One farmer recounted this tale from his childhood.
"My mother had set a big tub of soap into the barnyard to cool before pouring into the soap barrel. She forgot about it all day. When she went out to milk the cows, she found one of the animals bloated to near bursting. The soap tub was licked clean. The doctor came (there were no veterinarians), made a slit in her side, and the soap came pouring out. The cow lived all right, but we never cooled soap in the barnyard again."