Part 97

Treatment.--Ordinary light cases require but little treatment beyond diet, warm washes, moistened hay, warm coverings, and protection from exposure to cold. The latter is urgently called for, as lung complications, severe bronchitis, and laryngitis are often the results of neglect of this precaution. If the fever is excessive, the horse may receive small quantities of Glauber's salt (handful three times a day) as a laxative, bicarbonate of soda or niter in one-dram doses every few hours, and small doses of antimony, iodid of potash, aconite, or quinin. Steaming the head with the vapor of warm water poured over a bucket of bran and hay, in which belladonna leaves or tar have been placed, will allay the inflammation of the mucous membranes and greatly ease the cough.

The swelling of the glands should be promptly treated by flaxseed poultices and bathing with warm water, and as soon as there is any evidence of the formation of matter it should be opened. Prompt action in this will often save serious complications. Blisters and irritating liniments should not be applied to the throat. When lung complications show themselves the horse should have mustard applied to the belly and to the sides of the chest. When convalescence begins great care must be taken not to expose the animal to cold, which may bring on relapses, and while exercise is of great advantage it must not be turned into work until the animal has entirely regained its strength.

Bacterial vaccines are now being extensively used for the prevention and treatment of this disease. They are prepared from the specific germ of the disease and frequently exert a very beneficial influence. A serum is also being prepared from horses, which is injected with gradually increasing doses of this germ. This serum possesses considerable curative value and may prove especially valuable in cases in which the animals have failed to respond to other forms of treatment, or when valuable animals are affected with the disease.

PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA.

Synonyms.--Anasarca; petechial fever; morbus maculosus.

Definition.--This disease is a septic bacterial intoxication, acute and infectious in character, and is manifested by edematous swellings of the subcutaneous connective tissue, and hemorrhages on the mucous membrane and in the internal organs.

A previous attack of influenza is a common predisposing cause of this disease, which appears most frequently a few weeks after convalescence is established. It occurs more frequently in those animals which have made a rapid convalescence and are apparently perfectly well than it does in those which have made a slower recovery.

Anasarca commences by symptoms which are excessively variable. The local lesions may be confined to a small portion of the animal's body and the constitutional phenomena be nil. The appearance and gravity of the local lesions may be so unlike, from difference of location, that they seem to belong to a separate disease, and complications may completely mask the original trouble.

In the simplest form the first symptom noticed is a swelling, or several swellings, occurring on the surface of the body--on the forearm, the leg, the under surface of the belly, or the side of the head. The tumefaction is at first the size of a hen's egg; not hot, little sensitive, and distinctly circumscribed by a marked line from the surrounding healthy tissue. These tumors gradually extend until they coalesce, and in a few hours we have swelling of the legs, legs and belly, or the head, to an enormous size; they have always the characteristic constricted border, which looks as if it had been tied with a cord. In the nostrils are found small reddish spots, or petechiae, which gradually assume a brownish and frequently a black color. Examination of the mouth will frequently reveal similar lesions on the surface of the tongue, along the lingual gutter, and on the fraenum. If the external swelling has been on the head, the petechiae of the mucous membranes are liable to be more numerous and to coalesce into patches of larger size than when the dropsy is confined to the legs. The animal may be rendered stiff by the swelling of the legs, or be annoyed by an awkward swollen head, which at times may be so enormous as to resemble that of a hippopotamus rather than that of a horse. During this period the temperature remains normal; the pulse, if altered at all, is only a little weaker; the respiration is only hurried if the swelling of the head infringes on the caliber of the nostrils. The appetite remains normal. The animal is attentive to all that is going on, and, except for the swelling, apparently in perfect health.

In from two to four days, in severe cases, the tissues can no longer resist the pressure of the exuded fluid. Over the surface of the skin which covers the dropsy we find a slight serous sweating, which loosens the epidermis and dries so as to simulate the eruption of some cutaneous disease. If this is excessive we may see irritated spots which are suppurating. In the nasal fossae the hemorrhagic spots have acted as irritants, and, inviting an increased amount of blood to the Schneiderian membrane, produce a coryza or even a catarrh. We may now find some enlargement and peripheral edema of the lymphatic glands, which are fed from the affected part. The thermometer indicates a slight rise in the body temperature, while the pulse and respiration are somewhat accelerated. The appetite usually remains good. In the course of a few days the temperature may have reached 102 deg., 103 deg., or 104 deg. F.

Fever is established, not an essential or specific fever in any way, but a simple secondary fever produced by the dead material from the surface or superficial suppuration, and by the oxidization and absorption of the colloid mass contained in the tissues. The skin may suppurate or slough more or less over the areas of greatest tension or where it is irritated by blows or pressure. The great swelling about the head may by closure of the nostrils interfere seriously with breathing. Internal edema may occur in the throat, lungs, or intestines. Septicemia, or blood poisoning, may result from anasarca.

Terminations.--The simple form of the disease most frequently terminates favorably on the eighth or tenth day by resolution or absorption of the effusion, with usually a profuse diuresis, and with or without diarrhea. The appetite remains good or is at times capricious.

Death may occur from mechanical asphyxia, produced by closure of the nostrils or closure of the glottis. Metastasis to the lungs is almost invariably fatal, causing death by asphyxia, Metastasis to the intestines may cause death from pain, enteritis, or hemorrhage.

Excessive suppuration, lymphangitis, and gangrene are causes of a fatal termination by exhaustion. Mortal exhaustion is again produced by inability to swallow in cases of excessive swelling of the head.

Peritonitis may arise secondary to the enteric edema, or by perforation of the stomach or intestines by a gangrenous spot. Septicemia terminates fatally with its usual train of symptoms.

Alterations.--The essential alterations of anasarca are exceedingly simple; the capillaries are dilated, the lymphatic spaces between the fibers of the connective tissue are filled with serum, and the coagulable portion of the blood presents a yellowish or citrine mass, jellylike in consistency, which has stretched out the tissue like the meshes of a sponge. Where the effusion has occurred between the muscles, as in the head, these are found dissected and separated from each other like those of a hog's head by the masses of fat. The surface of the skin is desquamated and frequently denuded of the hair. Frequently there are traces of suppuration and of ulceration. The mucous membrane of the nose is found studded with small, hemorrhagic spots, sometimes red, more frequently brown or black, often coalesced with each other in irregular-sized patches and surrounded by a reddish zone, the product of irritation. If edema of the intestines has occurred, the membrane is found four or five times its normal thickness, reddish in color, with hemorrhages on the free surface. Edema of the lungs leaves these organs distended. The secondary alterations vary according to the complications. There are frequently the lesions of asphyxia; externally we find ulcers, abscesses, and gangrenous spots and the deep ulcers resulting from the latter. The lymphatic cords and glands are found with all the lesions of lymphangitis. Again are found the traces of excessive emaciation, or the lesions of septicemia. Except from the complications the blood is not altered in anasarca.

Diagnosis.--The diagnosis of anasarca must principally be made from farcy or glanders. In anasarca the swelling is nonsensitive, while sensitive in the acute swelling of farcy. The nodes of farcy are distinct and hard and never circumscribed, as in the other disease. The eruption of glanders on the mucous membranes is nodular, hard, and pelletlike. The redness disappears on pressure. In case of excessive swelling of the head in anasarca, there may occur an extensive sero-fibrinous exudation from the mucous membranes of the nose, poured out as a semifluid mass or as a cast of the nasal fossae, never having the appearance or typical oily character which it has in glanders. The inflammation of the lymphatic cords and glands in anasarca does not produce the indurated character which is found in farcy.

Prognosis.--While anasarca is not an excessively fatal disease, the prognosis must always be guarded. The majority of cases run a simple course and terminate favorably at the end of 8 or 10 days, or possibly, after one to two relapses, requiring several weeks for complete recovery. Effusion into the head renders the prognosis much more grave from the possible danger of mechanical asphyxia. Threatened mechanical asphyxia is especially dangerous on account of the risk of blood poisoning after an operation of tracheotomy. Edema of the viscera is a most serious complication. The prognosis is based on the complications, their extent, and their individual gravity, existing, as they do here, in an already debilitated subject.

Treatment.--The treatment of anasarca may be as variable as are the lesions. The indications are at once shown by the alterations and mechanism of the disease, which we have just studied.

Hygiene comes into play as the most important factor. Oats, oat-and-hay tea, milk, eggs--anything which the stomach or rectum can be coaxed to take care of--must be employed to give the nutriment, which is the only thing that will permanently strengthen the tissues; they must be strengthened in order to keep the capillaries at their proper caliber.

Laxatives, diaphoretics, and diuretics must be used to stimulate the emunctories so that they may carry off the large amount of the products of decomposition which result from the stagnated effusions of anasarca. Of these the sulphate of soda in small, repeated doses, the nitrate of potash and bicarbonate of soda in small quantity, or the chlorate of potash in single large doses will be found useful. Williams cites the chlorate of potash as an antiputrid. Stimulants and astringents are directly indicated. Spirits of turpentine serves the double purpose of a cardiac stimulant and a powerful, warm diuretic, for the kidneys in this disease will stand a wonderful amount of work. Camphor can be used with advantage. Coffee and tea are two of the diffusible stimulants which are too much neglected in veterinary medicine; both are valuable adjuncts in treatment of anasarca, as they are during convalescence at the end of any grave disease which has tended to render the patient anemic. Dilute sulphuric and hydrochloric acids are, perhaps, the best examples of a combination of stimulant, astringent, and tonic which can be employed. The simple astringents of mineral origin, sulphates of iron, copper, etc., are useful as digestive tonics; I doubt whether they have any constitutional effect. The vegetable astringents, tannic acid, etc., have not proved efficacious in my hands. Iodid of potash in small doses serves the triple purpose of digestive tonic, denutritive for inflammation, and diuretic. Among the newer forms of treatment are diluted Lugol's solution injected into the trachea, anti-streptococcus serum and colloidal silver solution injected into the circulation. No one but a qualified veterinarian would be competent to apply these remedies.

Externally.--Sponging the swollen parts, especially the head, when the swelling occurs there, is most useful. The bath should be at an extreme of temperature--either ice cold to constrict the tissues or hot water to act as an emollient and to favor circulation. Vinegar may be added as an astringent. When we have excessively denuded surfaces, suppuration, or open wounds, disinfectants should be added to the wash.

In cases of excessive swelling, especially of the head, mechanical relief may be required. Even in country practice, punctures of the part should be made with the hot iron, as no other disease so predisposes to septic contamination. When mechanical asphyxia is threatened tracheotomy may be demanded. With the first evidence of dyspnea, not due to closing of the nostrils or glottis, or with the first pawing which gives rise to a suspicion of colic, a mustard plaster should be applied over the whole belly and chest. The sinapism will draw the current of the circulation to the exterior, the metastasis to the lungs or intestines is prevented, and the enfeebled nervous system is stimulated to renewed vigor by the peripheral irritation. The organs are encouraged by it to renewed functional activity; the local inflammation produced by it favors absorption of the exudation. The objection to the use of blisters is their more severe action and the danger of mortification. Septicemia, when occurring as a complication, requires the ordinary treatment for the putrid diseases, with little hope of a good result.

After recovery the animal regains its ordinary health, and there is no predisposition to a return of the disease.

HORSEPOX, OR EQUINE VARIOLA.

Synonyms.--Variola equina; pustular grease; phlyctenold herpes.

Definition.--Horsepox is a specific, infectious fever of the horse, attended by an eruption of pustules, or pocks, over any part of the skin or on the mucous membranes lining the various cavities in the body, but chiefly, and often exclusively, upon the pasterns and fetlocks. The eruption may commence upon the lips, or about the nostrils or eyes.

This disease was described by the early Roman agricultural writers and by the veterinarians of the eighteenth century. It received its first important notice from the great Jenner, who confounded it with grease in horses, since animals with this disease are very liable to have the eruption of variola appear on the fetlocks. He saw these cases transmit the disease to cattle in the byres and to the stablemen and milkmaids who attended them, and furnish the latter with immunity from smallpox, which led to the discovery of vaccination. Horsepox is also frequently mistaken for the exanthemata attending some forms of venereal disease in horses.