Murrain

Murrain is the generic term loosely used to designate a variety of diseases of domestic animals, but more generally restricted to the vesicular epizootic, popularly known as the foot-and-mouth disease. It is a contagious, infectious eruptive fever, affecting cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry; but is rarely communicable to horses or men. It is characterised by the appearance of little bladders or vesicles in the mouth, on the lips, gums, and tongue, on the coronets and interdigital spaces of the feet, causing inability to eat, drivelling of saliva, sometimes heat and swelling of the udder, and lameness. The disorder runs a fixed and definite course usually in eight or ten days. Good nursing, comfortable lodgings, and a liberal supply of soft, easily digestible food, are the chief requisites for speedy recovery. A laxative may be given if needed. The mouth may be washed out twice daily with a mild astringent solution, which may be made with half an ounce of alum, oxide of zinc, or sugar of lead, to the quart of water. When the udder in milch cows, in which the complaint is usually most serious, is affected, it should be bathed with tepid water before and after milking, which must be attended to very regularly, the feet kept clean, loose horn removed, and washed occasionally with the lotion used for the mouth. See also ANTHRAX, CATTLE-PLAQUE, PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.