months, after many other medicines being tried, in vain.

p. 76

Take myrrh, elecampane, and licorice root, in fine powder, three ounces each; saffron, three drachms: assafœtida, one ounce; sulphur squills and cinnabar of antimony, of each two ounces; aurum mosaicum, one ounce and a half; oil of aniseed, eighty drops. You may make it into paste with either treacle or honey, and give the horse the quantity of a hen's egg every morning for a week; and afterwards every other morning till the disorder is removed.--[Montague's Farrier, page 57.]