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
The lungs in birds are not free as in mammals, being fitted into the
troughs made by the anterior ridges of the ribs, to the serous covering
of which they are lightly attached by delicate fibres running between
the two. This more or less definite fixation, together with the pressure
of the air in the sacs give the free play of the lungs a limited
excursion. They are naturally very elastic by reason of a good supply of
elastic fibers and large air spaces, a condition aided by their
attachments to the supports of the diaphragm and to the insertions of
the air sac walls. Notwithstanding this elasticity and the great
capacity of the organ for blood, it seems as if congestion of the lungs
is a very serious matter, since from the foregoing review of anatomy,
accommodation of excess blood and any consolidation must be difficult.
As a matter of fact the mere excess of blood known as active congestion
seems able to kill small varieties.
CONGESTION OF LUNGS.
Birds of flight seem to have little resistance to this condition and
often it is the only diagnosis one can make at autopsy. The causes of
this condition include exposure, dust, gorging (?), indigestion,
enteritis and infection in birds while in mammals acute gastrointestinal
disease stands out as the most prominent accompaniment. To what extent
dust and exposure operate I do not see, although they are frequently
mentioned as causes. The overfilling of the crop, esophagus and
proventricle, the turgescence incident to gastric indigestion or the
pressure of foreign bodies in large amount are supposed to operate by
exerting pressure on the anterolateral air sacs with closure of their
ostia and also by right lateral torsion of the heart with twisting of
the very delicate pulmonary veins.
I have sought to show that protozoa or embryo nematodes in the blood
might embarrass the lungs to a state of congestion, a thought suggested
by some findings in the London Gardens, but only about ten per cent. of
our cases of hemic parasitism are accompanied by it.
The incidence of congestion of the lungs not due to stasis as from
cardiac diseases, is 2.4 per cent. in mammalian autopsies, in only 7 per
cent. of which figure did it represent the principal morbid anatomy,
whereas in birds it occurred to the extent of 7.6 per cent. of
postmortems, in 17 per cent. of which it was the sole or principal cause
of death. This seems to bear out the feature of delicacy of the
pulmonary vascular mechanism in these latter animals. This condition
seems to be indicated by simple dyspnœa in birds, relief for which has
occasionally been afforded by removal from the exhibition cages and
protection separately in a warm dry room; this is partly hypothetical of
course and congestion is to be looked upon as serious, particularly in
passerine birds.
PNEUMONIA.
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