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Farm related "cures"

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    #32
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭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.


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    #33
    Jjameson
    Registered Users Posts: 2,745 ✭✭✭Jjameson


    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!


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    #34
    Dinzee Conlee
    Registered Users Posts: 2,140 ✭✭✭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'


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    #35
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,146 ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #36
    Large bottle small glass
    Registered Users Posts: 1,721 ✭✭✭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


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    #37
    Lime Tree Farm
    Registered Users Posts: 2,641 ✭✭✭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.


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    #38
    Mossie1975
    Registered Users Posts: 196 ✭✭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.


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    #39
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭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..


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    #40
    Jjameson
    Registered Users Posts: 2,745 ✭✭✭Jjameson


    Mossie1975 wrote: »
    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.

    Blood of black rooster! (I wrote cock but went back on it€

    I was cured by a gentleman who helped an awful lot of people.


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    #41
    Odelay
    Registered Users Posts: 3,796 ✭✭✭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....


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    #42
    Jjameson
    Registered Users Posts: 2,745 ✭✭✭Jjameson


    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!


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    #43
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,139 ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #44
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,146 ✭✭✭✭Water John


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


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    #45
    Nekarsulm
    Registered Users Posts: 11,191 ✭✭✭✭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)


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    #46
    Jjameson
    Registered Users Posts: 2,745 ✭✭✭Jjameson


    Say my name wrote: »
    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.

    It varies from region to region..
    I think around here the mutual hardship of farming in marl meant neighbours had to get along!


    My grandmother had the prayer from her father to stop blood which in turn passed to my uncle.
    Calls come sporadically still.

    My mother’s grandmother used to make a bottle based on nettles and some herbs for high blood pressure. It was the only effective remedy at the time and people came from some distance for it when in bother.
    She used to make a bottle for intestinal worms/tonic as well as did my great grandfather on my dads side.
    I know of a lady who makes this still and it is very good.


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    #47
    gooseygander
    Registered Users Posts: 317 ✭✭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.


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    #48
    jill_valentine
    Registered Users Posts: 7,090 ✭✭✭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:


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    #49
    chooseusername
    Registered Users Posts: 3,610 ✭✭✭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 .


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    #50
    Odelay
    Registered Users Posts: 3,796 ✭✭✭Odelay


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


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    #51
    chooseusername
    Registered Users Posts: 3,610 ✭✭✭chooseusername


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


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    #52
    Jjameson
    Registered Users Posts: 2,745 ✭✭✭Jjameson


    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.


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    #53
    chooseusername
    Registered Users Posts: 3,610 ✭✭✭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.


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    #54
    Jjameson
    Registered Users Posts: 2,745 ✭✭✭Jjameson


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

    No it would help bring it to the surface if it was ready. Not some thing I ever seen but they were a lot more common years ago.


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    #55
    TheFarrier
    Registered Users Posts: 607 ✭✭✭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


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    #56
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,146 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    Hydrogen Peroxide(H2O2) will disinfect water.


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    #57
    Odelay
    Registered Users Posts: 3,796 ✭✭✭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..


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    #58
    Lady Haywire
    Registered Users Posts: 5,181 ✭✭✭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:


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    #59
    amadangomor
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,148 ✭✭✭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.


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    #60
    amadangomor
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,148 ✭✭✭amadangomor


    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.

    Interesting the use of St. Bridgets cross as St. Bridget was probaly a Christian representation of a Celtic goddess.

    These traditions probably go back to pagan times.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid


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    #61
    squinn2912
    Registered Users Posts: 4,694 ✭✭✭squinn2912


    Jjameson wrote: »
    In my fathers youth when cattle were going out of the house in may, the yearlings would be “hobbled”, bulls were castrated and a piece of copper wire pushed through the dewlap and well tied to keep away blackleg diseases. A v cut in each ones ear as the identity mark, every neighbour done a different cut.

    The tradition was so old the reason or origin was forgotten but a local folklorist told me that way back they believed the fairies feared the metal wire and let the animal be. The cutting of the ear was dually letting of a little bit of blood for piseog as well as identity.
    This would of been in the 50’s.

    The turn of the a triangular cut sod and sign of the cross, marked by the trod of a lame hoof for “fouls“

    Bluestone, Epsom salts, parrafin oil,
    Porter, poitin , lard, all things most farmers had at their disposal
    however my great grandfather had a insteps knowledge of plants. Herbs roots and all kinds for man and beast but were all made irrelevant by massive advances in conventional treatments.

    Yep we still use the turning of the sod for a foul here.


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