Part 54

Prevention is still more important, and better than any treatment would be the most rigorous measures for its extinction along the lines laid down for sheep pox. Whether the infection has been derived from man or sheep it must be looked on as eminently dangerous to the class of animal from which it originated, and every available means used for its extinction.

DOG POX: VARIOLA CANINA.

Dog pox is rare, the affection occurring especially in the young. It is said to be derived in certain cases from smallpox patients (Weiskopf), and in others from sheep pox (Röll). The latter claims that the dog has also its own specific form. Dupuis and others claim experimental transmission from man to dog. At the same time eruptions connected with gastric or hepatic disorder, distemper, eczema, or aphthous fever are liable to be mistaken for it.

Symptoms. The young animals suffer from fever for a day or two, followed by heat and redness on the sides and belly, and points of deeper red, like flea bites, which gradually evolve through papules and vesicles to pustules, and terminate in crusts, that drop off leaving round bare spots. The vesicles may appear locally or generally and may be discrete or confluent. Sucking puppies, when attacked usually perish.

In treatment the same hygienic measures are demanded as for other animals, special care being required to keep the bowels and kidneys acting in a healthy manner. Perfect cleanliness must be secured, and nonstimulating easily digested food. Excessive fever would demand tepid baths, cold sponging, or acetanilid, and undue warmth, crowding and cold exposure must be alike guarded against.

In view of the alleged sources of the disease in man and sheep, the strictest seclusion of the affected dog, in disinfected surroundings will become absolutely essential and when this cannot be carried out he should be summarily destroyed.

VESICULAR EXANTHEMA OF HORSES.

Definition: Vesicles usually on external genitals, with fever and infection. Causes: Contagion by coition, clothing or stable utensils; inoculated on man or cow, resembles cowpox, but a first attack does not always immunize a stallion; inoculable on sheep, goat and pig. Symptoms: Incubation one to six days; local redness, heat, swelling, tenderness, papule, vesicle, pustule, scab, desquamation, depigmentation on genitals or in sucklings on mouth, lips, nose; may extend to mammary and inguinal regions, with swelling, stiffness and constitutional disturbance. Diagnosis from dourine. Treatment: Cleanliness, astringent, antiseptic lotions; open and disinfect abscesses; laxatives or diuretics. Prevention: Withhold from breeding.

Definition. An acute infectious disease, manifested by hyperthermia, hyperæmia, and the formation usually on the external generative organs of a crop of papules rapidly progressing to vesicles, pustules and open sores, and attended by great local irritation and itching. It runs a mild course and recovery ensues spontaneously in about fifteen days.

Causes. The disease is only known as a contagious affection, propagated from animal to animal by breeding together, or by using the same comb, brush or rubber, or by sucking, and in rare cases by other accidental or experimental inoculations. To make a successful inoculation the virus must be taken from the vesicles or pustules. When transferred to man or ox it develops an eruption which is indistinguishable from cowpox (Trasbot, Peuch, Galtier). Still a first attack does not always confer immunity, as stallions may have two successive attacks within a few weeks (Steinhoff). This implies that either this is not genuine cowpox, as claimed in France, or that two different exanthematous affections have been classed as one. Inoculation with the virus has produced a characteristic eruption in sheep, goats and pigs.

Symptoms. After a period of incubation of from one to six days there appear heat, swelling and tenderness of the affected part, followed by the formation of papules, gradually passing into vesicles, pustules and scabs which scale off, leaving a white depigmented surface. In stallions and mares the usual seat of the eruption is the external generative organs; in young sucking animals the mouth, lips, nose and quarters, and in inoculated cases wherever the virus has been implanted.

In the mare there is swelling of the lips of the vulva and redness of the vaginal and vulvar mucosa with points of a darker red, which become firm, papular, vesicular and finally pustular. A similar eruption shows on the skin of the swollen labiæ, on the lower surface of the tail and on the hips, though on these points the phenomena are obscured somewhat by the abundance of pigment. The contents of the vesicles are at first limpid but gradually change to opaque yellowish white, brown, or even red from slight blood extravasation. It causes not only marked tenderness but great itching so that the patient rubs the tail and rump, rupturing the vesicles, causing blood extravasations and retarding healing. The sores are primarily two or three lines in diameter but may widen and deepen under the friction. The surface may be red and angry and covered by a yellowish viscid discharge. When they heal they leave on the dark skin, round spots white and devoid of pigment. The itching during the acute stage of the disease, leads to generative excitement, frequent straining, contractions of the erector clitoris and ejection of urine. The animal appears to be constantly in heat, yet the absence of hyperthermia shows that there is no constitutional disorder nor central nervous affection. The disease appears to be purely local.

In the stallion after a similar incubation, the penis and usually the sheath become swollen and congested and if free from pigment there are dark points as described in the vulva. These points become firm, prominent, and finally vesicular and pustular. If continued in service the resulting sores may extend and prove protracted. In the absence of service they tend to heal about the fifteenth day. The eruption may extend on the scrotum, the inner side of the thighs, the throat, the lower surface of the neck, and the inside of the forelegs; on any parts indeed that may become soiled on mounting the mare. The meatus urinarius is red, swollen and angry, and shows a muco-purulent discharge. Generative excitement is shown by the more frequent rising and falling of the testicles, protrusion and retraction of the penis, and the frequency of urination.

In bad cases in both sexes the eruption encroaches more widely on the skin, and subcutaneous abscesses may form on the vulva, anus, tail, between the thighs or on the scrotal, mammary or inguinal regions. These are attended by extensive local swellings extending on the croup, or down to the hock, or forward to the hind limbs. In such cases there is more or less stiffness or lameness, with constitutional disturbance, hyperthermia, gastric disorder and emaciation.

Diagnosis. This disease is distinguished from dourine by the known absence of the latter from the locality, by the ready transmission, of the benign exanthema to cattle, by the entire absence of paresis or mental hebetude, by its rapid progress and early recovery, usually in fifteen days.

Treatment consists in thorough cleanliness, and the application of cooling, astringent, antiseptic lotions to the affected parts. Solutions of borax, boric acid, sulphate or chloride of zinc, permanganate of potash, corrosive sublimate, chlorine water, creolin, lysol, carbolic acid, or other such agent with glycerine will act promptly and well. In the severe cases with secondary abscesses the latter must be opened and the cavities treated antiseptically. Cooling laxatives and diuretics with salicylates or hyposulphites may also be desirable.

Prevention. No animal having sores nor discharge from the generative organs should be used for breeding. The owner of the animal infected by breeding has a good claim for damages.

VESICULAR EXANTHEMA IN CATTLE.

Definition: acute infections, eruptive affection, usually of the genitals, in cattle, transmitted by breeding, and marked by congestion, papules, vesicles and pustules. Cause: infection by coition; by contact, by gutter, by tail, by licking, in sucklings. Oxen and non-pregnant cows suffer. Symptoms: incubation 1 to 6 days, cows have swelling, red points, papules, vesicles and pustules on vulvar mucosa and adjoining skin, with profuse glairy discharge, and it may be fever: bull has matting of preputial hairs, frequent micturition, swollen sheath, red penis, vesicles, even necrotic ulcers and distortion. Immunization short, uncertain. Treatment as in horse. Prevention: seclusion and disinfection of animals, disinfection of stalls, gutters, rubbing posts, trees, complete segregation of sick from healthy.

Definition. An acute eruptive affection, attacking particularly the generative organs of breeding cattle, manifested by congestion, papules, vesicles and pustules of the mucosa and skin and transmitted largely by copulation.

Causes. The one known cause is infection and the most common mode of communicating it is by the generative act. In this it agrees with the mild coital exanthema of horses, and the two affections have been considered as identical with each other and with cowpox (Trasbot). The similarity of the symptoms and the duration of the disease sustain this view, but, if correct, it is probable that the affection has undergone a distinct modification which adapts the microbe especially to life in the genital canal, and to the maintenance of its virulence for a longer period, and finally, robs it of the power of producing any permanent immunity. Cowpox, though raised on the lips of the vulva, the inner side of the thighs and the abdomen where it can be easily reached by the tail does not tend to implicate the genital canal, and it so quickly secures immunity, that neither male nor female would be likely to long convey the disease. Yet in both horses and cattle experience shows that the acquired immunity of vesicular exanthema is very short lived.

Cattle, much more than horses, are liable to transmission of the disease by other channels than coition. Contact with the same soiled stall and gutter, the direct transference to adjoining animals by the soiled tail, and the greater frequency with which they lick themselves and others doubtless contribute to this. The frequency of non-coital infection is shown in Numann’s cases affecting the anus and sheath in oxen; also in Fenner’s long list of cases in 669 non-pregnant cows, in a number of cows in advanced pregnancy and in calves of a few weeks old (Friedberger and Fröhner).

Symptoms. In Cows. After an incubation of one to six, (or exceptionally ten) days, there occur swelling and redness of the lips of the vulva, and the vaginal mucosa with here and there dark red points, and an abundant clear, glairy discharge. The red points may become firm and papular, and an exudate beneath the epithelium transforms them into vesicles at first translucent but later yellow or brown as pus cells accumulate. The clear mucous discharge meanwhile becomes opaque and, as the pustules open, forming sores, yellowish and purulent. This discharge soils the tails and hips, drains out on the back part of the stall and the gutters and is carried by the tail to the udder and to other stock. Itching may be severe and the constant rubbing and switching of the tail, may irritate the sores and cause them to deepen or extend, beside favoring septic infection and local necrotic processes. In such cases there may be more or less fever, impairment of appetite, rumination and digestion, and of the secretion of milk. Abortion is not unknown though exceptional.

Symptoms. In Bull. The matting together of the long hairs of the prepuce may be the first indication of the disease, attended or followed by frequent micturition, or by standing with the tail raised and the accelerator urinæ pulsating over the ischiatic arch as if passing urine. The sheath appears swollen, the penis red granular, and angry, with red spots, and even the scrotum may be involved in the enlargement. The red points advance as in the female through the different forms of papule, vesicle and pustule to the formation of sores which are more or less red and angry. There may be an indisposition or even inability to protract the penis, and the bull may be tardy to serve, or in case the organ is erected and used, blood may ooze from the respective sores. The disease usually lasts about two weeks, but may recur a few weeks later in connection with a new infection. In aggravated and prolonged cases there may be local septic and necrotic processes, and general fever and digestive disturbances. Distortions of the penis may render the subject permanently useless as a sire.

Treatment is essentially the same as in the horse. Antiseptic and astringent solutions (sulphate of zinc, iron or copper (2:100), nitrate of silver, carbolic acid, corrosive sublimate, lysol, creolin, etc.) may be used to advantage. Laxatives and diuretics may be called for.

Prevention. This would require the temporary seclusion and final disinfection of all animals attacked, the thorough cleansing and disinfection of the stalls and gutters, as well as all posts, trees and fences on which the animals rub themselves. The attendants should use no combs, brushes, sponges nor rubbers indiscriminately on the sick and healthy. They should disinfect their hands and, if necessary, their clothes after having handled the sick and before handling or milking sound animals. An obvious precaution is to place the sick and healthy in separate buildings and yards.

INFECTIOUS GENITAL CATARRH IN RABBITS.

Freidberger and Fröhner record a very contagious catarrhal affection of the vulva and prepuce in high bred rabbits, and conveyed from animal to animal by sexual congress. The characteristic symptoms were extensive swelling of the parts and an abundant muco-purulent discharge.