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Ebook has 2423 lines and 215601 words, and 49 pages

Release date: October 13, 2023

Original publication: Ithaca: Published by the author, 1902

TEXT BOOK OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

Director of the New York State Veterinary College Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.

VOL. II

DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS--LIVER--PANCREAS--AND SPLEEN

Copyright by JAMES LAW 1900

PRESS OF ANDRUS & CHURCH ITHACA, N. Y.

VETERINARY MEDICINE.

DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.

Second in importance to pulmonary complaints in solipeds; equal in ruminants. Extent of digestive organs and character of food, in carnivora, herbivora, and omnivora. Ruminant's stomachs. Gastric fermentation. Foreign bodies. Torpor. Unwholesome fodder.

In the horse these maladies are only second in importance to those of the respiratory organs, while in ruminants they are equally frequent and important. The varying susceptibility of the digestive organs to disease in different families and the special proclivity of different parts of these organs may be, in great part, explained by the great variation in the food, by the relative extent of the gastro-intestinal surface, and by the amount of work devolving on the respective viscera.

A fair idea of the area of the intestinal surface may be given by stating the length of the canal relatively to that of the body:--in the dog : : 6 : 1, in the rabbit : : 10 : 1, in the ass and mule : : 11 : 1, in the horse : : 12 : 1, in swine : : 14 : 1, in the ox :: 20 : 1, and in the sheep : : 27 : 1. The calibre of the intestine varies however and with it the capacity. Thus in the relatively shorter intestine of the horse, the capacity is much greater in ratio with the size of the animal than is the relatively much longer intestine of the pig. The ox's intestine though twice the length of that of the horse has little more than half the capacity.

All herbivora are liable to disease from unwholesome fodder and the resulting affection may prove epizootic in connection with unfavorable seasons, or more local, from faulty cultivation.

The symptoms vary so much in connection with the seat and nature of the disease that it would be impolitic to attempt to generalize them.

DISEASES OF THE MOUTH.

Relative susceptibility to disease of the mouth: Food; irritants; bits; ropes; speculum; sharp metallic bodies; micro-organisms; functional; nervous.

These are met with in all domestic animals, but are above all common in horses, oxen and pigs, partly because of special susceptibilities and of the nature of the food, but largely by reason of the exposure of this part to mechanical injuries, especially in horses and cattle. Hard bits and the harder hands of cruel and ruthless drivers, nooses of rope tied over the lower jaw and tongue, iron stirrup, clevis, or balling iron used without cover to force the jaws apart, a large drenching horn employed as a lever for the same purpose, an extemporized Yankee bridle rudely applied or used in breaking a colt, the method of curing a balking or jibbing horse by tying a rope to his lower jaw and to a bar extending forward from the pole, pins, needles, thorns and other sharp bodies, and irritants in food or medicine are among the causes of such disorders. Then there are the many irritating micro?rganismal ferments in food, water, mucus, etc., and irritant and hot medicines and food to account for local inflammations.

FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.

STRUCTURAL DISEASES. INFLAMMATION OF THE LIPS, CHEILITIS.

Causes of Cheilitis: Local injuries; poisoned; envenomed; secondary disease. Symptoms: swelling; salivation; difficult prehension; cracks; blisters; ulcers; indurations. Treatment: obviate causes; astringents; antiseptics; derivatives; gravitation; for venoms antacid; antiseptic, Iodine.

When the heat and tenderness subside, leaving much thickening and induration it may be repeatedly painted with a lotion of one part of tincture of iodine in three parts of glycerine.

CANCROID OF THE LIPS. EPITHELIOMA.

Epithelioma: Animals susceptible; accessory causes; symptoms; lesions. Treatment: Warts and polypi. Actinomycosis: Wounds; abrasions; infection atria. Symptoms; treatment. Trombidiosis: infected regions; not compulsory parasite; European and American trombidia; distinct from chigoe. Symptoms. Treatment.

This has been observed in the cat and the horse, commencing at the angle of the mouth and doubtless partially determined in the latter animal by the irritation of the bit.

It is characterized by thickening of the tissues of the lips, in the form of small irregularly rounded masses, and tending to the formation of a spreading ulcer. The thickened tissues are invaded, pushed aside and infiltrated by epithelial or epithelioid cells, which, no longer confined to the surface as in the natural state, grow in the interior of the tissues and destroy them.

Leblanc has repeatedly succeeded in these cases by the use of chlorate of potash, locally and generally. The local application may be a solution of two drachms in four ounces of water, while the dose of the powder for the horse is 2 to 4 drachms daily.

ACTINOMYCOSIS OF THE LIPS.

In the rich river bottom lands of northern Germany and Russia where actinomyces abound actinomycosis is common in the form of papillae of greater or lesser size on the lips and nose of horse and ox. The abrasion of these parts by thorns, thistles, stubble, dry fibrous fodders and other irritants, appears to produce a raw surface for the colonization of the germ, which is not slow to avail of the opportunity. The resulting lesions take the appearance of warty looking elevations, more or less indurated, which on section show the sulphur yellow actinomyces tufts of club-shaped cells converging to a central mycelial mass.

TROMBIDIOSIS OF THE NOSE AND LIPS. HARVEST ITCH.

In different parts of Europe and America, and especially in the warmer regions, or in sheltered gardens, shrubberies, and pastures, different species of the trombidium abound, and the young hexapod larvae attack man and beast, burrowing under the cuticle and giving rise to extreme itching and persistent and irritating rubbing of the affected part. These parasites belong to the family of acari or mites, so that the condition they produce is one of acariasis or mange, only the offender is not a compulsory parasite, but appears to survive in certain soils and in the vegetation independently of animal hosts. Their parasitism is therefore accidental and non-essential to their survival.

The domestic herbivora get these parasites on the nose and lips while browsing on the pastures and contract an intolerable itching which may lead to violent rubbing, abrasions and scabby exudations. The skin becomes thickened, scabby and rigid, and as new accessions are constantly received the malady continues until cold weather sets in. The affection is not in any sense dangerous, and the attacks may be warded off by a daily application of one of the common parasiticides--decoction of tobacco, tar water, solution of creolin, naphthalin, etc. The mere seclusion of the infested animal indoors, without green food, will cure, as the larvae pass through their parasitic stage in a few days and drop off.

GENERAL CATARRHAL STOMATITIS. BUCCAL INFLAMMATION.

Mature animals most subject: Causes in horse, mechanical, chemical, microbian irritants--alkalies, acids, caustics, hot mashes, ferments, fungi, rank grasses, excess of chlorophyll, clover, alfalfa, acrid vegetables, bacterial infection secondary, acrid insects in food; symptomatic of gastritis, pharyngitis, diseased teeth, specific fevers. Symptoms: Congestion and tumefaction of buccal mucosa, lips and salivary glands; Epithelial desquamation; foetor; salivation; froth; papules; vesicles. Prognosis. Treatment: Cool soft food; antiseptics; wet applications to skin; derivatives.

This is much more common in the adult than in suckling domestic animals. None of the domestic mammals or birds can be considered immune from it, but as its causes and manifestations differ somewhat it seems well to consider it separately in the different genera.

GENERAL CATARRHAL STOMATITIS IN SOLIPEDS.

Fungi in fodders are among the common causes. The rust of wheat , the caries of wheat , the blight , ergot , the fungus of rape and the moulds have all been noticed to coincide with stomatitis, and charged with producing it. On the other hand, at given times, one or other of these cryptogams has been present extensively in the fodder without any visible resultant stomatitis. The apparent paradox may be explained by the fact that these fungi vary greatly in the irritant or harmless nature of their products according to the conditions under which they have grown, and the stage of their development at which they were secured and preserved. Ergot notoriously differs in strength in different years, on different soils, under various degrees of sunshine, shade, cloud, fog, etc. In different States in the Mississippi valley it is not uncommon to find stomatitis in horses in winter, fed on ergoted hay, while cattle devouring the same fodder have dry gangrene of feet, tail and ears. Yet in other seasons the ergot fails to produce these lesions. Rank grown, watery vegetation, especially if it contains an excess of chlorophyll is liable to cause stomatitis. Red and white clover, trefoil, hybrid and purple clover, and alfalfa have all acted more or less in this way, though in many cases, the food has become musty or attacked by bacterial ferments. Some of the strongly aromatic plants, and those containing acrid principles cause buccal inflammation and salivation.

The irritation in many such cases is not due to one agent only, the vegetable or other irritant may be the starting point, acting but as a temporary irritant, the action of which is supplemented and aggravated by the subsequent attacks of bacterial ferments on the inflamed, weakened or abraded tissues. The bacteria present in the mouth, food or water would have had no effect whatever upon the healthy mucosa, while they make serious inroads on the diseased. On the other hand the vegetable, mechanical or chemical irritant would have had but a transient effect, but for the supplementary action of the bacteria.

In horses that have the bad habit of retaining masses of half masticated food in the cheeks the growth of cryptogams is greatly enhanced and such food often becomes violently irritating.

Among other mechanical causes may be named pointed or barbed hairs or spines which, lodging in a gland orifice, or in a wound of the gum or mucosa, form a source of irritation or a centre for bacterial growth and abscess.

Again, irritants of animal origin must be named. These are not taken by choice, but when lodged in fodder, or in the pastures they are taken in inadvertently with the food. In this way poisonous insects, and especially hairy caterpillars, cantharides, potato bugs, etc., gain access to the mouth.

It must not be overlooked that stomatitis occurs as an extension, sympathetic affection or sequel of diseases of other organs. Gastritis is usually attended by redness and congestive tenderness of the tongue, especially of the tip and margins, and other parts of the buccal mucosa, notably the palate just back of the incisors, are often involved. In other cases it appears as a complication of pharyngitis, laryngitis, of affections of the lower air passages, of the teeth and periodontal membrane or of the salivary glands.

It appears also in a specific form in certain fevers, as in horsepox, pustulous stomatitis, aphthous fever and even in strangles. Mercurial stomatitis, rarely seen at the present time, is one of the worst forms of the disease, and like the infectious forms will be treated separately.

As the congestion is increased there is seen, even at this early stage, a slight thickening or tumefaction of the mucosa, especially on the gums, lips, the sublingual area, the orifices of the salivary glands, and the palate back of the upper incisors. On the dorsum of the tongue, the cheeks and lips, generally the lack of loose connective tissue tends to prevent the swelling.

With the advance of the inflammation the redness of the mucosa extends, at first in points and circumscribed patches, and later over the entire surface. The epithelium drying and degenerating in its surface layers forms with the mucus a sticky gummy film on the surface, which, mingling with decomposing alimentary matters gives out a heavy, offensive or even foetid odor.

The different parts of the mouth are now tender to the touch, and this, with the foetor and even bitterness of the bacterial products combine with the general systemic disturbance in impairing or abolishing appetite. In any case mastication becomes slow and infrequent, and morsels of food are the more likely to be retained, to aggravate the local condition by their decomposition.

The dry stage is followed by the period of hypersecretion, and in this the salivary glands take a prominent part, so that ptyalism becomes the most marked feature of the disease. The saliva mixed with the increasing secretion of mucus and the abundance of proliferating and shedding epithelium, escapes from the lips and falls in stringy masses in the manger and front of the stall. When there is much motion of the jaws and tongue it accumulates as a froth around the lips.

A careful examination of the mucosa will sometimes detect slight conical elevations with red areolae, representing the tumefied orifices of the obstructed mucous follicles, and later these may show as minute erosions. Even vesicles have been noticed , but when these are present one should carefully exclude the specific stomatites such as horsepox, contagious pustular stomatitis, aphthous fever, etc.

Erosions of the mucosa and desquamation of the epithelium have been noticed in horses fed on purple clover, buckwheat or ergot, and in some of these cases the inflammation has extended to the skin of the face, the mucosa of the nose, and the adjacent glands, and as complications icterus, constipation, colics, polyuria, albuminuria and paresis of the hind limbs have been observed. These latter are common symptoms of cryptogamic poisoning.

In the direction of soothing treatment, a careful selection of diet stands first. Fibrous hay and even hard oats, barley or corn may have to be withheld, and green food, or better still, bran mashes, gruels, pulped roots or fruits allowed. Scalded hay or oats, ensilage, sliced roots, or ground feed may often be taken readily when the same aliments in their natural condition would be rejected or eaten sparingly.

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