Part 53

Prevention consists in putting a stop to the supply of the altered food or, if it must be given, in giving it in small quantities only with abundance of water or fresh succulent aliment. In the case of grains or marcs the fermentation may be checked by adding ¼ per cent. of common salt and packing the material firmly in a close box or silo.

In ergotism, succulent food, water ad libitum, stimulants, poultices, fomentations or wet bandages, a warm building and pure air are all important. Usually ergot and smut can be safely fed in relatively large amount with a liberal ration of potatoes, turnips, beets, green food or ensilage.

Treatment does not differ materially from that advised for the horse. Antiferments including potassium iodide, and saline purgatives stand at the head of the list. Stimulants may be demanded to rouse the torpid bowels and nervous system and unless contraindicated by gastro-intestinal inflammation oil of turpentine offers itself as at once stimulant, antiseptic and eliminating. Injections and counter-irritants are of use. Then cold (ice, snow, water) to the head, and the confinement of the patient so that he cannot injure himself or others are not to be neglected.

CRYPTOGAMIC POISONING IN SWINE.

Spoiled foods. Toxic rye. Botulism. Brine poisoning. Flesh of overdriven (leucomaines). Symptoms: from mouldy bread, brain disorder, gastric, urinary, hæmatic: from brine, restlessness, convulsions, eructations, vomiting, weakness, paresis. Lesions: congestion of stomach, bowels and mesenteric glands; with brine, heart and skin charged with black blood, congestion of brain, kidneys and bladder. Petechiæ. Treatment: empty stomach, emetics, purgatives, potassium iodide, antiferments, sedatives, cold to head, enemata, counter-irritants. Prevention.

Causes. Spoiled foods of all kinds such as mouldy bread, musty meal, spoiled grains of all kinds, or rotten potatoes, or apples are common causes of poisoning. In specimens of toxic rye Woronin found four fungi:—=fusarium roseum=, =gilberella Sanbinetti=, =belminthosporium=, and =cladosporium herbarium=. Prilleux and Delacroix have obtained a fifth, =endoconidium temulentum=. Rye so affected produced nervous disorder in swine, dogs, birds and even in man. Pigs often die from botulism, being fed flesh in a more or less advanced stage of putrefaction. Old meat brine is also a source of toxin and ptomaine poisoning since its toxic property increases with age which is not the case with a mere solution of common salt. Yet this is very deadly to the pig, a half a pint often proving fatal. Kuhnert records that the flesh of an overdriven horse proved fatal to the pigs that ate it.

Symptoms. From mouldy bread the pig becomes dull, stupid, sluggish, stiff, stilty and staggering in his gait, and usually costive. There are usually signs of colicy pains, inappetence, frothy lips, champing of the jaws, yawning, retching and vomiting. The mucosæ become yellow and the urine red and albuminous.

The symptoms caused by old brine are more violent. There are dullness, prostration, and inclination to lie, but at short intervals the animal gets up and wanders round, moving stiffly, is seized by tremors and finally convulsions, in which he falls to the ground, dashes his head from side to side, champs his teeth, rolls his eyes and froths at the mouth. There are usually eructations and often vomiting which does not, however, give the desired relief. The animal becomes rapidly weaker and though unable to rise has frequent paroxysms of trembling and other nervous symptoms.

Lesions. With mouldy bread the congestion of the gastric and intestinal mucosa, and of the mesenteric glands are marked features. With brine there is in addition the heart gorged with black, tarry blood, the skin and subcutaneous connective tissue shows a similar dark congestion, also the brain and its membranes and the kidneys and bladder. Petechiæ are abundant on the serous membranes and other parts of the body.

Treatment. Evacuate the stomach by tickling the fauces, giving tepid drinks, or ipecacuan. Follow with purgative of sulphate of soda and diuretics especially potassium iodide. Potassium bromide, sodium salicylate or salol may be given to calm nervous excitement and check fermentation. Degoix recommends chloral hydrate, enemata, cold to the head, and counter-irritants and in very prostrate conditions stimulants may be employed.

The most important measure, however, is the cutting off of the supply of the poison and the administration of a wholesome diet. Medicinal treatment is too often unsatisfactory and will seldom pay for the trouble; prevention is the one rational and economical measure.

CRYPTOGAMIC POISONING IN CARNIVORA.

Botulism. Racial immunity. Acquired immunity. Gastric secretions, protective. Bacteria in septic beef, old brine, stale fish, privy air. Symptoms: sudden onset, colic, nausea, retching, vomiting, septic vomit, fever, tender abdomen, bloody, fœtid, mucous diarrhœa, prostration, death in three to twenty-four hours. Lesions: of gastro-enteritis, ingesta fœtid, congestions and petechiæ of other organs. Treatment: emetic, laxative, diuretics, potassium iodide, antiseptics, demulcents, stimulants.

Causes. What is called botulism in man is not uncommon in carnivora. Eating carcasses of animals that have died of disease, of poisoning, etc., in a raw condition and too often in an advanced state of putrefaction, they are liable not only to infection by the pathogenic or poisonous microbes, but also to direct poisoning by the ptomaines and toxins. There are however certain protective conditions. Accustomed as this class of animals is to the consumption of such food, they have by selective evolution acquired an insusceptibility to many such poisons which would prove deadly to the herbivora. Again the mature dog or cat has already been subjected to many of these poisons and having survived them has acquired an immunity which renders it comparatively safe for the future. The antiseptic power of the gastric secretion of the dog may be easily shown, by letting him bolt a moderate piece of putrid meat, and killing him ten or fifteen minutes later when the mass will be found in the stomach without odor of decomposition. He succumbs to the poison either when the quantity ingested is too large, or when the digestion is from any cause deranged and the gastric secretion impaired. Anthrax flesh may produce pharyngeal or intestinal anthrax in the dog. In the animal with temporarily impaired immunity the more virulent septicæmias may prove infecting. From putrid beef the following pathogenic bacteria have been isolated: 1. Gärtner and Basenau have independently isolated =bacillus bovis morbificans= which forms clear colonies on the surface of peptonized gelatine, and brownish ones beneath the surface, and coagulates milk in 24 hours. This is short with rounded ends, very motile, non-liquefying, and capable of surviving the freezing temperature. Its toxins are not destroyed by boiling. It causes enteritis, or, subcutem, debility, somnolence, and stupor. This bacillus was pathogenic to mice, rats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, goats and calves but had little effect on dogs or cats. 2. The =bacillus of Poels= which produces paralysis. 3. The =bacillus of Gatky= which performs very rapid gyratory movements only, and is not found in the muscles.

=Old Brine= is as poisonous for the dog as for pigs. Six to nine ounces proved fatal, (Reynal).

=Stale Fish= has been known to prove poisonous in the same way.

Three dogs that were made to breathe the air over a foul privy were seized with vomiting, fever and diarrhœa.

Symptoms. These usually develop six or more hours after a feed. The earlier symptoms are those of digestive disorder. There is colic, nausea, retching, vomiting of septic or bilious matter, ardent thirst, dry mouth, furred tongue, redness of the buccal mucosa, and tenderness of the abdomen. Diarrhœa sets in early and may become bloody, fœtid and dysenteric. There is usually much prostration and debility so that apart from his compulsory movements under the colics the animal remains most of the time curled up. Fever is usually slight but the temperature may rise to 105° F. Death may take place in 3 hours, or may be deferred 24 hours or longer.

Lesions. There is usually gastro-enteritis, the mucosa being congested, red œdematous, with petechiæ, and congestion and swelling of Peyer’s patches, the solitary glands, the mesenteric glands, the liver and kidneys. The contents of the bowel are brownish red, and an effusion into the peritoneum is common. The spleen is often engorged and enlarged. Congestions of the lungs and brain are common.

Treatment. Evacuate the stomach by ipecacuan, etc., and the bowels by a purgative. Next seek elimination of the toxins by potassium iodide and other diuretics. Antiseptics (calomel, salol, naphthalin) to counteract the further formation of toxins, and demulcents by draught and enema are indicated. In cases of great prostration, heart and nerve stimulants may be useful.

DIARRHŒA, SCOURING.

Definition. Concomitant of other affections. Causes: Congestion, effusion from small and large intestine, irritants in bowels, or blood, chill or other shock acting as reflex, cold drink and violent exercise, aqueous food, cooked, pulped; irritants, feculent concretions, parasites, fermentation products, diseased teeth, jaws or salivary glands, drink after grain, gastric hepatic or pancreatic disease, spoiled food, purgative agents in food, fever products, purgative waters, rains, dews, damp stalls, etc., fear, “washy” horses, nervous animals, root diet, œstrum, hepatic torpor, equine susceptibility. Symptoms: with root diet, with much or little bile, slight cases do not affect system, in severe cases, tympany, pawing, straining, fœtor, in infective diseases; complications, laminitis, enteritis, pneumonia. Treatment: remove or expel cause, demulcents, laxatives, anodynes, antiseptics; chronic cases, iron, bitters, antiseptics, astringents, dietetics, rest.

Definition. A frequent discharge of fluid or semi-fluid evacuations from the bowels without excessive griping or painful straining.

This is a common condition attending many diseases, rather than a specific disease of itself yet it is such a prominent feature of these various affections, and one so very characteristic that it seems well to give it a special place, even at the risk of repeating much of what must necessarily appear elsewhere.

The immediate cause of diarrhœa is a congestion of the intestinal mucous membrane and a profuse secretion into the intestinal canal. When such congestion occurs in the small intestine alone, it may be counterbalanced by increased absorption in the large, so that the secretion must be excessive to produce liquid alvine discharges. When on the other hand it occurs in the large intestine or in both large and small, the product is likely to escape in the liquid form.

In its turn the congestion of the intestinal mucosa may result from irritants in the bowels, from the presence in the blood of irritant agents which being secreted stimulate the intestinal glands to excessive secretion, and from reflex nervous action, starting from a distant point as in chilling or irritation of the skin or other organ.

Among direct irritants of the intestinal mucosa may be named a full drink of cold water especially if the horse is trotted or galloped for twenty minutes immediately after;—soft, juicy, rapidly grown green food, to which the animal is unaccustomed, as the first grasses of spring;—cooked or pulped food or ensilage in hard worked animals;—many irritant and acid plants;—accumulations of hard feculent masses in the intestines;—irritation caused by intestinal worms especially the blood-suckers;—the presence in the intestines of undigested matters, and resulting fermentations, the result of diseased teeth and jaws and imperfect mastication, of disease of the salivary glands or ducts and imperfect insalivation, of a drink of water after a grain feed, washing a part out of the stomach in an undigested condition, of disease of the stomach, liver or pancreas interfering with their proper functions; unwholesome and fermenting food like spoiled grain, or fodder, or decomposed potatoes, apples, turnips, pumpkins, carrots, cabbages, etc.;—stagnant and putrid water;—tumors, ulcers, volvulus, invaginations, adhesions and other serious lesions of the bowels may act in the same way.

As examples of the secretion of irritant matters from the blood may be mentioned almost all the different agents used as purgatives, and purgative agents accidentally taken in, these being as a rule absorbed and later secreted again on the intestinal surface, increasing the secretions in their passage:—also the morbid products of fevers which irritate the intestinal mucosa and glands as they are thrown out by them (rinderpest, lung plague, Southern cattle fever):—the purgative waters on certain “scouring lands” act in a similar way. Under the head of reflex action may be named the chills from exposure to cold rains, night dews, damp stalls or beds, and damp, hot buildings, seasons and localities. Under the head of nervous causes must be included strong emotions as excitement, fear, etc., which lead to increase of both secretion and peristalsis. Some horses are very subject to this and are known as “washy”. These have usually a slim abdomen and long loin, and scour whenever they are put to hard work. Other nervous animals with good conformation, but which fret under saddle or in harness will scour under specially severe work or under excitement. This is especially common in young colts while being “broken”, and will occasionally show in mares which are in heat. Cattle that have been on a specially succulent diet (turnips, beets, ensilage, grass) are liable to scour profusely if driven far or fast, and stock men seek to obviate this by feeding some dry bran, meal, and above all fresh dry brewer’s grains just before starting. Cows running at large when in heat are very liable to scour. An exclusive diet of turnips or beets will keep cattle in a chronic condition of mild diarrhœa, though not enough to interfere with rapid improvement in flesh. Chronic diseases of the liver by obstructing the flow of blood through the portal vein, cause intestinal congestion and predispose to diarrhœa.