Farm related "cures"

Mossie1975

Was thinking about this recently when my mother got a call from a neighbouring farmer to share the prayer to stop an animal bleeding. Would love to hear about other examples of alternative treatments?

BENDYBINN

Ould lad near me is a great believer in bread soda .....cures everything!

Purple Mountain

Not a cure, but around here where I live the country folk bless the land and homestead on May eve still.

patsy_mccabe

BENDYBINN wrote: »

Ould lad near me is a great believer in bread soda .....cures everything!

Bread soda counteracts the acidity in the gut. Even the experts recommend it.


http://animalhealthireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Recipe_for_Homemade_electrolytes.pdf

blue5000

Mod note; Any mention of burnt oil in this thread and there will be cards flying out.

Read the charter before posting here https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057309495

No 6

Specifically prohibited from discussion/suggestion as treatments are:

Waste/burnt oil, Creosote, Turpentine, White Spirits, Jeyes Fluid, Domestos. (this list will be amended in future)

Bullocks

blue5000 wrote: »

Mod note; Any mention of burnt oil in this thread and there will be cards flying out.

Read the charter before posting here https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057309495

No 6

Specifically prohibited from discussion/suggestion as treatments are:

Waste/burnt oil, Creosote, Turpentine, White Spirits, Jeyes Fluid, Domestos. (this list will be amended in future)

Ah Blue you might as well just close the thread if you're not allowing that beauty 😂😂😂

jill_valentine

My dad used to know of a lady with the cure for Orf. Never met her or knew who she was, only that she lived in the North somewhere. Would text her, she'd text back to say it was done, whatever "it" was.

... He'd still always treat the animals too, just in case

lab man

Have a friend with sheep hes plagued with orf every year jey tis hard on the sheep is there a treatment for it he says there isn't? Any recommendations

charolais0153

lab man wrote: »

Have a friend with sheep hes plagued with orf every year jey tis hard on the sheep is there a treatment for it he says there isn't? Any recommendations

Scabivax vaccine as lambs

Water John

blue5000 wrote: »

Mod note; Any mention of burnt oil in this thread and there will be cards flying out.

Read the charter before posting here https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057309495

No 6

Specifically prohibited from discussion/suggestion as treatments are:

Waste/burnt oil, Creosote, Turpentine, White Spirits, Jeyes Fluid, Domestos. (this list will be amended in future)

Don't think Trump will bother posting here.

893bet

Dock leaves for nettle stings

Water John

Bluestone mixed with lard applied for foot rot in cattle.

Nekarsulm

I remember as a kid being sent to cut armload of ivy with berries on it, for a weanling who was absolutely covered with "angle-berries".

jill_valentine

lab man wrote: »

Have a friend with sheep hes plagued with orf every year jey tis hard on the sheep is there a treatment for it he says there isn't? Any recommendations

Scabivax, gool old blue spray on the scabs to stop it spreading, and I've heard a few people swear by salt blocks.

Dinzee Conlee

lab man wrote: »

Have a friend with sheep hes plagued with orf every year jey tis hard on the sheep is there a treatment for it he says there isn't? Any recommendations

I think biggest thing in dealing with it was better mineral dosing...

We used to vaccinate but gave up - wasn’t worth it, found lambs still got a touch but it cleared in a few weeks...

Sonic the Shaghog

Potín given to calves to cure scour

gozunda

Goose grease for the legs of horses especially during winter

1. Goose grease is very useful for many purposes. It is very good for sprains, for stiffness in joints;

2. People who have strong boots, put goose-grease on them to keep the leather soft.

3. People also use it for cart-grease.

4. When there is snow on the ground, the people rub grease of their boots to keep the snow from sticking to them.

5. If a cow's udder is sore after calving, it is very good to rub a bit of goose grease of it.

6. If a horse's foot is swelled, it is very good to rub a bit of goose-grease of it, for it would put down the swelling.

7. If you had a bad cold, to rub goose grease of your chest, is very good.

8. If your foot was sprained, to rub goose grease of it, would cure it.

9. To rub goose grease of tacklings, it would make them limber.

10. If you have a pair of hard leather boots, rub goose grease of them and do not leave them near the fire.

From the Duchas School collection of folklore

jill_valentine

Sonic the Shaghog wrote: »

Potín given to calves to cure scour

My grandad would have had you believe poitin cured just about anything. How his animals weren't all in bits with hangovers all the time anyway is beyond me.

lab man

charolais0153 wrote: »

Scabivax vaccine as lambs

Sound do all of them have to be done every year I saw some of the sheep jesus tis cruel I think someone told him to put <mod snip> on the wounds fair sad

Stihl waters

Also if goose grease didn't work try poitin, if poitin doesn't work mix it with goose grease, it works wonders

gozunda

Stihl waters wrote: »

Also if goose grease didn't work try poitin, if poitin doesn't work mix it with goose grease, it works wonders

Way back in time when I was a nipper - the mother used to make a concoction of poitin and I think petroleum jelly (but it could very well have been goose grease) which she religiously used on us to prevent chapped lips during the winter.

The problem was that we went to school reeking of poitin. I'm sure social services would be called these days ....

jill_valentine

Wouldn't want to try blowing out a candle either, it would be like spraying a Lynx can over a lighter.

Surely poitin would eat the lips off you?!?

gooseygander

Drop of apple cider vinegar into bucket fed calves milk to prevent/ treat scour and gut problems.

gozunda

jill_valentine wrote: »

Wouldn't want to try blowing out a candle either, it would be like spraying a Lynx can over a lighter.

Surely poitin would eat the lips off you?!?

It stung like hell if your lips were at all chapped. Remember this was in the days before Central heating. So kids with chapped lips (and runny noses) was not uncommon.

I reckon what the mixture did do was kill off any bacteria much like hand sanitiser these days. Maybe that's why we never got sick bar the usual round of measles and mumps.

Just as well we had no notion to try and smoke a sneaky cigarette ...

Funny thing is you dont really see kids with runny noses anymore. Was that just an immune response that has been sanitised away? Thing is I don't remember any kids in school with asthma ...

JJayoo

Apple cider vinegar/water/bluestone pained on is apparently very good for orf.

For foot issues in sheep I mix bluestone into sudocream, seems to work well.

lalababa

Used to Hang holly branches on rafters on housing to help with something ..I think ringworm.
Feeding seaweed is a great preventive...iodine & trace minerals. Never had better cattle than the seaweed fed ones. No sickness..just thrive.

whisky_galore

gozunda wrote: »

It stung like hell if your lips were at all chapped. Remember this was in the days before Central heating. So kids with chapped lips (and runny noses) was not uncommon.

I reckon what the mixture did do was kill off any bacteria much like hand sanitiser these days. Maybe that's why we never got sick bar the usual round of measles and mumps.

Just as well we had no notion to try and smoke a sneaky cigarette ...

Funny thing is you dont really see kids with runny noses anymore. Was that just an immune response that has been sanitised away? Thing is I don't remember any kids in school with asthma ...

Maybe the kids were better at fighting off infection and able to go to school instead of being knocked for six by the first little bug?

Funny thing then is no kid seemed to be allergic or intolerant to anything. Everyone drank the school milk and ate bags of peanuts.

NcdJd

We always got turnip juice here when we were feeling unwell. My mother said I got it as a baby when I had the hooping cough after the doctor said there was nothing he could do.

I guess thats why I ended up to my knees in muck snigging them when I was older

jill_valentine

whisky_galore wrote: »

Maybe the kids were better at fighting off infection and able to go to school instead of being knocked for six by the first little bug?

Funny thing then is no kid seemed to be allergic or intolerant to anything. Everyone drank the school milk and ate bags of peanuts.

There were always some kids who "didn't thrive" though, or some young fella who was always "sickly", and looking back I have to wonder how much of that came down to the same thing.

NcdJd

Jjameson wrote: »

In the 80’s a lot of young lads including myself had “hives” on our legs nearly all summer.
We were showing an allergy to something but the symptoms weren’t picked up on.

We used to get hives from eating too many tomatoes. There would be myself, brother and a neighbour bagging tomatoes in the shed but we'd eat a box of them between us as we were working.

Dinzee Conlee

whisky_galore wrote: »

Maybe the kids were better at fighting off infection and able to go to school instead of being knocked for six by the first little bug?

Funny thing then is no kid seemed to be allergic or intolerant to anything. Everyone drank the school milk and ate bags of peanuts.

I dont ever remember eating bags of peanuts when I was small. We got monkey nuts at Halloween and that was it... I didnt realise monkey nuts were peanuts for a long while to be honest...

I think people were intolerant, it just wasnt called intolerance. Things just 'didnt agree with people'...
I have cousins who would have been classed as delicate, but it turns out they were gluten intolerant. When it was diagnosed, and they changed their diet - their health improved no end...

So, I think its rose tinted glasses stuff to be saying there was no such thing as intolerances 'back in the day'

Water John

Brother, now in his 60s, had a lot of skin problems when he was young on a farm, turned out he was allergic to milk.

Large bottle small glass

gozunda wrote: »

Way back in time when I was a nipper - the mother used to make a concoction of poitin and I think petroleum jelly (but it could very well have been goose grease) which she religiously used on us to prevent chapped lips during the winter.

The problem was that we went to school reeking of poitin. I'm sure social services would be called these days ....

As a 3yr old I found the father's bottle of poitin; which was kept for the calves.

Mother came down from farm to see me panned out on bed and open bottle beside me. Country gp lived across the road, and after a quick check informed her I'd be grand and sleep it off!

41 yrs later I never lost the taste for strong liquor

Lime Tree Farm

Jjameson wrote: »

We never drew the connection! But there was always someone with hives at various stages of healing.. the temptation to pick the scab too soon!

We never made the connection either, feasting on the plums every August.

Mossie1975

Thanks lads for the answers. It's gas ... when we were growing up, if we complained about being sick, our mother would say "I'm taking you to the doctor" and that softened our cough! Thank God there was never anything seriously wrong with us. We used to get hives from eating too many apples in the Summer. Brother got ringworm on a few occasions and I remember him putting some hot smelly oil on it. A sister got shingles and went to a healer. She came back in a state ... can't remember did the healer use his own blood or urine as part of the "cure". Whatever he used, it didn't work.

NcdJd

whisky_galore wrote: »

Everyone drank the school milk and ate bags of peanuts.

Just made me think of the school milk fights we used to have. Straw and carton, there was so many feckers going around squirting milk, there was none left to drink after the attacks and counter attacks in the yard..

Odelay

Large bottle small glass wrote: »

As a 3yr old I found the father's bottle of poitin; which was kept for the calves.

Mother came down from farm to see me panned out on bed and open bottle beside me. Country gp lived across the road, and after a quick check informed her I'd be grand and sleep it off!

41 yrs later I never lost the taste for strong liquor

Apt user name....

Say my name

Jjameson wrote: »

My great grandfather kept bees as a bee sting was very beneficial to his arthritis,
Honey was the basis for some poultices.

In the 70,s a few lads doin a bit of drainage work unearthed a bomb which subsequently exploded, it was there since some years as the family had been active “old Ira” men. They couldn’t attend hospital or doctor for fear of the law and were my great grandfather attended their injuries and both made good recovery.
He being Church of Ireland wouldn’t fit the narrative of such matters when written about nowadays!

The relationship between old ira and church of Ireland people especially poorer members of church of Ireland landowners wouldn't surprise a few historians.

Kind of a cure. Cobwebs were put on skulled cattle to stop excessive bleeding.

Water John

Poutices which were largely forgotten about with the coming of antibiotics but are now coming back in vogue.

Nekarsulm

Water John wrote: »

Poutices which were largely forgotten about with the coming of antibiotics but are now coming back in vogue.

Yeah I remember as a kid helping the father poultice a cows foot, turnips were boiled up and mixed with oatmeal and bandaged around wherever they wanted to draw the poison from.
Had to be put on as hot a bearable possible.

Also remember using an old shirt and painting it with Stockholm tar, and using this as a kind of waterproof bandage to keep some kind of mixture up between a cows cloots.

Inside in the dwelling house, there was a "medicine cabinate" on the scullery wall. Just a tin box with a door and a shelf.
Main ingredients that I remember was tubes of Gentian Violet ( used for burns, I think) and a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide.
This was a clear liquid, which when poured into a cut or wound began fizzing and created a white scum. Generally believed to be the bacteria being killed.
Tincture of Iodine was another bottle that I remember.
And of course, bread soda, was used for wasp stings ( or could have been baking powder)

gooseygander

Another mad idea my auld fellow had was to place a St Bridgets straw cross in the corner of the shed where a wild cow/bullock was housed. He recently tried it again earlier this year for a mad yoke that would scale a 12 foot wall to get away from you. Needless to say poor St Bridget could not even tame this yoke and was shipped off to the factory at a loss having risked my life to try load the beast.

jill_valentine

gooseygander wrote: »

Another mad idea my auld fellow had was to place a St Bridgets straw cross in the corner of the shed where a wild cow/bullock was housed. He recently tried it again earlier this year for a mad yoke that would scale a 12 foot wall to get away from you. Needless to say poor St Bridget could not even tame this yoke and was shipped off to the factory at a loss having risked my life to try load the beast.

Ah jaysus, she's good, she's not a miracle worker :pac:

chooseusername

Stinging nettles down the trouser leg for arthritis in the knees.
Maybe didn't cure it, but sure took your mind off the arthritis .

Odelay

Moss was used on wounds. Apparently it has some antiseptic properties.

chooseusername

Woodworm dust used as baby powder for nappy rash.
Had to be hawthorn ,I think.

chooseusername

Jjameson wrote: »

Boils were treated with poultices involving honey or sugar. Or there was a method involving a hot bottle. Hot water put in bottle then poured out and the top of the bottle held on the boil until the bottle was well cooled.
A sign of the cross signed with woman wedding ring to the eye to treat a sty.
Cold tea with cotton wool was always on the go when we were chaps.

Did the boil have to be lanced first?
Otherwise there would be an explosion of puss into the bottle.

TheFarrier

Nekarsulm wrote: »

This was a clear liquid, which when poured into a cut or wound began fizzing and created a white scum. Generally believed to be the bacteria being killed.

Hydrogen peroxide.
Still use it to disinfect abscess’ in horses feet

Water John

Hydrogen Peroxide(H2O2) will disinfect water.

Odelay

chooseusername wrote: »

Did the boil have to be lanced first?
Otherwise there would be an explosion of puss into the bottle.

Seen it done with a milk bottle. Don’t know if the bottle was reused after..

Lady Haywire

jill_valentine wrote: »

My grandad would have had you believe poitin cured just about anything. How his animals weren't all in bits with hangovers all the time anyway is beyond me.

Had a calf here a long time ago, one of the first culards that was in AI, can't recall the name of him now but he got such a bad dose of pneumonia he was lying flat out & the vet said he could do nothing more for him. He got a dose of poitín morning & evening & the bugger flew out of it. Called him Lazarus after that.

One I only heard about this summer was the cure of a twisted gut. Apparetly it's a certain knot tied over the animals back & if you pull both ends the string goes back straight again, but if the knot doesn't come out the animal will die.

Cure of the burn too from licking the belly of a mankeeper/newt & saying a few prayers, can't recall which ones now. Grandfather had it & I found one on the bog last summer so I did it for the craic. But you have to lick the belly of every newt you see thereafter to keep the cure......
Tis no wonder I've a great immune system :pac:

amadangomor

My grandfather was an animal quack and apparently had a book with lots of old cure written down. Sadly lost.

One I remember was a cow who was hanging on to the placenta to be given Ivy to get rid of it.

On hives, would get them when younger and father administered Sulphur mixed in with milk. Would have to stir it like mad and drink before the Sulphur settled.

Don't know how safe this is but never got hives after that.