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
This then is a working classification of the hepatic cirrhoses. Perhaps
many slightly differing varieties might be constructed but this grouping
will permit comparison and contrast with human cases, and with instances
in the various orders. Because of the relatively small total, thirty-
two, it is perhaps unwise to attempt any conclusions as to distribution
but it is certainly noteworthy that twenty-six occurred in mammals. This
means 1.6 per cent. in mammalian autopsies against .2 per cent. in
avian. Among the former class the carnivores stand at the head of the
list, followed in order by the marsupials, ungulates, primates, and
rodents.
Carnivora have shown a few typical portal cirrhoses from a pathological
standpoint but only one, in a badger (_Taxidea taxus_), was combined
with the classical picture of intestinal hyperemia and ascites. Two of
the cases were combined with chronic enteritis which may, of course,
have been secondary but there was also a hyperplasia of the spleen which
bespoke some grade of infection. None of the four showed involvement of
the biliary tract. One animal, a skunk (_Mephitis mesomelas_), was
jaundiced; it had anemia, nephritis and enlarged spleen but no
intestinal inflammation; perhaps the associated anemia may have been
responsible for the pigmentation. Biliary cirrhosis occurred in two
Carnivora, in both associated with enlarged spleen and nephritis. One
showed jaundice and the other, with a huge liver from congestion and
interstitial infiltration, had a small ascites. Fatty cirrhosis was
diagnosed in a raccoon but this is viewed with some reservation because
this animal easily stores fat and in this case it may not have been a
part of the process. In none of the foregoing cases did parasitism enter
into the causation of the change and I shall always specify when such a
factor was probable. The only vascular cirrhosis in our records occurred
in a Gray Wolf incident to a longstanding myocarditis (Gray Wolf, _Canis
lupus mexicanus_, Myocarditis, Adenomatoid goitre, Chronic
gastroenteritis, Vascular cirrhosis of liver, Subacute diffuse
nephritis, Edema of lungs, pericardium, and peritoneum). Two examples of
perilobular fibrosis appeared in this order, a raccoon (_Procyon lotor_)
and a paradoxure (_Trichosurus vulpecular vulpecular_). The only
noteworthy feature was, in the former, a very marked biliary stasis on
the lobular margins and in the connective tissue; this animal was not
jaundiced.
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