Part 14

Lemcke, Haubner and Siedamgrotzky attribute the disease to a nervous disorder. Lemcke indeed traces the disorder to a lack of phosphorus, and claims that osteomalacia only supervenes where the rheumatic diathesis is also present.

It may be shortly stated that the disease prevails especially on granitic or sandy soils, or on those which are mainly composed of organic debris (peat, muck). Limestone soils and those which contain any considerable proportion of potash or soda are usually exempt.

Digestive disorder though starting from a different point may tend to the same end. A hyperacidity of the stomach has been observed to coincide with the malady, and by interfering with easy and normal digestion, it may stand in the way of such assimilation as is necessary to vigorous health.

Faulty food operates in a similar manner. The exhausted soils, and their products deficient in alkaline and earthy salts have been already referred to; we must also note the evil effect of fibrous fodders, the main nutritive elements of which have been washed out by intemperate weather after they were cut, the rank aqueous products of wet or swampy soils, the fibrous and siliceous plants (rushes, carex, equisetums, etc.) which grow on poor, wet or soured soils, the innutritious and fermented products of beet sugar factories, and generally the spoilt food which has undergone fermentation.

Yearly breeding and constant milking, by undermining the general health, predisposes so strongly that in many cases the affection is seen in dairy cows, while oxen and young cattle escape. The last period of gestation when the demands for the growing calf are greatest, is the period of especial danger.

Permanent stabling which denies the invigorating influence of sun, exercise and pure air contributes toward the general debility and therefore, in animals that are closely stabled for the winter the spring is especially to be feared, when compulsory inactivity, poor feeding, gestation and milking have combined to reduce the system.

Dry seasons have been noticed to increase the affection manifestly by reducing the supply of food.

Course. The affection is chronic and unless arrested by the supervention of more favorable conditions, may last for a year or more. Spontaneous recovery may set in when turned out to pasturage and open air life, and especially if a rich grain feeding is added. Without change in the conditions however, the tendency is to a fatal result.

Lesions. The victims of the disorder are emaciated, the fatty tissue contains a yellow serum, there is little blood, and that is thin and watery and coagulates loosely, the muscles are pale and flabby, and the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane is the seat of catarrh.

Treatment. To treat rationally and successfully we must adapt the measures to the obvious causes. When the soil has been scourged and exhausted, a change of pasture, and of land used for hay or soiling crops is the first consideration. If these cannot be secured then grain and seeds rich in protein, and alkaline and earthy salts should be added to the ration. Wheat bran, middlings, peas, beans, cotton seed meal, linseed meal, rapecake may be named among available resorts, or in their absence, daily doses of phosphate of lime, and sodium chloride or bicarbonate, or potash salts may be allowed, or even bone dust.

If imperfect digestion is a manifest factor, sodium chloride, or potassium chloride, calcium phosphate, iron and bitters will serve a good end. In hyperacidity, limewater, chalk, or magnesia may be given. If the digestion is torpid, hydrochloric acid with bitters may be resorted to.

Feser and especially Lemcke strongly recommend apomorphia. It is used hypodermically in doses of 2 grains for horse or cow repeated daily for three days.

=Secondary Symptoms in Wool-eating Lambs.= Lambs from two to six weeks old especially such as suck ewes with woolly udders (merino, Cotswold) first swallow the wool inadvertently, and then acquire a liking for the saline matters in the abundant yolk (merino), till finally the accumulating wool balls produce digestive and nervous disorder and a craving for the indulgence. Thus the breed must be considered in estimating the symptoms. For the same reason the wool about the hips or elsewhere soiled with salts of the urine or liquid fæces prove attractive to the victim. The proximity of other wool eaters is another cause which starts others to follow the bad example. The general conditions of debility, exhausted soil, and the absence of alkaline and earthy salts must be borne in mind. So too with prolonged confinement indoors in winter, the absence of invigorating exercise and the restriction of the animals (dams) to food which is deficient in saline matters.

Beyond the mere eating of the wool and the destruction of fleeces, the lambs do not usually suffer seriously. But if the consumption of wool is excessive the accumulating balls of the size of marbles in the stomach, and the blocking of the pylorus and small intestine, may give rise to intermittent constipations and diarrhœas, deranged digestion, muco-enteritis, mucous covered stools, loss of condition, emaciation and retarded development.

Treatment consists first in the securing of a more healthy regimen. This is but one of the evils of the close winter confinement of an animal preëminently adapted to freedom and exercise. Turning out in a wide range, especially if pasture is available, is a prime consideration. The separation from the flock, of the first wool eaters, will check the propagation of the vice by imitation. Food that is defective in one or more constituents must be supplemented by that which will correct the deficiency. Salt, potassic salts and above all phosphate of lime or bone meal will sometimes benefit. May recommends the separation of the lambs from the ewes except when nursing, three times a day. Finally Lemcke claims for apomorphia the same curative effect as in other animals. The dose is 2 grains, subcutem, as in the cow and may be repeated three days in succession.

LACERATION OF THE PHARYNX.

Trauma of pharynx from objects swallowed; from whip or other instrument in choking; lesions. Symptoms: swelling; rapidly extending; dysphagia; salivation; retching; dyspnœa; roaring; asphyxia. Treatment: as for pharyngitis; open pouch, suture laceration; use antiseptics; liquid diet.

Laceration of the velum palati has been already referred to, and the remaining walls of the pharynx sometimes suffer in the same way and from identical causes. Pins, needles, and other sharp pointed bodies taken with the food sometimes perforate the walls and determine an advancing ulceration which furnishes a way for their escape externally in the region of the throat. In other cases a rigid staff, a whip, or even a probang introduced to overcome choking, is forced through the walls of the pharynx forming a pouch for the accumulation and septic fermentation of ingesta, and extensive ulcerative and gangrenous lesions.

Lesions and Symptoms. These depend mainly on the extent of the laceration. If there is a mere abrasion, superficial laceration or prick of the mucosa, it determines a prompt inflammation, with exudation which covers or closes the wound and a speedy healing may ensue. When, however, the whole thickness of the mucosa has been extensively lacerated and a pouch has been formed beneath it, it becomes filled with decomposing mucus and ingesta, and the resulting septic products determine ulceration, abscess, or gangrene. The result is too often a general and fatal septic infection.

In the milder forms there are only the common indications of a moderate pharyngitis. In the more severe form, the throat swells at first on the lacerated side and later all around. This swelling soon fills the intermaxillary space and extends over the face and the entire head. From the first, deglutition is extremely difficult or impossible, liquids are returned through the nose and saliva flows abundantly from the mouth. Retching is not uncommon and saliva mixed with alimentary matters is discharged by the nose (solipeds) or mouth (other animals). The swelling of throat and head has a doughy, œdematous feeling, it is very tender, and soon causes rattling, wheezing breathing, roaring, dyspnœa and asphyxia.

Necropsy shows the general œdematous exudate, the laceration of the pharyngeal walls, and the collection of debris and pus in the lacerated cavity. The pus may have extended between the muscles following the course of the gullet and trachea as far as the chest. Extensive patches of necrosis may also be shown. Treatment. In the slighter cases the ordinary treatment for catarrhal pharyngitis is demanded. In the more severe the lesions are so redoubtable and their progress so rapid that a fatal result is virtually inevitable. As a desperate resort the septic pouch may be opened from without, its contents removed, the pharyngeal wound sutured if possible, and a thorough irrigation with antiseptics (acetate of aluminium solution) employed at frequent intervals to check if possible the septic process. The animal should be fed with well boiled milk or other liquid which will not add to the fermentation, and this may be given through a stomach tube, or by the rectum when deglutition is impossible.

PARALYSIS OF THE PHARYNX

From nervous bulbar lesion, or toxic from the pathogenic bacteria. Transient or permanent and fatal. Symptoms: dysphagia: liquids expelled by nose or enter lungs. Inhalation pneumonia. Facial palsy. Roaring, laryngeal thrill. Atrophy. Gangrene. Treatment: remove cause: combat bulbar hyperæmia and cephalic congestion: cold: derivatives, electricity: blisters: antiseptics.

This has been described as a rare affection, yet it is often a marked symptom of cerebro spinal meningitis, and has been observed in infectious pneumonia, and influenza of the horse (Cadeac, Palat) as well as in rabies, and traumatic injuries of the brain.

The existence of the condition usually implies disease of the bulb at the roots of the vagus and glossopharyngeal nerves, or swellings affecting these nerves or the sympathetic along its course. The morbid condition may be transient in which case a speedy recovery may follow, or it may be permanent and end fatally.

Symptoms. Swallowing is impossible and the animal refuses food and drink or if the latter is forced on him it is rejected by the nose or mouth when the head is lowered or still worse, it enters the larynx and descends into the lungs. The larynx innervated by the same trunks is usually involved and the alimentary solids and liquids determine gangrenous bronchitis and pneumonia, with labored breathing, fœtid breath and violent dyspnœa. In other cases the facial nerve is involved, the nostrils and lips are flaccid on one or both sides, and the eyelids and ears may droop. There may be snuffling breathing from the closure of the alæ nasi, or roaring from the approximation of the arytenoids and vocal cords. If the affection is unilateral the difficulty of breathing is greatly diminished and even deglutition may be effected with some effort. There is usually, however, the obvious unilateral paralysis of the face, and especially of the larynx, with the distinct thrill, during inspiration, conveyed to the finger placed on the larynx.

Complications in the form of gangrene and atrophy of parts supplied by the same nerves, or those adjoining the pharynx, have been recognized in different cases.

Treatment. This must depend on the obvious cause of the affection. If due to an infectious disease the first attention must be given to that. If due to tumors or abscesses pressing on the nerves they may be removed. If there is bulbar hyperæmia or effusion attention must be devoted to derivation and other means of combating that. Cephalic congestion and heat may be met by cold applications. Derivation toward the bowels may be secured by eserine, pilocarpin or physostigmine administered subcutem. Reabsorption of exudate may be sought by pilocarpin, or diuretics—the latter administered by the rectum. Electricity in weak current may be tried when the acute febrile symptoms have moderated, accompanied by hypodermic injection of strychnia (2 grs.). Frictions around the throat with essential oils or even a cantharides blister may be used to advantage. Antiseptic washes may be injected into the mouth,—vinegar, boric acid, borax, sulphite of soda. Finally the animal must be nourished by rich gruels and soups given by the rectum, or in the smaller animals by the stomach tube.