Devshankarbhai Pandya, (25), farms 15 hectares land in his village Timana, Bhavnagar district, Gujarat. He lives in a joint family with his brothers and mother. Devshankarbhai is an enthusiastic person and has always been keen to learn new things. His grandfather, Revashankar Mahadevji Pandya, was a renowned herbal healer and used to treat animals as well. Devshankarbhai, as a child, used to accompany him on his journeys, and due to his interest and inquisitiveness, learnt various treatments from his grand father.
Devshankarbhai remembers with pride that a number of cases especially of removing the dead foetus from the animal’s womb had come to him which the qualified veterinary doctor was not able to cure and which he was able to deal with successfully.
But he also relates an experience in which he failed - “Once I was called by a farmer from Bhadrawal. The farmer’s cow had a dead foetus inside and doctors had said that this case can not be solved and you should forget about this cow. I went there and cut the foetus and took it out in the morning. But unfortunately, the cow died within half an hour.” He continues, “Later I came to know that, the foetus died on the previous evening, and by the time, I operated, septic had infected the mother badly.” Devshankarbhai is also a good surgeon and operates minor cases such as of anuria.
Some of the practices used by Devshankarbhai
Anuria
This problem mostly occurs in bullocks. It happens because of the small calculi in the urine pipe, as the bullock’s urine pipe has a distinct sigmoid shape. Devshankarbhai claims that he knows a special trick to identify the location where the calculus is present. According to him, he punctures the place and makes the urine flow faster from the pipe and later he administers an aqueous solution of ash (cow dung cake’s ash) when the severity is less.
Anoestrus
Moth bean seeds (Vigna aconitifolia) (3 kg) are soaked in water for 24 hours. Next day, the water is discarded and the seeds if possible are tied up in a piece of cloth so that they will sprout within a day or two. Such sprouted moth bean seeds should be administered to the animal with the problem of anoestrus. If the animal is young and weighs less then only 2 kg moth beans should be taken. This treatment should be done for two days and animal will come into heat. This treatment has no side effects.
Bleeding in udder
Gundi (Cordia myxa) bark (100 g) and soil of the termite’s burrow (Rafda) (100 g) mixed in water should be administered twice daily during lactation to stop bleeding in udder.
Retention of Placenta
When the problem of retention of placenta occurs, he prepares decoction of the whole plant of chanothi (Abrus precatorius). Chanothi (Abrus precatorius (250 g) and water (1 L) are taken and boiled until it’s reduced to 0.5 L. This decoction is filtered and drenched to the animal. This practice expels out the placenta within an hour of administration.
Wound
Equal quantity of Awal (Cassia auriculata) and Amba Haldar (Curcuma amada) should be taken and boiled with sufficient amount of water. Once it’s properly boiled, it is kept for a while till it reaches normal temperature and then it is smashed to pulp. This pulp should be applied on the wound and covered with Gundi (Cordia myxa) bark. He claims that this treatment heals the wound very fast (time may vary depending upon the wound size).
