Part 10

Since the days of Hippocrates it has been universally acknowledged that moist seasons and localities are less salubrious than dry ones. As already observed moisture in a cold atmosphere intensifies its effect. In a hot, close atmosphere it strongly conduces to putrefaction in dead organic matter, and the air becomes loaded as a consequence with noxious gases, and in its lower strata with bacteria in a state of active growth. This condition is most intense in close, unventilated stables, and manifestly operates in both predisposing to and exciting those diseases of the chest and other parts, so frequent in such places. Winds raise and carry such germs, but also sooner rob them of virulence. (See Zymotic Diseases). Susceptible, young animals, newly housed, usually suffer the most severely from these injurious conditions. Often in their case frequent, extreme and sudden changes, and great atmospheric impurity, are combined with a diet to which they have been hitherto altogether unaccustomed. In young horses there are superadded the exertions—too often extreme—connected with training or work. There are the heats and chills, the soaking perspiration and the frigid winds and rain, the general exhaustion, but particularly the overwork of the respiratory organs, each of itself calculated to superinduce disease. Percivall justly remarks that among young horses, newly stabled and put to work, the prevailing diseases are “catarrh, sore throat, strangles, bronchitis, pneumonia and pleurisy.” His tables of the diseases attacking the horses of his own regiment (1st Life Guards), are so instructive that I here reproduce them:

A TABLE (COMPILED FROM EXTRACTS FROM A “REGISTER OF SICK HORSES” LIMITED TO A GIVEN PERIOD) SHOWING THE COMPARATIVE AGES AT WHICH HORSES APPEAR MOST DISPOSED TO CERTAIN ORGANIC DISEASES.

─────────────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬──────── │ │ │ │ No. 10 │ │ │ │ │ No. │ Years │ │ │ │ │above 5 │ and │ │ │ No. of │ No. in │ Years │Upwards │ No. 20 │ │Patients│ Their │ and │ but │ Years │ │Under 5 │ 5th │ Under │ under │ and │ │ Years. │ Year. │ 10. │ 20. │Upwards.│ Total. ─────────────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼──────── Disease of the │ │ │ │ │ │ lungs │ 170│ 50│ 20│ 50│ 10│ 300 Disease of the │ │ │ │ │ │ bowels │ 10│ 20│ 40│ 70│ 20│ 160 Disease of the │ │ │ │ │ │ brain │ 4│ 2│ 5│ 14│ 2│ 27 Disease of the │ │ │ │ │ │ eyes │ 30│ 10│ 70│ 35│ 5│ 150 ─────────────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────

It will be seen that nearly one-half of the sicknesses, occurring among the horses of the regiment, were chest diseases, and that nearly three-fourths of these were in animals under five years old, or in those newly purchased from the country.

The subjoined table shows the relative prevalence of disease in different months of the year, deduced from the Register above referred to:

───────────────────────┬───────────┬───────────┬───────────┬─────────── │Disease of │Disease of │Disease of │Disease of │the Lungs. │the Bowels.│the Brain. │ the Eyes. ───────────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼───────────┼─────────── January │ 20│ 12│ 1│ 10 February │ 25│ 8│ ...│ 9 March │ 23│ 11│ 1│ 7 April │ 19│ 10│ 6│ 10 May │ 13│ 3│ 3│ 9 June │ 14│ 16│ 1│ 13 July │ 13│ 13│ 3│ 19 August │ 11│ 23│ 3│ 17 September │ 11│ 5│ 10│ 19 October │ 24│ 3│ 3│ 9 November │ 19│ 10│ 3│ 9 December │ 16│ 9│ 1│ 4 ───────────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼───────────┼─────────── Totals │ 208│ 123│ 35│ 135 ───────────────────────┴───────────┴───────────┴───────────┴───────────

In this table the extraordinary prevalence of lung diseases in spring and autumn is very noticeable. There only remains to notice the number of deaths occurring in the same regiment from pulmonary and other diseases.

Deaths from pulmonary disease 77 Deaths from other diseases (Glanders and Farcy and accidents 57 excepted)

It is thus seen that though individually less dangerous than many affections of the abdomen, brain, etc., yet by reason of their greater frequency chest diseases induce the greatest mortality among this class of stock.

In treating of the diseases of this class of organs they will be sub-divided according as they affect the nose, the throat, the neck, and the chest.

DISEASES OF THE NOSE.

EPISTAXIS. BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE.

Epistaxis as a primary and secondary affection. Causes—mechanical, over-exertion, blood pressure, new formations, diseased mucosa, disease of the nasal venous plexus, disease of heart or lungs, in blood diseases, in hæmorrhagic constitution, in bacteridian diseases of the respiratory organs. Symptoms. Often one nostril, blood bright, red, clotted, sneezing, (not retching, acid, nor cough). Treatment. Mechanical, astringent, cold, plugging in solipedes and other animals: hæmostatics.

As a primary affection this occurs more frequently in the horse than in any other domestic animal, though as a symptomatic disease it is common in all farm animals.

Causes. The most common causes are mechanical injury of the Schneiderian membrane, violent congestion of this membrane during extraordinary excitement or exertions, as in coughing, in a closely contested race, in a trying hunt, in drawing heavy loads, especially if uphill and with a tight collar. It may coincide with congestion of the brain acting to some extent as a vicarious discharge, or with the formation of new structures as polypus, or cancer, in which, from the looseness and friability of their texture, the vessels readily give way. The softened membrane is equally liable to laceration or rupture during the progress of inflammation and particularly when fibrinous (croupous) exudations are being detached. In all these cases animals of a strong, vigorous constitution and with a full or plethoric habit are most liable to be attacked. Various congestions of the mucosa in diseases of the heart or lungs are additional causes. Disease or injury of the cervical branch of the sympathetic nerve, and varicosity of the pituitary venous plexus must be accepted as occasional causes.

Epistaxis is also met with in states of general weakness and with deteriorated blood, as in anæmia, in the course of various fevers and in those hemorrhagic constitutions in which the altered blood appears to find an easy passage through the debilitated or ruptured coats of the bloodvessels. Thus it is seen in the so-called purpura hemorrhagica in the horse, in small-pox in sheep, in anthrax, and in swine plague and hog cholera. Hering records the case of a number of pigs suffering from a scorbutic affection and which bled profusely from the nose. In bleeders (hæmophilia) and in leucocythæmia it is liable to appear.

The ulcerations of the mucous membrane occurring in glanders and chronic catarrh have proved exciting causes of the hemorrhage. Lastly the intense heats of summer and prolonged exposure to the direct rays of the sun induce a general relaxation and a determination of blood to the surface which rouses to activity the latent tendency.

Symptoms. The bleeding, usually from one nostril only, falls in a succession of drops, (rarely in a stream), collects in clots around the nostril, and bespatters surrounding objects as it is expelled forcibly in sneezing. It is usually of a bright crimson hue or, in fevers or poisoned conditions of the blood, of a dark or blackish color. It is distinguished from pulmonary hemorrhage by the absence of cough and of a frothy condition, and from bleeding from the stomach by the absence of the blackened clots and acid odor which indicate the presence of the gastric juice.

It is usually to be further distinguished from these in all animals, save solipedes, by the absence of blood in the mouth.

Treatment. Nasal hemorrhage often stops spontaneously, but if the discharge is profuse or long continued, and especially in weak or anæmic conditions it must be treated energetically. Care should be taken, however, to ascertain first, whether it is not vicarious of some other and more dangerous condition like cerebral congestion.

The head should be placed in an elevated position by tying it up to the rack, and cold water or ice kept applied over the head and neck. Matico powder may be blown into the affected nostril during inspiration, or a solution of alum (4 drachms to 1 pint of water) or other astringent may be thrown in by means of a syringe. A tablespoonful of peroxide of hydrogen thrown into the nose with an ordinary syringe will give immediate relief. (Gillette.)

Plugging the affected nostril with a pellet of tow covered with matico, tannin, tincture of chloride of iron (1:10 or 20) or other astringent may be employed when other means fail. By means of a cord attached to the plug it may be withdrawn after all danger is past. In solipedes, if both nostrils must be plugged, wrap the tow around two elastic caoutchouc tubes and introduce these, or in the absence of these perform tracheotomy.

Any tendency to recurrence may be met by the internal administration of gallic acid (horse and cow ½–1 drachm), acetate of lead (horse and cow ½–1 drachm) or, in anæmic conditions, tincture of the perchloride of iron (horse and cow ½ oz.) in water.

RHINITIS. CORYZA. NASAL CATARRH. COLD IN THE HEAD.

Coryza in the horse: Causes, wet, cold after perspiration, damp climate, stable, soil, new buildings, hygroscopic building materials, youth, age, poverty, nervous sympathy, local irritants, iodine, specific disease poisons. Symptoms, dry congestion, watery discharge, muco-purulent discharge, eyes involved, chill, fever, circulatory and breathing disturbance, defecation, urine, glandular swelling. Inflammation of the sinuses, the severe effects. Duration in slight cases, in severe, in sinus complication. Treatment, hygienic, nursing, dietary, steam, sulphur dioxide, febrifuges, insufflation, electricity, solvent, antiseptic, stimulant.

Under this head will be considered simple inflammation of the nasal mucous membrane. This disease might be considered as a mild febrile affection with the local manifestation in the nose, but it is more convenient to treat of it here as a malady of the nasal chambers.

CORYZA IN THE HORSE.

The chief causes are exposure to wet and cold and especially when the subject is exhausted and the skin relaxed and covered with perspiration. In these circumstances a piercing wind, a cold drizzling rain, or a draught in the stable is particularly dangerous. Sudden alternations of temperature and especially a change to a warm stable when the general effect is aggravated by the impurity of the atmosphere and the irritant emanations from dung and urine. Damp climates are more injurious than those that are clear, dry, and bracing, and so are equally damp stables whether the moisture is due to the nature of the soil, such as a cold impervious and undrained clay, or of the building which, from its newness, may retain a dangerous amount of moisture in the plaster, or because of the hygroscopic properties of the building materials which draw moisture from the surrounding soil. It mainly attacks young horses after they have passed out of the hands of the breeder or dealer, and have been placed in new conditions of life alike as regards feeding, stabling and work. Old and ill-conditioned animals are more susceptible than the strong and vigorous, and the changes of the coat in spring and autumn prove strong predisposing causes. Nervous causes are potent in causing engorgement of the erectile tissue covering the turbinated bones, and local irritants, like septic dust, lime, ipecacuanha, pollen of certain plants, smoke, and irritating fogs may precipitate it. Iodine in large doses produces temporary catarrh. The weakness of the mucosa from a previous attack predisposes to a second. Occasionally the disease sweeps over a country, assuming the form of an epizootic when it may perhaps be preferably considered as a catarrhal fever, strangles or mild type of influenza, which see.