Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 2 (of 5)Law, James
Science
Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 2 (of 5)
Law, James
Veterinary medicine
_Lesions._ The carcasses putrefy with extraordinary rapidity being as a
rule pervaded by septic microbes and their toxins. The blood is of a
deep red, loosely and imperfectly coagulated, and accumulated in the
veins and subcutaneous connective tissue.
The large intestines are the special seat of the disease, the walls
being found hyperæmic, with concentration especially on the mucous
surface which is red, congested, infiltrated, tumefied so that it is
easily detached under pressure by the finger, or broken down into a
putrid pulp. At other points the epithelium or the whole mucosa has been
detached leaving ulcers, varying from mere erosions to the deep and even
perforating sores, through which the putrid contents escape into the
abdominal cavity. At other points the surface is covered by necrotic
masses surrounded by a swollen margin of living mucosa. Elsewhere the
eschars have been detached and the granulating base and margin have
contracted into more or less perfect cicatrices. The contents of the
affected bowel may be largely mucopurulent, or it may be mixed with
blood, with eschars and putrilage from the sores and at times with small
packed masses of food, but in all cases it is very putrid and repulsive.
It always contains the elements of blood and exudation, together with
many microbes, the predominance of individual species suggesting the
main factors in the pathogenesis. Peyers’ patches and the solitary
glands are often the seat of infiltration and ulceration. Virchow points
out that in man the lesions are largely concentrated in the flexures of
the colon in which the ingesta is longer delayed, and the very
convoluted arrangement of the viscus in cattle may be one reason of
their special predisposition to the disease.
The small intestines are exceptionally implicated, and the abomasum red,
congested, ecchymosed and even ulcerated. The mouth and pharynx are
often congested, with erosions and ulcerations on the gums and tongue.
The mesenteric glands are red and swollen or pigmented of a dark gray
color, and these or the adjacent connective tissue may be the seat of
abscess. The liver is enlarged congested, of a yellowish red color, with
granular degeneration and softening. Hepatic abscess is rare in cattle.
The spleen is engorged with black blood and distinctly enlarged.
_Diagnosis._ Dysentery is distinguished from rinderpest by the slower
advance of the hyperthermia, by the absence of buccal concretions of
epithelium, and of vaginal congestion, and above all by the absence of
the virulent contagion by which the rinderpest spreads widely and
rapidly, irrespective of special unwholesome environment. The lesions of
dysentery are concentrated on the large intestines, while in rinderpest
they are extended over the whole alimentary canal, and do not spare
other mucosæ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account