Part 51

This may occur in two conditions--when the cord is cut off too close to the navel and left untied and when it tears off at the navel. (Pl. XIV.) It may also bleed when torn across naturally, if it is sucked by the dam or another calf. In an animal with little plasticity to its blood it will flow under almost any circumstances. When any cord is left it is always safe to tie it, and it is only when it is swollen and may possibly contain a loop of the bowel that there is danger in doing so. By pressing upward any bulky contents such danger is avoided. If torn or cut too close to be tied the bleeding may be checked by applying alum, copperas, or for a fraction of a second the end of an iron rod at a dull-red heat. If much blood has been lost it may be requisite to transfuse several ounces of blood or of a weak, common-salt solution into the open, umbilical vein.

URINE DISCHARGED THROUGH THE NAVEL (PERSISTENT URACHUS).

Before birth the urine passes from the bladder by a special tube through the navel and navel string into the outer water bag (allantois). (Pl. XII.) This closes at birth, and the tube shrinks into a fine cord up to the bladder. It is only in the bull calf that it is liable to remain open, doubtless because of the long, narrow channel through which the urine must otherwise escape. The urethra, too, is sometimes abnormally narrow, or even closed, in the male. If part of the cord remains, it should be tied and the whole allowed to wither up naturally. If the cord has been removed and the tube (urachus) protrudes, discharging the urine, that alone must be tied. If there is nothing pendent the urachus must be seized, covered by the skin, and a curved needle being passed through the skin and above the duct, it may be tied along with this skin. A blister of Spanish flies, causing swelling of the skin, will often close the orifice--so with the hot iron. If the urethra of the male is impervious it can rarely be remedied.

INFLAMMATION OF THE URACHUS (NAVEL URINE DUCT).

This may originate in direct, mechanical injury to the navel in calving, or shortly after, with or without the lodgment of irritant or septic matter on its lacerated or cut end. The mere contact with healthy urine, hitherto harmless, can now be looked on as becoming suddenly irritating. The affection is usually marked by the presence of redness and swelling at the posterior part of the navel and the escape of urine and a few drops of whitish, serous pus from the orifice of the urachus. In those cases in which urine is not discharged a tender swelling, like a thick cord extending upward and backward from the navel into the abdomen, may be identified. The navel enlargement may be considerable, but it is solid, does not gurgle on handling, and can not be done away with by pressing it back into the abdomen, as in a case of hernia.

In cases at first closed the pus may burst out later, coming from the back part of the navel and the swelling extending backward. In other cases whitish pus may pass with the urine by the ordinary channel, showing that it has opened back into the bladder. In other cases the umbilical veins become involved, in which case the swelling extends forward as well as backward. Thus the disease may result in destructive disorders of the liver, lungs, and, above all, of the joints.

The disease may usually be warded off or rendered simple and comparatively harmless by applying antiseptics to the navel string at birth (carbolic acid 1 part, water and glycerin 5 parts each, or wood tar). Later, antiseptics may be freely used (hyposulphite of soda 4 drams, water 1 quart) as an application to the surface and as an injection into the urachus, or even into the bladder if the two still communicate. If they no longer communicate, a stronger injection may be used (tincture of chlorid of iron 60 drops, alcohol 1 ounce). Several weeks will be required for complete recovery.

ABSCESS OF THE NAVEL.

As the result of irritation at calving or by the withered cord, or by licking with the rough tongue of the cow, inflammation may attack the loose connective tissue of the navel to the exclusion of the urachus and veins, and go on to the formation of matter. In this case a firm swelling appears as large as the fist, which softens in the center and may finally burst and discharge. The opening, however, is usually small and may close prematurely, so that abscess after abscess is formed. It is distinguished from hernia by the fact that it can not be returned into the abdomen, and from inflammations of the veins and urachus by the absence of swellings forward and backward along the lines of these canals.

Treatment consists in an early opening of the abscess by a free incision and the injection twice a day of an astringent antiseptic (chlorid of zinc one-half dram, water 1 pint).

INFLAMMATION OF THE NAVEL VEINS (UMBILICAL PHLEBITIS).

In this affection of the navel the inflammation may start directly from mechanical injury, as in either of the two forms just described, but on this are inoculated infective microbes, derived from a retained and putrefying afterbirth, an abortion, a metritis, a fetid discharge from the womb, an unhealthy open sore, a case of erysipelas, from overcrowding, from filthy floor or bedding, or from an offensive accumulation of manure, solid or liquid. As the microbes vary in different cases, given outbreaks will differ materially in their nature. One is erysipelatoid; another purulent infection with the tendency to secondary abscesses in the joints, liver, lungs, etc.; another is from a septic germ and is associated with fetid discharge from the navel and general putrid blood poisoning. In estimating the causes of the disease we must not omit debility of the calf when the mother has been underfed or badly housed or when either she or the fetus has been diseased.

Symptoms.--The symptoms vary. With the chain-form germs (streptococci) the navel becomes intensely red, with a very firm, painful swelling, ending abruptly at the edges in sound skin and extending forward along the umbilical veins. The secondary diseases are circumscribed, black engorgements (infarctions) or abscesses of the liver, lungs, kidneys, bowels, or other internal organs, and sometimes disease of the joints.

With the ordinary pus-producing germs (Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes) the local inflammation in the navel causes a hot, painful swelling, which rapidly advances to the formation of matter (pus), and the raw, exposed surface, at first bright red, becomes dark red or black, soft, friable, and pultaceous. If the pus is white, creamy, and comparatively inoffensive in odor, the secondary formations in internal organs and joints are mainly of the same purulent character (secondary abscesses).

If, on the other hand, the discharge is very offensive and the pus more serous, watery, or bloody, there is reason to suspect the presence of some of the septic bacteria, and the results on the general system are a high fever and softening of the liver and spleen and no tendency to abscesses of the internal organs. Diarrhea is a common symptom, and death ensues early, the blood after death being found unclotted.

Complicated cases are common, and in all alike the umbilical veins usually remain open and can be explored by a probe passed at first upward and then forward toward the liver.

Prevention is sought by applying a lotion of carbolic acid or iodin solution to the navel string at birth, or it may be smeared with common wood tar, which is at once antiseptic and a protective covering against germs. In the absence of either a strong decoction of oak bark may be used.

Local treatment consists in the application of antiseptic to the surface and their injection into the vein. As a lotion carbolic acid, 1 ounce in a quart of strong decoction of oak bark, should be used, or salicylic acid or salol may be sprinkled on the surface. The interior of the vein should be swabbed out with a probe wrapped around with cotton wool and dipped in boracic salicylic acid.

If complications have extended to the liver or other internal organs, or the joints, other treatment will be demanded. In acute cases of general infection an early fatal result is to be expected.

PYEMIC AND SEPTICEMIC INFLAMMATION OF JOINTS IN CALVES (JOINT ILL).

This occurs in young calves within the first month after birth. It persists in the joints when once attacked, and is usually connected with disease of the navel. Rheumatism, on the other hand, rarely occurs in a calf under a month old. It tends to shift from joint to joint, and is independent of any navel disease. Again, it affects the fibrous structures of the joints, and rarely results in the formation of white matter, while the affection before named attacks the structures outside as well as inside the joints and, above all, the ends of the bones, and tends to the destruction and crumbling of their tissue, and even to the formation of open sores, through which the fragile bones are exposed. The microbes from the unhealthy and infected wound in the navel pass into the system through the veins, or lymphatics, and form colonies and local inflammations and abscesses in and around the joints.

Symptoms.--The symptoms are the swelling of one or more joints, which are very hot and tender. The calf is stiff and lame, lies down constantly, and does not care to suck. There is very high fever, accelerated breathing and pulse, and there is swelling and purulent discharge (often fetid) from the navel. There may be added symptoms of disease of the liver, lungs, heart, or bowels, on which we need not here delay. The important point is to determine the condition of the navel in all such cases of diseased and swollen joints beginning in the first month of life, and in all cases of general stiffness, for besides the diseases of the internal organs there may be abscesses formed among the muscles of the trunk, though the joints appear sound. Cases of this kind, if they do not speedily die, tend to become emaciated and perish later in a state of weakness and exhaustion.

Prevention.--Prevention must begin with the purity of the buildings and the navel, as noted in the last article.

Treatment.--Treatment is in the main antiseptic. The slighter forms may be painted daily with tincture of iodin, or an ointment of biniodid of mercury (1 dram) and lard (2 ounces) may be rubbed on the affected joints daily until they are blistered. In case of swellings containing matter, this may be drawn through the nozzle of a hypodermic syringe and the following solution injected: Compound tincture of iodin, 1 dram; distilled (or boiled) water, 2 ounces. Internally the calf may take 5 grains quinin twice daily and 15 grains hyposulphite of soda, or 20 grains salicylate of soda three times a day.

UMBILICAL HERNIA (BREACH AT THE NAVEL).

This may exist at birth from imperfect closure of the muscles around the opening; it may even extend backward for a distance, from the two sides failing to come together. Apart from this, the trouble rarely appears after the calf has been some time on solid feed, as the paunch then extends down to the right immediately over the navel, and thus forms an internal pad, preventing the protrusion of intestine.

Symptoms.--The symptoms of umbilical hernia are a soft swelling at the navel, with contents that usually gurgle on handling, and can be entirely returned into the abdomen by pressure. The diseases of the navel hitherto considered have no gurgling contents and can not be completely returned into the abdomen. The only exception in the case of the hernia is when the walls of the sac have become greatly thickened. These will, of course, remain as a swelling after the bowel has been returned; and when the protruding bowel has contracted permanent adhesion to the sac, it is impossible to return it fully without first severing that connection.

Treatment.--Treatment is not always necessary. A small hernia, like an egg, in a new-born calf, usually recovers of itself as the animal changes its diet to solid feed and has the paunch fully developed as an internal pad.