Animal dissection

“ SYMPTOMS: The mange mite attacks the skin and produces a thickness of
its outer surface, covering it with crusts and scabs, with a consequent
loss of hair. Intense itching accompanies the disease, and affected
horses continually bite and rub themselves.
Psoroptic Mange commences at the root of the tail, or at the roots of
the mane on the neck or withers, and gradually spreads over the back, up
to the head, over the sides, and finally affects the entire body. In
cases of long standing the skin becomes ulcerated, the animal becomes
greatly weakened, emaciated and finally dies. ”

“ Light pink to light purplish-red lesions are characteristic of acute nonfatal SE, whereas angry dark purplish-red lesions usually precede death of the animal. In acute fatal disease, extensive dark purplish discoloration often occurs over the belly, ears, tail, posterior aspect of the thighs, and jowls. ”

“ Method of infection.—All evidence now available seems to indicate that surra is strictly a wound disease, namely, that the parasite may enter the body only through a wound of some kind. Apparently by far the most common method is through wounds produced by biting flies whose mouth parts are moist with the infected blood of some animal bitten by the same flies immediately before biting the healthy animal. Crows may also transmit the infection by pecking at sores on a diseased animal, soiling their beaks with blood, and transferring this infected blood to a healthy animal. ”

“ After the inflammation is decidedly allayed, by copious bleeding, small doses of aloes may be given, and frequent injections of [Pg 156] warm soap and water, which should be omitted the moment the feces become soft and approaching to the fluid state. Blistering the sides and brisket, to be often repeated if otherwise ineffectual, must be resorted to. Convalescence should be followed with sedative medicines, and during all the severe stages of the disease, withhold all food, except light gruels after protracted abstinence. As health returns, put the animal out to grass. ”

“ Lambs have convulsive fits, terminated by death. Rams and wethers, butt their heads against the ground, palings, banks and one another; running full tilt, with great violence and frequency, so as to tear the skin from their foreheads. They usually die in from 3 to 6 days.
Treatment.—A.A., should be given every day, to all the flock, for a few days, then once a week for several weeks. If an animal develops the symptoms it should be killed at once, since there is no known cure. However few animals or persons bitten by supposedly mad dogs ever develop the disease. ”

“ A fold of the skin is picked up with the fingers and the needle is quickly introduced, care being taken not to prick or scratch the muscular tissue, as this causes some pain and makes the animal restless. In order to avoid abscess formation at the point of injection, the skin should be cleansed with a disinfectant and the syringe and needle sterilized before using. ”

“ The oncospheres of T. saginata develop further only in the ox; those of T. marginata (of the dog) in the pig, goat, and sheep; those of T. serrata (of the dog) in hares and rabbits; those of Dipylidium caninum (of the dog and cat) in parasitic insects of the dog and cat, etc. It is not unusual that young animals only appear to be capable of infection, while older animals of the same species are not so. ”

“ If neglected, these symptoms become aggravated; the disease spreads rapidly over the entire surface of the skin, and if allowed to proceed on its course unchecked, will before long produce deep-seated ulcers and malignant sores, until the whole carcass of the affected animal becomes a mass of corruption. ”

“ The presence of the microbe is not enough to cause the disease in the horse in continuous work, nor in that which is kept in the stable all the time, nor even in the horse that has worked steadily and then stood idle for a day, until he again goes to work. One animal or a few only out of a stable, are attacked, and there is no such active extension from animal to animal in the vicinity that characterizes the plagues proper. ”

“ Even with an abundant emigration of the leucocytes into the inflamed or invaded tissue, a number, greater or less, are usually destroyed by the bacterial poisons and pass into degeneration or liquefaction, as in the formation of pus, and yet the attacking germ may be overcome, destroyed and devoured by the rapidly increasing survivors. In general terms the migration of the cells is in inverse ratio to the susceptibility of the animal to the microbe or the disease which it causes. ”

“ At first the parasites invade the upper lip and the tissues about the nostrils, sometimes, but more rarely, the eyes and ears. They cause the formation of vesicular papules, accompanied by violent itching. The animal, in rubbing itself, excoriates these papules, which discharge a fluid and soon become covered with yellowish-brown crusts.
The disease afterwards invades the face, forehead, jaws, and entire head. The skin becomes wrinkled and the brownish crusts thicker and more abundant. These are fissured and bleeding, and they give the face the appearance of one vast sore. ”

“ However, the presence of congestion or inflammation of the lungs, intestines, kidneys, inner surface of chest or abdominal cavity and numerous yellowish or pearl-like growths scattered throughout the organs should be viewed seriously. Carcasses and viscera having such abnormalities should be examined by a graduate veterinarian and his opinion obtained as to the wholesomeness of the meat. You should check with a cooperating veterinarian before slaughtering the animal to be certain he will be available if you should seek his advice. ”

“ Lice multiply more rapidly and cause greater loss during the winter months than they do in the summer, when the animals are not housed and the opportunity for infection from the surroundings is not so great. The sucking louse (Fig. 64) is the most injurious and irritating. The irritation and loss of blood that the animal may suffer when badly infested by this parasite may result in marked unthriftiness. Young and old animals that are not well cared for suffer most. The biting louse may bite through the superficial layer of the skin, and cause the animal to bite and rub the part. ”

“ A portion of the larvæ gain access to the nasal cavities directly through the trachea, and thus herbivorous mammals certainly become directly infected. In most cases the infection of dogs, wolves and foxes, that is, of carnivorous mammals, takes place through consuming the bodies of mammals, or parts of them, such as the liver and lungs, which are affected with the second larval form; in any case most larvæ obtain access first to the stomach of their host, from here they make an active migration through the œsophagus to the oral and nasal cavities, in which they settle. ”

“ To hasten the suppuration of the glands a poultice of hot bran or flaxseed may be applied to that region, and as soon as softening can be detected within, puncture the gland containing abscess with a clean knife blade and allow the escape of the collection of pus. During the course of the disease the animal should not be worked and care should be taken that it be not exposed to conditions likely to produce a cold. ”

“ The horse should recover from the languor and debility occasioned by the first dose, before he is harassed by a second. Eight or ten tolerably copious motions, will be perfectly sufficient to answer every good purpose, although the groom may not be satisfied unless double the quantity are procured. The consequence of too strong purgation will be, that weakness will hang about the animal for several days or weeks, and inflammation will often ensue from the over-irritation of the intestinal canal. ”

“ All the glands in the body have now become involved or poisoned, and death must follow in the course of ten or fifteen days, as the constitution of the animal may not be in a condition to combat the disease.
If this disease be annoyed by inoculation from the farcy heads of farcied animals into suppurating sores on other animals, it will be very slow in its progress, especially if it attack the other in a region remote from the lymphatic. If in a saddle-gall, it will make sores very difficult to heal. ”

“ The modes of transmission are essentially the same as in the animal. In the great majority of cases there has been the direct contact of the infecting discharges with a wound of the human victim. Handling the diseased horse with injured hands, giving him a bolus and scratching the hand on the teeth, examining the nose, sleeping under a blanket which has been used on a glandered horse, removing the dressings of such an animal or performing a post mortem examination on him are familiar examples. ”

“ In inoculation of the bovine animal for the production of lymph for vaccination, the skin of the abdomen from the symphysis pubis to the umbilicus is shaved, or in other cases the skin between the thighs, or in still others the skin on each side over the loins, and the virus applied in 50 to 200 points, by preference scraped until liquid oozes, but without any escape of blood. In a warm room the eruption matures in four or five days, its form taking on an appearance approximating that seen on the hairy skin of the horse. ”

“ It is the saliva of a rabid animal received into a wound, or on an abraded surface. In horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and the human being, it is caused by inoculation alone; but, according to some persons, it is produced spontaneously in other animals.
I will suppose that a wound by a rabid dog is inflicted. The virus is deposited on or near its surface, and there it remains for a certain indefinite period of time. The wound generally heals up kindly; in fact, it differs in no respect from a similar wound inflicted by the teeth of an animal in perfect health. ”

“ The bull, cow or heifer present the usual signs of genital orgasm. Appetite is lost or depraved and rumination arrested. Pharyngeal spasms or paralysis is not uncommon, and signs of colic with frequent defecation may be seen. Violent paroxysms are easily roused by the sight of a small animal and especially of a dog. In these attacks the animal may break his horns or teeth or otherwise injure himself. Sometimes the infection wound becomes irritable, itchy and red or even abraded and raw by licking. ”

“ After the ulcer looks clean, 140simply apply the Veterinary Oil, over which a cloth must be kept wrapped around to prevent dirt lodging in the wound and causing fresh irritation. These may be renewed, if needful, until entire recovery.
Give also the I.I., each night, a dose of twenty drops.
Mange Mange is a disease caused by parasites which live on the skin of the animal. These parasites are of three kinds: 1. Burrowing mites or Sarcoptes. 2. Sucking mites or Dermatodectes. 3. Scale eating mites or Symbiotes. ”

“ Swelling of the lower limbs is at once a cause and an effect of the disease.
Symptoms. At the outset the animal may be seen to move rather stiffly, and the skin is found to be hot, thickened and if white reddened. Soon a close observation may detect the eruption of vesicles, or simply an oozing of a yellowish or bloody serum which concretes around the hairs forming an encrusted covering 481for the part, holding the hairs erect and bristly, and even lifting them out of their follicles. ”

“ He found that fifteen larvæ just hatched placed on sand in a glass vessel with a guinea-pig gave rise to characteristic tumours on the ventral surface of the body and the anus. Other experiments failed. It thus seems that infection takes place from larvæ which have hatched apart from the host. Infection of man is regarded as accidental; no positive infection of horses, oxen, sheep or pigs is known—it is rare in goats, and poultry never seem to be attacked. The result of experiments tends to show that the apparent choice of a host is mainly a question of body temperature. ”

“ In case of failure to secure the most perfect guarantee with the purchased animal it would be worth the purchaser’s while to seclude it from his valuable herd, and not to breed it with the other animals of his herd until it has been proved to be entirely free from infection. If bought for a sire it should be subjected to a course of disinfection of the sheath and penis: if for a dam and unimpregnated, antiseptic irrigation of the vagina may be made daily for a week, and the external parts, hips and tail daily washed with antiseptics. ”

“ In this manner, for instance, the larvæ (Cysticercus fasciolaris) found in mice and rats reach the intestine of cats; those of the hare and rabbit (C. pisiformis) reach the intestine of dogs; those of the pig (C. cellulosæ) are introduced into man; those of insects are swallowed by insectivorous birds; those of crustaceans are ingested by ducks and other water fowl; perhaps, also, the infection of herbivorous mammals is caused by their accidentally swallowing smaller creatures infected by larvæ. ”

“ Maculæ, erythema, papules, nodules, blisters, blebs, pustules, boils, carbuncles, scales, crusts, sitfasts, horny growths, erosions, abrasions, chaps, fissures, ulcers, excrescences, cicatrices, neuroses, morbid secretions, changes in glands, hairs, in derma. Scleroderma. Elephantiasis. Vegetable and animal parasites.
In cutaneous diseases in man and animals the actual lesions are largely of the same nature, yet in the animal covered with hair, fur or feathers, and with the cuticle deeply pigmented, the diagnosis of the different affections becomes much more difficult. ”