Part 4

Treatment does not differ materially from that adopted in other animals. Cooling, astringent, antiseptic lotions, honey and vinegar, and in case of spongy or eroded mucosa, tincture of myrrh daily or oftener. Soft feeding, gruels, pulped roots, or well kept ensilage may be used, and clean, cool water should be constantly within reach. In case of overloaded stomach or indigestion a laxative followed by bitter tonics will be in order.

CATARRHAL STOMATITIS OF BIRDS. PIP.

Causes: hurried breathing; local irritants; exposure; filthy roost. Symptoms: gaping; roupy cry; epithelial pellicle on tongue, larnyx. or angle of the bill. Treatment: pick off pellicle; smear it often with glycerized antiseptic. Remove accessory and exciting causes.

This form of inflammation of the tongue of birds is characterized by the increased production and desiccation of the epithelium so that it takes on a horny appearance. According to Cadeac it may accompany various inflammatory affections of the air passages, which cause hurried breathing with persistently open bill, and thus entail evaporation of the moisture. More commonly it has its primary cause in local inflammation of the surface in connection with damp, cold, draughty hen-roosts, and above all, the accumulation of decomposing manure and the exhalation of impure gas. Even in such cases the abnormal breathing with the bill open is an accessory cause of the affection.

Symptoms. The breathing with open bill should lead to examination of the tongue, but above all if at intervals the bird with a sudden jerk of the head emits a loud shrill, raucous sound, which reminds one of the cough of croup. The tip and sides of the tongue are found to be the seat of a hard, dry, and closely adherent epithelial pellicle, which suggests a false membrane.

Treatment. The common recourse is to pick or scrape off the indurated epithelial mass, leaving a raw, bleeding surface exposed. This is then treated with a solution of borax, or chlorate of potash. Cadeac deprecates this treatment as useless and dangerous, and advises the disintegration of the dry epithelial mass with a needle taking care not to prick nor scratch the subjacent sensitive tissue, and to wash with a 5 per cent. solution of chlorate of potash. A still more humane and effective method is to make a solution of hyposulphite of soda in glycerine and brush over the affected surface at frequent intervals. This may be conveniently applied through the drinking water.

In case of implication of the lower air passages or lungs, the treatment must be directed to them, and soft, warm, sloppy food and the inhalation of water vapor will prove of great advantage. Secure clean, sweet, dry pens, pure air, and sunshine. (See pseudo membranous enteritis.)

LOCAL STOMATITIS.

Division of circumscribed buccal inflammations: palatitis; gnathitis gingivitis; glossitis. Causes: injuries; acrid; venomous or caustic agents; diseased teeth; foreign bodies in gland ducts; malformed jaws; infections, etc. Symptoms: salivation; difficult prehension and mastication; dropping half masticated morsels; distinctive indications of different caustics; abrasion; abscess; slough; infective disease lesions. Treatment: for palatitis, massage by hard corn ears, scarification, laxatives; for gnathitis, care for teeth and ducts, astringent washes, eliminate mercury; for glossitis, remove cause, use antidote to venom, or to chemical irritant, astringent, antiseptic lotions or electuaries, evacuate abscess, soft, cool diet, elevate the head, suspend the tongue.

Localized inflammations in the buccal cavity are named according to the portion of the lining membrane attacked;—palatitis if seated in the roof of the mouth; gnathitis if restricted to the cheeks; gingivitis if to the gums; and glossitis if to the tongue.

=Palatitis. Lampas. Congestion of the hard palate behind the upper front teeth.= This is usually seen in young horses during the period of shedding the teeth and is caused by the irritation and vascularity consequent on teething. The red and tender membrane projects beyond the level of the wearing surfaces of the upper incisors, and may materially interfere with the taking in of food. A common practice in such cases is to feed unshelled Indian corn, the nibbling of which seems to improve the circulation in the periodontal membrane and by sympathy in the adjacent palate. Superficial incisions with the lancet or knife will usually relieve, and may be followed by mild astringent lotions if necessary. If apparently associated with costiveness or gastric or intestinal irritation a dose of physic will be demanded. Nothing can excuse the inhuman and useless practice of burning the parts with a hot iron.

=Gnathitis. Inflammation of the Cheeks.= Usually resulting as a distinct affection from irregular or overgrown teeth, or the entrance of vegetable spikes into the gland ducts, these cause local swelling and tenderness, slow imperfect mastication, dropping of food half chewed, accumulation of food between the cheeks and teeth, thickening, induration and sloughing of the mucous membrane with excessive fœtor.

Treatment. Consists in correcting the state of the teeth and ducts and using one of the washes recommended for glossitis.

=Gingivitis. Inflammation of the gums.= This is either connected with the eruption of the teeth in young animals and to be corrected by lancing the swollen gums and giving attention to the diet and bowels; or it is due to scissor-teeth or to the wear of the teeth down to the gums in old horses; or it is dependent on diseased teeth, or mercurial poisoning, under which subjects it will be more conveniently considered. Barley awns or other irritants must be extracted.

=Glossitis, Inflammation of the Tongue.= Causes. Mostly the result of violence with bits, ropes, etc., with the teeth, or with the hand in giving medicine; of scalding food, of acrid plants in the food: of irritant drugs (ammonia, turpentine, croton, lye, etc.), or of sharp, pointed bodies (needles, pins, thorns, barley and other barbs, etc.) which perforate the organ. In exceptional cases leech and snake bites are met with especially in cattle, owing to the tongue being exposed when taking in food. Local infections and those of the specific forms, determine and maintain glossitis.

Symptoms: Free flow of saliva, difficulty in taking in food or drinking, and red, swollen, tender state of the tongue, which in bad cases hangs from between the lips. The mucous membrane may be white, (from muriatic acid, alkalies, etc.), black, (from oil of vitriol, lunar caustic, etc.), yellow, (from nitric acid, etc.), or of other colors according to the nature of the irritant. It may be raised in blisters, may present red, angry sores where the epithelium has dropped off; may become firm and indurated from excessive exudation; may swell and fluctuate at a given point from the formation of an abscess; or may become gangrenous in part and drop off. Breathing is difficult and noisy from pressure on the soft palate. There is usually little fever and death is rare unless there is general septic infection.

Treatment will depend on the cause of injury. In all cases seek for foreign bodies imbedded in the organ and remove them. If snake bites are observed use ammonia or potassium permanganate locally and generally, or cholesterin as a local application. If the irritation has resulted from mineral acids, wash out with calcined magnesia lime water, or bicarbonate of soda or potash. If from alkalies (lye) use weak vinegar. If from caustic salts employ white of egg, vegetable-gluten, boiled linseed, slippery elm, or other compound of albumen or sheathing agent. In ordinary cases use cold astringent lotions, such as vinegar and water; vinegar and honey; borax, boric or carbolic acid, chlorate of potash, alum or tannin and honey. Poultices applied around the throat and beneath the lower jaw are often of great value. The bowels may be relieved if necessary by injections, as it is usually difficult to give anything by the mouth. If ulcers form touch them daily with a stick of lunar caustic or with a fine brush dipped in a solution of ten grains of that agent in an ounce of distilled water. For sloughs use a lotion of permanganate of potash, one drachm to one pint of water, or one of carbolic acid, one part to fifty of water. If an abscess forms give a free exit to the pus with the lancet, and afterward support the system by soft nourishing diet, and use disinfectants locally. As in all cases of stomatitis, the food must be cold gruels or mashes, or finely sliced roots will often be relished.

The mechanical expedient of supporting the tongue in a bag is essential in all bad cases, as if allowed to hang pendulous from the mouth inflammation and swelling are dangerously aggravated.

APHTHOUS STOMATITIS. FOLLICULAR STOMATITIS.

Causes: in horse, ox, dog; rough, fibrous food, blistering ointments, bacteria. Symptoms: general stomatitis, and special; papules with grayish centres and red areolæ, vesiculation, ulceration. Treatment: Astringent, antiseptic, derivative, tonic, stimulant.

This is a rare affection in ruminants where the thickness of the epithelial covering appears to be a barrier to infection or injury, while it is common in the more delicate and sensitive buccal mucosa of the horse and dog. In the horse the ingestion of irritant plants with the food and the penetration of vegetable barbs into the mucous follicles may be charged with causing the disease, while in both horse and dog the licking of blistering ointments and the local action of fungi and bacteria are factors in different cases.

Symptoms. With the ordinary symptoms of stomatitis, there appear minute firm, whitish, circular elevations representing the openings of the inflamed mucous or salivary follicles, having a reddish areola, and grayish white vesicular centre. They may amount to a line or more in diameter, and on bursting leave red cores or ulcers. The whole mouth may be affected or the disease may be confined to the lips, gums or tongue.

Treatment. Beside the general astringent washes, this affection is greatly benefited by the local use of antiseptics, as sulphite or hyposulphite of soda, 2 drachms in a quart of water. Borax, permanganate of potash, carbolic acid or other antiseptic in suitable solution may be substituted. Saline laxatives are often useful to remove sources of irritation in stomach and intestines, and iron salts (chloride or nitrate) in full and frequently repeated doses may be given internally. Ulcers may be cauterized and soft food and pure water given from an elevated manger.

ULCERATIVE STOMATITIS. GANGRENOUS STOMATITIS.

Causes: specific disease poisons; debility; rachitis; cancer; chronic suppuration; irritation—mechanical, chemical, thermic, venomous, etc. Symptoms: difficult, imperfect prehension and mastication, salivation, bleeding, swollen, puffy epithelium, blisters, extending erosions, deep or spreading. Duration. Treatment: correct constitutional fault, tonics, soft, digestible food, antiseptics, mild caustics.

This is characterized by the formation of necrotic spots and patches of the buccal epithelium, with desquamation, and the formation of more or less rodent ulcers of the sub-epithelial mucosa. Like other ulcerative processes it is usually due to microbic invasion, and in this way it may supervene on other and simpler forms of stomatitis. It also varies in its manifestations and nature according to the genus of animal, and the specific microbe present.

ULCERATIVE STOMATITIS IN SOLIPEDS.

Causes. Apart from the ulcerations and erosions of specific diseases (glanders, horsepox, pustulous stomatitis, aphthous fever, etc.,) this condition is especially liable to appear in anæmic and debilitated subjects (Cauvet), as in rachitis (Friedberger and Fröhner), cancer (Cadeac) chronic internal abscess (Cadeac), etc. As an exciting cause and as a means of furnishing an infection atrium for the microbes of ulceration all conditions of simple lesion of the mucous membrane—mechanical, chemical, thermic, venomous, etc., are operative. Dieckerhoff has described it in connection with diphtheritic rhinitis, Friedberger with a nasal and conjunctival catarrh, Zeilinger and Kohler with aphthous fever, Mobius and Hackbarth with trefoil poisoning.