Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparisonFox, Herbert
Science
Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparison
Fox, Herbert
Veterinary medicine
It may be well to discuss for a space the reaction to infection of the
thoracic and intestinal lymphatics in mammals. The amount of
lymphadenoid tissue in the mediastinum is very great in some mammals,
notably the Ungulates, while in others, the Rodents and Primates, for
example, it is not so plentiful. Nevertheless the gross and minute
changes are usually of the edemato-exudative type—large, pink, soft,
moist glands. In the abdomen, on the other hand, one usually finds well
outlined, firm, yellow nodes in the mesentery and behind the peritoneum.
This is not only to be discovered in various chronic diseases of the
intestine but even in acute, so-called toxic enteritis seen in
carnivores from food poisonings. One must therefore ask if the local
nodes abundant in the intestinal mucosa do not take up the poisons which
cause the acute hyperplasia and are in turn backed up by the stalk
glands. Even in so acute and overwhelming a disease of the intestine as
hog cholera (which we have not had here) the glands retain their general
structure, although hemorrhagic, while in late stages they become firm,
sharply outlined and pigmented. In birds there may be swelling of the
omental bursæ, but as there are no lymph glands no masses are found.
The response on the part of the lymphatic tissues as a system, or some
large section of this system, is shown in the following figures. It is
our practice to include in the diagnosis general acute or chronic
lymphadenitis or inflammation of a large drainage area. Acute changes
have been mentioned 103 times, in which the important orders are
represented as follows: Primates 21, Carnivora 46, Ungulata 15, Rodentia
3, Marsupialia 13, Pinnepedia 4. Chronic changes are mentioned 43 times
as follows: Primates 7, Carnivora 19, Ungulata 14, Marsupialia 1, and
Pinnepedia 2. This great proportion among the Carnivora does not
indicate that they have more lymphatic structures for such an advantage
is probably possessed by the Ungulata, but perhaps should be interpreted
as an evidence for this order of the ready response to irritation on the
part of the tissues in question. They probably suffer more, as we shall
see later, with inflammation affecting drainage tracts. The hyperplasias
or inflammations included in the figures above most often accompany
gastroenteritis, pulmonary diseases or long standing infectious
processes such as arthritis, while there are also lymphatic enlargements
both local and general, associated with skeletal degenerations
(rachitis-osteomalacia) and with thyroid disease. The former may be
described as lymphadenitis, the latter as lymphatic hyperplasia.
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