Jno. A. W. Dollar

“ Normally the intestine contains an extremely large number of different microbes, which may prove of service so long as circulation, secretion, and peristalsis continue normal; but as soon as any perturbation occurs, either in the blood supply or in the movement of the bowel, normal secretion is impeded; abnormal organic fermentation commences, producing irritant principles or toxins which at once set up local irritation, or, being absorbed, produce that complex of symptoms which we recognise as enteritis, intoxication of intestinal origin, or even infection. ”

“ Repeated washing out of the bladder with antiseptic solutions has been recommended, but is open to criticism. Such treatment is difficult in male animals, owing to the special formation of the glans penis and urethra, and in female animals it is by no means easy. In all cases of acute cystitis, in fact, the passage of the catheter is painful, and as a metal, gutta-percha or hard rubber sound is used, the mere contact of the tip of the instrument injures the diseased mucous membrane, makes it bleed, and gives rise to danger of autoinoculation, with the possibility of serious results. ”

“ The prognosis is very grave.
Treatment is difficult, and of the numerous methods suggested (laparotomy and direct abdominal taxis, vaginal hysterotomy followed by abdominal taxis, vaginal taxis, etc.) most have fallen into desuetude or are looked on as of so desperate a character as only to be justified in extreme cases. That which most merits attention and has been attended by most uniformly favourable results consists in the rotation of the animal’s whole body. ”

“ In the present state of knowledge concerning the subject the only rational treatment to be recommended is that of confinement and feeding with a nutritious diet. By separating the locoed sheep at once from other sheep the spreading of the habit will be prevented, and the locoed animals may be fattened and thus prevented from becoming a total loss. Although locoed animals may readily be fattened and sold for mutton, their recovery from the loco habit is apparent only, and is due to their inability to obtain the loco weed. ”

“ The blood and muscular tissues are not always virulent, even in cases of generalised tuberculosis.
The virulent organisms usually enter the body through the lymphatic system; invasion proceeds from the point inoculated towards the nearest lymphatic glands and thence along the chain of lymphatic vessels, and the lesions extend, attacking the internal organs more or less rapidly. The body does not necessarily become fatally infected as a consequence of accidental or even experimental infection, for the bacillus may itself be destroyed by the phagocytes, or the lesion may remain purely local. ”

“ Direct contact between healthy and diseased animals and the transport of spores, by combs, brushes, etc., favour contagion. The disease may not only be conveyed from one animal to another of the same species, but from the ox to man, and, with somewhat greater difficulty, from the ox to the horse. Cases of transmission from the ox to the sheep, pig, and dog have also been recorded. ”

“ In the non-acute form the disease progresses slowly, the clinical evidence is extremely obscure, the reddening of the skin, formerly regarded as being invariably present in swine fever, is absent, and beyond the fact that the animal is unthrifty, develops slowly, and perhaps has a constantly relaxed condition of the bowels, it may be asserted that there are no symptoms which could be regarded as absolutely indicative of swine fever, and nothing short of a post-mortem examination will enable even an expert to satisfy himself that the animal was affected with the disease. ”

“ At the onset of the disease the cow manifests some uneasiness; it moves about in a restless manner, stamps, strikes the abdomen with its hind legs, perhaps bellows, grinds the teeth, and may have spasms of groups of muscles or even a general convulsion. After this period, which may be unnoticed, the symptoms of paralysis come on. The cow shows weakness, staggers, and at last falls. As the paralysis advances it stretches on the ground, lying on its side usually with the neck bent to one side so as to bring the nose into the flank or the costal region. ”

“ The return of the foreign body is not conceivable, at all events after it arrives in the pericardial cavity. Up to that time the only disturbance is of a digestive character; no pericarditis exists. But when for example the disturbance is due to long fragments of iron wire which may extend from the reticulum as far as the pericardium, it is clear that the pericarditis is of a kind which cannot be cured without leaving traces. In our opinion, natural recovery is impossible. ”

“ As the liver is so deeply situated, percussion is found to be the method of examination which gives the best results. Beyond the limits of the zone of auscultation, percussion gives above a semi-dull sound, then, proceeding downwards, a dull sound due to the liver, the omasum, and the collection of liquid in the bowel. When this dulness is well defined, clear, broad from above downwards, and extends to or beyond the hypochondrium, it indicates hypertrophy of the liver. By deep palpation of the posterior margin of the hypochondrium the liver can then be sounded, and its excessive size detected. ”

“ The sensitiveness of the entire right side of the abdomen, the special diarrhœa, the cardiac disturbance, and the widely distributed œdema, usually suffice to prevent confusion with the ordinary forms of gastro-enteritis. In sheep the diarrhœa is blackish, sometimes blood-stained, and is accompanied by a sub-icteric or icteric tint of the mucous membranes, of the skin, and of all the tissues. The intensity of coloration affords a guide to the rapidity of development of the disease. ”

“ If set at liberty during the first phase of the disease, the animal’s gait appears only slightly disordered, but when a single vesicle has become well developed in one of the hemispheres (and this is usually the case with oxen) , the symptoms of turn-sick appear as in sheep, and are equally varied. The patients seem impelled to move in a given direction, whatever obstacles may be in their way. It is not at all uncommon to see them thrusting their heads against walls or trees, falling into ponds or ditches, or attempting to force their way through blind alleys between hay or straw stacks. ”

“ When impaction of the rumen assumes a less acute form, moderate doses of purgatives may be given and repeated daily, or twice a day, until the peristaltic action of the rumen is restored and resumes its normal rhythm. In certain cases, however, recovery is only apparent. The food in contact with the walls of the rumen breaks down, and passes away into the abomasum and intestine, while appetite returns. The animals then resume feeding, and some days afterwards show all their former symptoms. Low diet should therefore always be continued for some time. ”

“ When diagnosis is certain, the only treatment that can be recommended consists in performing laparotomy followed by enterotomy. One cannot, however, operate in all cases, nor do all cases offer the same chances of success. If the invagination is situated in the first portion of the small intestine, and is hidden beneath the circle of the hypochondrium, intervention is out of the question, but if it has been detected by rectal exploration in the last portion of the intestine, operation may prove successful. ”

“ Thus generalised tuberculosis, or tuberculosis of the liver or mediastinum, should always be sought for, and the possible existence of such conditions of the liver as echinococcosis, cancer of the bile ducts, tumours, etc., and diseases of the kidneys should be borne in mind. The influence of gestation, which so frequently causes gastric disturbance complicated with albuminuria, should never be overlooked, and in these secondary forms of dyspepsia the determining cause, and not the objective symptoms should receive chief attention. ”

“ Tuberculosis of the genital tract in the female is usually a delayed complication of a preceding visceral tuberculosis, though it may occur as a primary disease, in which case the lesions are localised about the vulva or the vagina. Tuberculosis of the ovaries, Fallopian tubes, and uterus is much more common than that of the two organs just mentioned. It seems certain that the disease may be transmitted directly from the male to the female by copulation, in cases where the male animal has a lesion on the penis. ”

“ CEREBRAL TUMOURS. The brain may be injured and compressed by various tumours of other than parasitic origin. Such tumours may originate in the bones, the meninges or the choroid plexus, or they may simply be due to generalisation of a previously existing tumour. Whilst of very varied origin and nature, all tumours of the cranial cavity have one common effect, viz., to compress the brain. This continuous compression causes progressive atrophy of the brain, but its existence is not always suspected, because the lesions may not give rise to any marked symptoms. ”

“ Schmidt’s theory is that parturient paralysis is caused by the evolution in the mammary gland of a poisonous substance through the over-activity of the epithelial cells of this gland excited by the determination to the udder after birth of large quantities of blood which was supplied to the uterus and the fœtus before birth, but which now goes to the udder because of the natural demand for milk secretion. This poisonous substance being carried in the circulation to various parts of the body, brings on the symptoms which characterise the disease. ”

“ On post-mortem examination of animals which have died of complicated forms of the disease, we find certain lesions peculiar to gaseous indigestion associated with impaction of the rumen.
If death has followed the consumption of root pulps, we see signs of poisoning. As a consequence of prolonged stagnation of food in the rumen, there follows an exaggerated organic fermentation, whose products are absorbed through the stomach or intestine and pass into the circulation. ”

“ Obstruction has also been described as accompanied by loss of appetite, constipation, the passage of black, coated, fœtid and sometimes blood-streaked fæces, symptoms of chronic tympanites with fœtid eructations and sometimes vomiting. These sometimes accompany hydrochloric acid dyspepsia, a form of chronic gastritis, and, from our standpoint, the stagnation of food in the omasum is only secondary. We therefore interpret the facts in quite a different manner, and believe that only by a rational and physiological interpretation of the symptoms observed can one diagnose the condition. ”

“ Verminous disease of the intestine is often accompanied by similar disease of the stomach (gastro-intestinal strongylosis of the sheep, lumbricosis of the calf) , but it also occurs apart from the presence of gastric parasites. Parasites are more frequent in the intestine than in the abomasum, because the alkaline intestinal juices prove a much more favourable medium for their development than do the acid juices of the stomach. ”

“ Inspection of the right flank furnishes no information of value in diseases of the intestine, nor is auscultation of much service beyond enabling one to detect the frequency, diminution, or absence of borborygmus. Palpation alone is really of service. Practised gently and superficially with the tips of the fingers it detects abnormal sensibility in acute cases of enteritis; when with more energy, palpation reveals whether the bowel be full or empty, provided that the muscular resistance be not too marked. ”

“ When the lesions are within the thorax no tangible symptoms can be detected. Death may occur in a few days, when an abscess in the lower cervical region breaks into the anterior mediastinum, or when an abscess in the thoracic region opens into the pleural cavity. In œsophagitis produced by scalding and from swallowing hot or caustic liquids the mucous membrane, and sometimes the muscular tissue, is destroyed, and ulcerations and cicatrices result, or the œsophagus may even be perforated, with rapidly fatal results; even when recovery occurs, cicatrices form and cause very grave contraction. ”

“ When there is only difficulty in swallowing one might à priori suspect traumatic injury of the mucous membrane, with or without the presence of a foreign body. It is also necessary to bear in mind the possibility of difficulty in swallowing being occasioned by reflex irritation without local lesions, originating in enlargement of the retro-pharyngeal lymphatic glands as a consequence of tuberculosis or other disease.
The prognosis is favourable; even without treatment acute pharyngitis usually tends to recovery in eight to twelve days, and rarely becomes complicated. ”

“ In combatting the loco disease the most rational methods include providing salt for the sheep, the immediate removal of locoed sheep from the band, confining them in a fold, and feeding them upon a nutritious diet. They may thus be fed for market, and their pernicious habit will not spread to other sheep. In the case of locoed horses, an apparent recovery takes place if they are confined in a stable and fed on ordinary cultivated forage or allowed to run in pastures where no loco weeds are found. ”

“ The diagnosis of parasitic invasion of the sinus in the sheep is rather difficult, because certain of the symptoms suggest gid. One never finds the signs of true gid, however, and, on the other hand, a certain amount of discharge and attacks of snorting always exist. Finally, gid (cœnurosis) only attacks young animals, whilst the larvæ of œstridæ are commonest in adults.
To confound the disease with verminous bronchitis is still less likely, for although a discharge exists in both cases, this is accompanied by cough in bronchitis, and only by sneezing attacks in infection of the sinuses. ”

“ Death is the inevitable termination, and occurs as a consequence of cardiac and respiratory syncope. It may follow suddenly as the result of a simple forced movement, even when the animal still seems to retain some amount of strength. When the organisms introduced into the pericardium are of marked virulence, complications such as septic pleurisy and pneumonia may be observed, and death soon takes place.
It has been suggested that recovery might follow a return of the foreign body towards the reticulum. ”

“ Whilst the hind limbs are being lifted, the entire burden of the body weight is transmitted to the knees and the tissues covering them; so that, if the ground is rough, the skin may be sufficiently displaced to produce laceration of the subcutaneous connective tissue, serous effusion in the layers of connective tissue, and the immediate production of an hygroma beneath the skin and in front of the synovial sheaths of the extensor tendons. ”