Diseases of cattle, sheep, goats and swineMoussu, G. (Gustave)
Science
Diseases of cattle, sheep, goats and swine
Moussu, G. (Gustave)
Veterinary medicine
=Symptoms.= The symptoms are generally well defined and well developed.
The onset is sudden; an animal which one day before appeared perfectly
well is attacked in one or several joints. Usually the upper joints of
the limb are involved—the shoulder, elbow, knee, haunch, stifle, hock.
Nevertheless, invasion is probably not as sudden as it appears to be,
and, as in the human species, the subject begins by feeling erratic
pains, which, however, pass unnoticed. The animal moves with difficulty,
as though it were suffering from laminitis, and has pain when placing
weight on the limb, while the joint attacked soon shows a swelling which
extends to the tendon sheaths and the neighbouring serous bursæ. The
local temperature is higher than that of surrounding parts, sensibility
becomes very marked, and pain attends the slightest pressure on, or even
movement of, the affected joint. Intense lameness follows, which may
even at first give rise to the suspicion of fracture. The animals remain
lying for long periods, groan from time to time, and suffer great pain
when rising.
In some cases the local manifestations appear to be transferred from one
joint to another.
These local symptoms are accompanied by high fever. The temperature
rises to 105° or 106° Fahr., the pulse to 80 or 90, and the breathing is
enormously accelerated if the patients are forced to move.
Loss of appetite is very marked. Rumination may be suspended, and these
grave symptoms are accompanied by constipation, rapid wasting, cessation
or marked diminution of the milk supply, decrease in the quantity of
urine passed, etc.
A few days after the onset, visceral complications may occur, though
fortunately such complications are far from being constant. Auscultation
and percussion sometimes reveal the lesions of pleurisy, endocarditis,
pericarditis, etc.
The development of articular rheumatism varies greatly, and may
occasionally continue for weeks or months, the condition of one joint
improving only to be followed by inflammation of another.
The visceral lesions rarely disappear completely, and it is not uncommon
to note symptoms of chronic valvular endocarditis. Relapses are somewhat
frequent, and the disease may continue in a chronic form after the acute
symptoms have disappeared.
=Lesions.= The joint itself is not alone affected. All the tissues
surrounding it are congested, swollen and painful, particularly the
sheaths and insertions of the tendons. Within the inflamed synovial
capsules of the joints an increased quantity of turbid synovia
accumulates, distending the joint and producing a condition of
hydrarthrosis.
In animals slaughtered during the course of the disease one finds
congestive infiltration of the limbs.
The temperature of the parts near the affected joints is higher than
that of neighbouring regions. Sensibility is much more acute, and the
slightest external pressure gives rise to pain.
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