Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 4 (of 5)Law, James
Science
Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 4 (of 5)
Law, James
Veterinary medicine
The _nervous symptoms_ are especially manifest in the sudden seizure,
great prostration, extreme weakness, profound stupor or lassitude, the
staggering gait, in bad cases, insensibility to voice, slap or, it may
be, even to the whip, the rigidity of the loins, their insensibility to
pinching, the difficulty of turning in a short circle, or of backing.
The high fever, disproportionate to the appreciable local lesions, and
its sudden improvement at the critical period, the excessive weariness
and the disposition to lie down contrary to the habit of other
inflammatory chest diseases are further indications.
This may go on to coma, there may be more or less complete anorexia,
muscular trembling, paresis, especially of the hind limbs, or delirious
manifestations indicating meningitis.
_Rheumatoid attacks of the muscles and joints_ usually appear in the
advanced stages of the disease, but may appear earlier. They may occur
in any latitude but seem to be especially common in cold, damp,
inclement northern regions, and at seasons when climatic vicissitudes
are sudden and extreme. These may appear suddenly and disappear with
equal rapidity, or they may last for a time during and even after an
apparent recovery in other respects. When the joints are involved they
usually become engorged with exudates in the synovial membranes.
_Lameness_ in either _fore_ or _hind limb_ may assume an _intermittent
type_ developed by exercise and subsiding with rest, evidently
bespeaking local arterial embolism, and in such cases it is likely to
persist for months.
A tendency to _transudations_ and _dropsical effusions_ is common in
severe cases, showing especially in the filling of the legs, but in
certain epizoötics, these become strikingly prevalent and have secured
for such a special name (_epizoötic cellulitis_). Apart from the limbs
these affect particularly the inferior surface of the chest and abdomen.
The swellings are not necessarily hot nor painful nor petechiated as in
petechial fever, yet they may merge into that affection or they may
become phlegmonous and develop abscess.
_Complications_ of many kinds are to be looked for, pregnant mares may
_abort_; _laminitis_ may set in; the microbes of _strangles_,
_contagious pneumonia_, _cerebro-spinal meningitis_, _septicæmia_,
_pyæmia_, etc., may take occasion to attack the debilitated system, and
thus complex diseases and manifestations are developed.
_Morbid Anatomy._ The lesions may predominate in different organs in
different subjects and successive epizoötics. It is a protean disease
and may expend its main energy on any one of a number of different
organs or systems of organs.
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