Special Report on Diseases of Cattle Part 5

JAUNDICE (THE YELLOWS, OR CONGESTION OF THE LIVER).

When jaundice exists, there is a yellow appearance of the white of the eyes and of the mucous membrane of the mouth. A similar aspect of the skin may also be observed in animals which are either partly or altogether covered with white hair. Jaundice is then merely a symptom of disease and ought to direct attention to ascertaining, if possible, the cause or causes which have given rise to it. A swollen condition of the mucous membrane of that part of the bowel called the duodenum may produce jaundice, as that mechanically closes the orifice of the biliary duct. In constipation there is an inactive or torpid condition of the bowel, and the bile which pa.s.ses into the intestine may be absorbed and cause the yellow staining of jaundice. Jaundice is one of the symptoms of Texas fever. It may also arise from the presence of parasites or gallstones in the ducts, forming a mechanical obstruction to the onward flow of bile. The conditions under which jaundice most commonly calls for treatment are when cattle have been highly fed and kept in a state of inactivity. At such time there is an excess of nutritive elements carried into the blood, which is a.s.sociated with increased fullness of the portal vein and hepatic artery. When continued high feeding has produced this congested state of the liver, the functions of that organ become disordered, so that a considerable portion of the bile, instead of being excreted and pa.s.sing into the intestine, is absorbed by the hepatic veins.

The structure of the liver is shown in Plate IV.

_Symptoms._--This disease, although rare, occurs most frequently among stall-fed cattle. Pressure along the margin of the short ribs on the right side produces pain; the appet.i.te is poor and the animal shows hardly any inclination to drink; the mucous membranes of the eye and mouth are yellow, the urine has a yellow or brown appearance, the animal lies down much and moves with reluctance, moans occasionally, and has a tottering gait. The ears and horns are alternately hot and cold; in cows the secretion of milk is much diminished, and that which is secreted has a bitter taste; sometimes the animal has a dry, painful cough and presents a dull, stupefied appearance.

_Treatment._--In such cases it is advisable to produce a free action of the bowels, so as to remove the usually congested condition of the portal vein and liver. For this purpose the administration of the following dose is recommended: Sulphate of soda, 16 ounces; mola.s.ses, 1 pint; warm water, 1 quart. The sulphate of soda is dissolved by stirring it up in tepid water.

Following this the animal should have a heaping tablespoonful of artificial Carlsbad salt in the feed three times daily. This treatment may be a.s.sisted by giving occasional injections of warm water and soap. The diet should be laxative and moderate in quant.i.ty and may consist of coa.r.s.e bran mash, pulped roots, gra.s.s in the season, and hay in moderate quant.i.ty.

HEPAt.i.tIS (INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER).

Hepat.i.tis is an inflammation of the liver and usually occurs as a complication of some infectious disease. It may also occur as a complication of gastrointestinal catarrh or in hot weather from overheating or damaged (putrid or fermented) feeds.

_Symptoms._--The symptoms are sometimes obscure and their real significance is frequently overlooked. The most prominent symptoms are yellowness of the white of the eye and of the membrane lining the mouth; the appet.i.te is poor, the body presents an emaciated appearance, the feces are light colored, while the urine is likely to be unusually dark; there is thirst, and pain is caused by pressing over the liver. The gait is weak and the animal lies down more than usual, and while doing so frequently rests its head on the side of its chest.

_Treatment._--Give a purge of Glauber's salt and after it has operated give artificial Carlsbad salts in each feed, as advised under "Jaundice." Give green feed and plenty of water. Oil of turpentine should be rubbed in well once a day over the region of the liver. The skin on which it should be applied extends from the false ribs on the right side to 6 inches in front of the last one, and from the backbone to 12 inches on the right side of it.

FLUKE DISEASE.

[See chapter on "The animal parasites of cattle," p. 502.]

SPLENITIS (INFLAMMATION OF THE SPLEEN).

This disease occurs almost solely as a result of the existence of some infectious disease, and the symptoms caused by it merge with the symptoms of the accompanying causative disease. The spleen is seriously involved and becomes enlarged and soft in Texas fever, anthrax, and blood poisoning.

DISEASES OF THE PERITONEUM.

PERITONITIS.

Peritonitis consists of an inflammation of the peritoneum, which is the thin, delicate membrane that lines the abdomen and covers the abdominal organs.

_Causes._--Wounds are the usual cause in cattle. The wound may be of the abdominal wall or of the intestines, stomach, or uterus; or inflammation may extend from one of the organs of the abdominal cavity to the peritoneum; so this disease may complicate enteritis or inflamed womb. A sharp metal body may perforate the second stomach and allow the gastric contents to escape, irritating the peritoneum. This disease may follow castration or operation for hernia.

_Symptoms._--A continuous or occasional shivering; the animal lies down, but appears uneasy; it frequently turns its head toward its belly and lows plaintively; pressure on the flanks produces pain; has no appet.i.te; muzzle is dry and no rumination; while standing, its legs are placed well under its body; pulse small and hard. The evacuations from the bowels are dry and hard. If this disease is complicated by the presence of inflammation of the bowels, the pain is more severe and the animal is more restless. The skin is cold and dry in the early stage of this disease, but in a more advanced stage this condition may be succeeded by heat of the skin and quick breathing. The fits of trembling, uneasiness, small and hard pulse, and tension of the left flank are symptoms the presence of which would enable one to reach the conclusion that peritonitis exists.

_Post-mortem appearance._--The membrane lining the abdomen and covering the surface of the bowels is reddened to a greater or less extent, and there is usually considerable serous, or watery, fluid collected in the abdomen.

_Treatment._--When we have to do with the form of peritonitis resulting from an injury, as when the horn of another animal has been thrust through the abdominal walls, this lesion must be treated in accordance with directions before given, but the general treatment must be similar to that which follows. Peritonitis resulting from castration or from parturient fever must also be treated in connection with the special conditions which give rise to it, as the general treatment of this disease must be modified to some extent by the exciting cause.

The aim must be to discover and remove the cause. The cause must be treated according to its nature. Harms strongly recommends borax in the treatment of peritonitis. He gives 6 ounces in the first 24 hours, divided into three doses, and afterwards he gives 6 drams three times daily. Opium in doses of 2 to 3 drams may be given. To bring on evacuations of the bowels it is better to give rectal injections than to administer purges. The strength may be sustained by coffee or camphor.

The body should be warmly clothed, and it is advisable, when practicable, to have a blanket which has been wrung out of hot water placed over the abdomen, then covered by several dry blankets, which are maintained in position by straps or ropes pa.s.sing round the body. The wet blanket must be changed as it cools--the object of treatment being to warm the surface of the body and to determine as much blood to the skin as possible. The diet should consist of laxative food and drinks, such as linseed tea. If peritonitis a.s.sumes chronic form the diet should be nutritious, such as selected clover hay, linseed cake, gra.s.s, etc., and iodid of pota.s.sium should be given three times a day in gram doses dissolved in a pint of water.

DROPSY OF THE ABDOMEN (ASCITES).

In this disease there is a serous, or watery, effusion in the cavity of the abdomen.

_Causes._--When old animals are fed on innutritious feed or when reduced by disease, they become anemic; in other words, their blood becomes impoverished and dropsy may follow. An innutritious and insufficient diet produces the same effect in young animals. It is one of the results of peritonitis, and may also arise from acute or chronic inflammation of the liver, such as is of common occurrence when flukes are present in the liver in large numbers. Heart disease and chronic lung disease may be followed by ascites. It is sometimes, in calves, a symptom of infestation with worms.

_Symptoms._--A gradual increase in the size of the abdomen at its lower part, while the flanks becomes hollow; pallor of the mucous membrane of the mouth and eye; weak and sluggish gait; want of appet.i.te, and irregularity in ruminating. On percussion or tapping the surface of the abdomen with the fingers, a dull sound is produced. If the hand and arm are oiled and pa.s.sed into the r.e.c.t.u.m as far as possible, on moving the hand from one side to the other the fluctuation caused by the presence of fluid in the abdomen may be felt.

_Treatment._--If possible the cause must be discovered and removed. The diet should be nutritious, and in those cases in which we have merely to deal with anemia (the bloodless state) arising from insufficient diet, the use of tonics and diuretics, at the same time keeping the skin warm, may bring about a gradual absorption of the fluid contained in the abdomen. One of the following powders may be mixed with the animal's feed three times a day; or, if there is any uncertainty as to its being taken in that way, it should be mixed with sirup, so as to form a paste, and smeared well back on the animal's tongue with a flat wooden spoon: Carbonate of iron, 3 ounces; powdered gentian, 3 ounces; powdered nitrate of pota.s.sium, 3 ounces; mix and divide into 12 powders. The administration of purgatives which promote a watery discharge from the mucous surface of the bowels also tends, by diminishing the serum of the blood, to bring about absorption and a gradual removal of the fluid contained in the abdomen. Large doses should not be given, but moderate ones should be administered morning and night, so as to produce a laxative effect on the bowels for several days. To attain this end the following may be used: Sulphate of soda, 8 ounces; powdered ginger, half an ounce; to be mixed in 2 quarts of tepid water and given at one dose.

DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

PLATE I. Position of the first stomach (rumen or paunch) on the left side.

The area inclosed by heavy dotted lines represents the rumen; the elongated, shaded organ is the spleen resting upon it. The skin and muscles have been removed from the ribs to show the position of the lungs and their relation to the paunch.

PLATE II. Stomach of ruminants.

Fig. 1. Stomach of a full-grown sheep, 1/5 natural size (after Thanhoffer, from R. Meade Smith's Physiology of Domestic Animals): _a_, rumen, or first stomach; _b_, reticulum, or second stomach; _c_, omasum, or third stomach; _d_, abomasum, or fourth stomach; _e_, esophagus, or gullet, opening into the first and second stomachs; _f_, opening of fourth stomach into small intestine; _g_, opening of second stomach into third; _h_, opening of third stomach into fourth.

The lines indicate the course of the food in the stomachs. The incompletely masticated food pa.s.ses down the esophagus, or gullet, into the first and second stomachs, in which a churning motion is kept up, carrying the food from side to side and from stomach to stomach. From the first stomach regurgitation takes place; that is, the food is returned through the gullet to the mouth to be more thoroughly chewed, and this const.i.tutes what is known as "chewing the cud." From the second stomach the food pa.s.ses into the third, and from the third into the fourth, or true, stomach, and from there into the intestines.

Fig. 2. Stomach of ox (after Colin, from R. Meade Smith's Physiology of Domestic Animals): _a_, rumen; _b_, reticulum; _c_, omasum; _d_, abomasum; _e_, esophagus; _f_, opening of fourth stomach into small intestine.

Furstenberg calculated that in an ox of 1,400 pounds weight the capacity of the stomach is as follows:

Per cent.

Rumen, 149.25 quarts, liquid measure 62.4 Reticulum, 23.77 quarts 10 Omasum, 36.98 quarts 15 Abomasum, 29.05 quarts 12.6

According to Colon-- Quarts.

The capacity of a beef's stomach is 266.81 Small intestine 69.74 Cec.u.m 9.51 Colon and r.e.c.t.u.m 25.58

Fig. 1. Clinical thermometer, 4/5 natural size. This is used to determine the temperature of the animal body. The thermometer is pa.s.sed into the r.e.c.t.u.m after having been moistened with a little saliva from the mouth, or after having had a little oil or lard rubbed upon it to facilitate its pa.s.sage. There it is allowed to remain two or three minutes, then withdrawn, and the temperature read as in any ordinary thermometer. The clinical thermometer is made self-registering; that is, the mercury in the stem remains at the height to which it was forced by the heat of the body until it is shaken back into the bulb by taking hold of the upper portion of the instrument and giving it a short, sharp swing. The normal temperature of cattle varies from 100 to 103 F. In young animals it is somewhat higher than in old. The thermometer is a very useful instrument and frequently is the means by which disease is detected before the appearance of any external sign.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE I. SHOWING THE POSITION OF THE RUMEN.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE II. STOMACH OF RUMINANTS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE III. INSTRUMENTS USED IN TREATING DISEASES OF DIGESTIVE ORGANS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IV. MICROSCOPIC ANATOMY OF THE LIVER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE V. ERGOT IN HAY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VI. ERGOTISM.]