Special Report on Diseases of the Horse Part 56

This is a specific contagious disease, characterized by spreading, dropsical inflammation of the skin and subcutaneous tissues, attended with general fever. It differs from most specific diseases in the absence of a definite period of incubation, a regular course and duration, and a conferring of immunity on the subject after recovery. On the contrary, one attack of erysipelas predisposes to another, partly, doubtless, by the loss of tone and vitality in the affected tissues, but also, perhaps, because of the survival of the infecting germ.

_Cause._--It is no longer to be doubted that the microbes found in the inflammatory product are the true cause of erysipelas, as by their means the disease can be successfully transferred from man to animals and from one animal to another. This transition may be direct or through the medium of infected buildings or other articles. Yet from the varying severity of erysipelas in different outbreaks and localities it has been surmised that various different microbes are operative in this disease, and a perfect knowledge of them might perhaps enable us to divide erysipelas into two or more distinct affections. At present we must recognize it as a specific inflammation due to a bacterial poison and closely allied to septicemia. Erysipelas was formerly known as surgical when it spread from a wound (through which the germ had gained access) and medical, or idiopathic, when it started independently of any recognizable lesion. Depending as it does, however, upon a germ distinct from the body, the disease must be looked upon as such, no matter by what channel the germ found an entrance. Erysipelas which follows a wound is usually much more violent than the other form, the difference being doubtless partly due to the lowered vitality of the wounded tissues and to the oxidation and septic changes which are invited on the raw, exposed surface. As apparently idiopathic cases may be due to infection through bites of insects, the small amount of poison inserted may serve to moderate the violence.

This affection may attack a wound on any part of the horse's body, while, apart from wounds, it is most frequent about the head and the hind limbs. It is to be distinguished from ordinary inflammations by its gradual extension from the point first attacked, by the abundant liquid exudation into the affected part, by the tension of the skin over the affected part, by its soft, boggy feeling, allowing it to be deeply indented by the finger, by the abrupt line of limitation between the diseased and the healthy skin, the former descending suddenly to the healthy level instead of shading off slowly toward it, by the tendency of the inflammation to extend deeply into the subjacent tissues and into the muscles and other structures, by the great tendency to death and sloughing of portions of skin and of the structures beneath, by the formation of pus at various different points throughout the diseased parts without any surrounding sac to protect the surrounding structures from its destructive action, and without the usual disposition of pus to advance harmlessly toward the surface and escape; and, finally, by a low, prostrating type of fever, with elevated temperature of the body, coated tongue, excited breathing, and loss of appet.i.te. The pus when escaping through a lancet wound is grayish, brownish, or reddish, with a heavy or fetid odor, and inter-mixed with shreds of broken-down tissues.

The most destructive form, however, is that in which pus is deficient and gangrene and sloughing more speedy and extensive.

_Treatment_ resolves itself mainly into the elimination from the system of the poisonous products of the bacteria by laxatives and diuretics, the sustaining of the failing vitality by tonics and stimulants, above all those of the nature of antiferments, and the local application of astringent and antiseptic agents. Internal treatment may consist in 4 drams tincture of muriate of iron and one-half dram muriate of ammonia or chlorate of potash, given in a pint of water every two hours. To this may be added, liberally, whisky or brandy when the prostration is very marked. Locally a strong solution of iron, alum, or of sulphate of iron and laudanum may be used; or the affected part may be painted with tincture of muriate of iron or with iodized phenol. In mild cases a lotion of 4 drams sugar of lead and 2 ounces laudanum in a quart of water may be applied. It is desirable to avoid the formation of wounds and the consequent septic action, yet when pus has formed and is felt by fluctuation under the finger to be approaching the surface it should be freely opened with a clean, sharp lancet, and the wound thereafter disinfected daily with carbolic acid 1 part to water 10 parts, with a saturated solution of hyposulphite of soda, or with powders of iodoform or salol.

HORSEPOX, ANTHRAX, AND CUTANEOUS GLANDERS (FARCY).

These subjects are discussed under the head of contagious diseases.

CALLOSITIES.

These are simple thickening and induration of the cuticle by reason of continued pressure, notably in lying down on a hard surface. Being devoid of hair, they cause blemishes; hence, smooth floors and good bedding should be provided as preventives.

h.o.r.n.y SLOUGHS (SITFASTS), OR SLOUGHING CALLOSITIES.

These are circ.u.mscribed sloughs of limited portions of the skin, the result of pressure by badly fitting harness or by irritating ma.s.ses of dirt, sweat, and hairs under the harness. They are most common under the saddle, but may be found under collar or breeching as well. The sitfast is a piece of dead tissue which would be thrown off but that it has formed firm connections with the fibrous skin beneath, or even deeper with the fibrous layers (fascia) of the muscles, or with the bones, and is thus bound in its place as a persistent source of irritation. The hornlike slough may thus involve the superficial part of the skin only, or the whole thickness of the skin, and even of some of the structures beneath. The first object is to remove the dead irritant by dissecting it off with a sharp knife, after which the sore may be treated with simple wet cloths or a weak carbolic-acid lotion, like a common wound.

If the outline of the dead ma.s.s is too indefinite, a linseed-meal poultice will make its outline more evident to the operator. If the fascia or bone has become gangrenous, the dead portion must be removed with the hornlike skin. During and after treatment the horse must be kept at rest or the harness must be so adjusted that no pressure can come near the affected parts. (See also page 496.)

WARTS.

These are essentially a morbid overgrowth of the superficial papillary layer of the skin and of the investing cuticular layer. They are mostly seen in young horses, about the lips, eyelids, cheeks, ears, beneath the belly, and on the sheath, but may develop anywhere. The smaller ones may be clipped off with scissors and the raw surface cauterized with bluestone. The larger may be sliced off with a sharp knife, or if with a narrow neck they may be twisted off and then cauterized. If very vascular they may be strangled by a wax thread or cord tied around their necks, at least three turns being made around and the ends being fixed by pa.s.sing them beneath the last preceding turn of the cord, so that they can be tightened day by day as they slacken by shrinkage of the tissues. If the neck is too broad it may be transfixed several times with a double-threaded needle and then be tied in sections. Very broad warts that can not be treated in this way may be burned down with a soldering bolt at a red heat to beneath the surface of the skin, and any subsequent tendency to overgrowth kept down by bluestone.

BLACK PIGMENT TUMORS, OR MELANOSIS.

These are common in gray and in white horses on the naturally black parts of the skin at the roots of the tail, around the a.n.u.s, v.u.l.v.a, udder, sheath, eyelids, and lips. They are readily recognized by their inky-black color, which extends throughout the whole ma.s.s. They may appear as simple, pealike ma.s.ses, or as multiple tumors aggregating many pounds, especially around the tail. In the horse these are usually simple tumors, and may be removed with the knife. In exceptional cases they prove cancerous, as they usually are in man.

EPITHELIAL CANCER, OR EPITHELIOMA.

This sometimes occurs on the lips at the angle of the mouth and elsewhere in the horse. It begins as a small, wartlike tumor, which grows slowly at first, but finally bursts open, ulcerates, and extends laterally and deeply in the skin and other tissues, destroying them as it advances (rodent ulcer). It is made up of a fibrous framework and numerous round, ovoid, or cylindrical cavities, lined with ma.s.ses of epithelial cells, which may be squeezed out as a fetid, caseous material. Early and thorough removal with the knife is the most successful treatment.

VEGETABLE PARASITES OF THE SKIN.

(Pl. x.x.xVIII, figs. 2, 3, 4.)

PARASITE: _Trichophyton tonsurans._ MALADY: _Tinea tonsurans, or circinate ringworm._--This is especially common in young horses coming into training and work, in low-conditioned colts in winter and spring after confinement indoors, during molting, in lymphatic rather than nervous subjects, and at the same time in several animals that have herded together. The disease is common to man, and among the domestic animals to horse, ox, goat, dog, cat, and in rare instances to sheep and swine. Hence it is common to find animals of different species and their attendants suffering at once, the diseases having been propagated from one to the other.

_Symptoms._--In the horse the symptoms are the formation of a circular, scurfy patch where the fungus has established itself, the hairs of the affected spot being erect, bristly, twisted, broken, or split up and dropping off. Later the spot first affected has become entirely bald, and a circular row of hairs around this are erect, bristly, broken, and split. These in turn are shed and a new row outside pa.s.ses through the same process, so that the extension is made in more or less circular outline. The central bald spot, covered with a grayish scurf and surrounded by a circle of broken and split hairs, is characteristic. If the scurf and diseased hairs are treated with caustic-potash solution and put under the microscope, the natural cells of the cuticle and hair will be seen to have become transparent, while the groups of spherical cells and branching filaments of the fungus stand out prominently in the substance of both, dark and unchanged. The eruption usually appears on the back, loins, croup, chest, and head. It tends to spontaneous recovery in a month or two, leaving for a time a dappled coat from the spots of short, light-colored hair of the new growth.

The most effective way of reaching the parasite in the hair follicles is to extract the hairs individually, but in the horse the mere shaving of the affected part is usually enough. It may then be painted with tincture of iodin twice a day for two weeks. Germs about the stable may be covered up or destroyed by a whitewash of freshly burned quicklime, the harness, brushes, etc., may be washed with caustic soda, and then smeared with a solution of corrosive sublimate one-half dram and water 1 pint. The clothing may be boiled and dried.

PARASITE: _Achorion schonleini._ MALADY: _Favus, or honeycomb ringworm._--Megnin and Goyau, who describe this in the horse, say that it loses its characteristic honeycomb or cup-shaped appearance, and forms only a series of closely aggregated, dry, yellowish crusts the size of hemp seed on the trunk, shoulders, flanks, or thighs. They are accompanied by severe itching, especially at night. The cryptogam, formed of spherical cells with a few filaments only, grows in the hair follicles and on the cuticle, and thus a crust often forms around the root of a hair. Like the other cryptogams, their color, as seen under the microscope, is unaffected by acetic acid, alcohol, ether, or oil of turpentine, while the cells are turned bluish by iodin. For treatment, remove the hair and apply tincture of iodin or corrosive sublimate lotion, as advised under the last paragraph.

PARASITE: _Microsporon furfur._ MALADY: _Parasitic pityriasis._--This attacks the horse's head where the harness presses, and leads to dropping of the hair, leaving bald patches covered with a branlike scurf, without any eruption, heat, tenderness, swelling, or rigidity of the skin. A lotion of carbolic acid 1 dram and water 2-1/2 ounces is usually applied to effect a cure.

ANIMAL PARASITES OF THE SKIN.[6]

ACARIASIS, OR MANGE.

This affection is due to the irritation of the skin caused by the presence of nearly microscopic acari, or mites. The disease varies, however, according to the species of acarus which infests the skin, so that we must treat of several different kinds of acariasis.

PARASITE: _Sarcoptes scabiei equi._ MALADY: _Sarcoptic acariasis._--This is the special _Sarcoptes_ of the horse, but under favorable conditions it can be transmitted to a.s.s and mule, and even to man, and may live indefinitely on the human skin. The mite (Pl. x.x.xIX, fig. 1) is nearly microscopical, but may be detected with a magnifying lens among moving scurf taken from the infected skin. Like all _Sarcoptes_, it burrows little galleries in and beneath the scurf skin, where it hides and lays its eggs and where its young are hatched. It is therefore often difficult to find the parasite on the surface, unless the skin has been heated by a temporary exposure to the sun or in a warm room. The mite may be detected more readily by placing sc.r.a.pings on black cardboard and warming, or better by macerating scabs or sc.r.a.pings in a solution of caustic soda or potash and then examining them microscopically. Like other acari, this is wonderfully prolific, a new generation of fifteen individuals being possible every fifteen days, so that in three months the offspring of a single pair may produce generations aggregating 1,500,000 young. The _Sarcoptes_ have less vitality than the nonburrowing acari, as they die in an hour when kept apart from the skin in dry air at a heat of 145 F. They live 12 to 14 days apart from the skin in the damp air of a stable. On a piece of damp hide they lived till the twenty-fourth day, when they began to die, and all were dead on the twenty-eighth.

_Symptoms._--The symptoms are an incessant, intolerable, and increasing itching of some part of the skin (head, mane, tail, back, etc.), the horse inclining himself toward the hand that scratches him, and moving his lips as if himself scratching. The hairs may be broken and rubbed off, but the part is never entirely bald, as in ringworm, and there may be papules or any kind of eruption or open sores from the energy of the scratching. Scabs of any thickness may form, but the special features are the intense itching and the presence of the acarus.

_Treatment_ consists in the removal of the scabs by soapsuds, and, if necessary, a brush and the thorough application of tobacco 1-1/2 ounces and water 2 pints, prepared by boiling. This may be applied more than once, and should always be repeated after 15 days, to destroy the new brood that may have been hatched in the interval. All harness and stable utensils should be similarly treated; blankets and rubbers may be boiled, and the stalls should be covered with a whitewash of quicklime, containing one-fourth pound of chlorid of lime to the gallon.

When there are too many animals to treat by means of hand dressings, the lime-and-sulphur dip or the tobacco dip may be used and are very effective, though the cresol dips are fairly effective. These dips may be purchased and made up in the dilution called for on the container.

The affected animals may be dipped when the number warrants it and facilities are available; otherwise the dips may be applied with a swab or a spray pump. Directions for constructing a dipping vat may be obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture on application. Any treatment used should be repeated in the course of 10 to 14 days. If the stables are not disinfected, animals should be removed after treatment and put in clean stables or on clean pasture for at least a month to allow the mites in the infested stables to die.

Otherwise the disease may recur.

PARASITE: _Psoroptes equi_ (_Dermatocoptes equi_, _Dermatodectes equi_). MALADY: _Psoroptic acariasis._--Psoroptic mange is less common than sarcoptic mange in horses, and as the parasite (Pl. x.x.xIX, fig. 3) only bites the surface and lives among the crusts under the shelter of the hair, it is very easily discovered. It reproduces itself with equal rapidity and causes similar symptoms to those produced by the _Sarcoptes_. The same treatment will suffice and is more promptly effectual. The purifying of the stable must be more thorough, as the _Psoroptes_ will survive twenty to thirty days in the moist atmosphere of a stable, and may even revive after six or eight weeks when subjected to moist warmth. Infested pastures will therefore prove dangerous to horses for that length of time, and, with rubbing posts, etc, should not be used.

PARASITE: _Chorioptes equi_ (_Symbiotes equi_, _Dermatophagus equi_, _Chorioptes spathiferus_). MALADY: _Foot mange._--The acarus (Pl. x.x.xIX, fig. 2) attacks the heels and lower parts of the legs, especially the hind ones, and may be present for years without extending upon the body.

Like the _Psoroptes_; it lives on the surface, on the hairs, and among the scabs. It gives rise to great itching, stamping, rubbing of the one leg with the other, and the formation of papules, wounds, ulcerous sores, and scabs. The intense itching will always suggest this parasite, and the discovery of the acarus will identify the disease. The treatment is the same as for the _Sarcoptes_, but may be confined to the legs and the parts with which they come in contact.

PARASITE: _Dermanyssus gallinae, or chicken acari._ MALADY: _Poultry acariasis._--This is a large-sized acarus, though usually miscalled "hen louse," and the disease "poultry lousiness." The mite (Pl. x.x.xIX, fig.

4) lives in droppings and in crevices of chicken houses, but temporarily pa.s.ses on to the skin of man and of the horse and other quadrupeds, when occasion serves. It causes much irritation, with the eruption of papules or vesicles and the formation of sores and scabs. The examination of the skin is usually fruitless, as the attacks are mostly made at night and the effects only may be seen during the day. The proximity of hen manure swarming with the acari explains the trouble, and the removal of this and a white-washing with quicklime, with or without chlorid of lime, will prevent future attacks. The skin may still require bland ointments or lotions, as for congestion.

PARASITE: _Larva of a Trombidium, Leptus america.n.u.s, or harvest bug, misnamed jigger (chigoe)._ MALADY: _Autumn mange._--This parasite is a brick-red acarus, visible to the naked eye on a dark ground, and living on green vegetation in many localities. It attacks man, and the horse, ox, dog, etc., burrowing under the skin and giving rise to small papules and intolerable irritation. This continues for two or three days only from a single invasion, but will last until cold weather sets in if there is a fresh invasion daily. Horses at pasture suffer mainly on the lower part of the face. If kept indoors the disease will disappear, or if left at pasture a weak tar water or solution of tobacco may be applied to the face.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE x.x.xIX.

MITES THAT INFEST THE HORSE.]

TICKS.

The wood ticks are familiar to inhabitants of uncultivated lands, and prove troublesome parasites to man and beast alike. The tick lives on bushes, and attaches itself to the mammal only to secure a feast of blood, for when gorged it drops off to sleep off its debauch on the soil. The tick produces great irritation by boring into the skin with its armed proboscis. If pulled out, the head and thorax are often left in the skin. They may be covered with oil to shut out the air from their breathing pores, or by touching them with a hot penknife they will be impelled to let go their hold.

GRUBS IN SKIN.

PARASITE: _Hypoderma lineata_. MALADY: _Larvae_ (_grubs_) _under the skin_.--The larvae of a fly (probably _Hypoderma lineata_, whose larvae in the skin of cattle are commonly known as "warbles") are occasionally found in little sacs beneath the skin of horses. The mature larva escapes in early summer and develops into a fly. In districts where they exist the grubs should be pressed out of the skin in the course of the winter and destroyed.

LARVae (GRUBS) ON THE SKIN, OR FLYBLOW.