Chapter IV: Part 4

DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS.

Importance of diseases of the respiratory organs—in horses and dogs.
Proclivity through over-exertion, through extent and delicacy of the
mucosa, through changes of temperature, through weather, through air
pollution, through kind of diet, through change of latitude, through
nervous sympathy, through debilitation of the lung tissue, through
suppression of perspiration, through a high dew point, through
bacteria and other germs, through youth and change of habits.

These are among the most frequent and grave of all affections of the domestic animals. They are especially important however in the case of animals that depend on the soundness of their wind. In horses and dogs accordingly any permanent injury to the organs of respiration will seriously impair the value, not only because of the diminished usefulness of the affected animal, but also because of the probable deterioration of their progeny. The rapid paces demanded of these animals and the strain to which the respiratory organs are subject are potent causes of respiratory disorder. In all animals, however, the extent of the respiratory surface and its extreme delicacy and tenuity especially predispose it to disease. Hales estimates that the mucous membrane covering all the air sacs and air cells is, in the calf, no less than 250 square feet. As the chest of the horse is at least double that of the calf, and as it contains much less connective tissue, and is made up of minute air cells from ¹⁄₇₀–¹⁄₂₀₀ inch in diameter and separated from each other by walls so attenuated that the contained capillary bloodvessels are equally exposed to the air on both sides, in two adjacent air cells, the estimate for the average horse must be considerably above 500 square feet. This membrane, incomparably the most delicate and susceptible in the animal economy, is constantly in contact with the air in all its variable conditions, and is necessarily affected by these variations.

The severe changes of temperature are not without their influence on this sensitive membrane. If these changes are sudden, as for example in our northern states where the temperature will vary from 50° to 70° Fah., in a single day, the danger of injury becomes imminent, and the lungs require to be strong indeed to resist their effects. Sudden transition from the hot close atmosphere of the barn or stable to the chilling winds of winter is equally hurtful. But it is not alone the transition from warmth to cold that is injurious. The general relaxation attendant on the sudden change from a cold bracing atmosphere to one unduly hot is even more injurious. How frequently do human beings suffer from colds as the result of a close sultry period at once supervening on a clear cold one? How extensively do chest diseases prevail among horses brought from the clear pure atmosphere of the field, and shut up in close, hot stables? Here, no doubt, there is superadded the impurity of the too often infected air, the change of diet, of exercise and of general care yet we find that affections of the air passages are to a great extent in ratio with the heat of the building. Hence their constant presence in dealer’s stables where it is thought desirable to keep the horses warm to hasten the improvement in the coat.

The suddenness of the transition is usually a principal cause of injury. Where the climate changes slowly the animal economy becomes habituated to it and resists successfully the injurious influences. Thus when spring merges gradually into summer and autumn into winter, diseases of this kind are far less frequent. But on the other hand a sudden and extreme variation of temperature, whether in the ordinary course of the season or from a wide change of latitude, is notoriously attended with diseases of the air passages. Ayrshire, shorthorn and Jersey cattle, when first imported into the Northern States of America, contract colds, consumption and other chest diseases to a far greater extent than the native races, though their progeny or even they themselves after acclimatization, exhibit powers of resistance nearly equal to the native stock. Sheep that have been shorn in midwinter or early spring often repay the inhumanity of their owners by dying of inflamed lungs. Southdown and Leicester sheep, sent from England to the north of Scotland, demand at first the greatest care to protect them against the increased rigor of the climate. The army veterinary statistics of France show that horses transported from the southern parts of the country to the more northern stations, suffer largely from pulmonary affections. But if the change is effected slowly the requisite powers of resistance are acquired and the novel conditions of life cease to be injurious. That this varied power of resistance is not confined to the higher animals would appear from the experiments of W. Edwards on cold blooded animals. He subjected them in winter and in summer respectively to a very low temperature and found that whereas in summer their temperature declined 3° to 6° Cent., in winter they had a greater resistance and barely declined ⁴⁄₁₀ths of a degree.

The action of cold on the surface of the body often leads to morbid states of the air passages as the result of nervous sympathy. A beast is subjected to a keen cold wind, is attacked with shivering, and inflammation of the chest supervenes. The result is rendered more certain if the wind is associated with rain and if the animal has been previously in a state of perspiration. A heavy coat of hair, a profuse perspiration, and a cold draught often combines effectively to produce respiratory disease.

It must be added that the chilling debilitates the nuclei of the animal tissues, and lessens their power of resistance to noxious influences. The excess of cold in the freezing of a part, is followed by congestion and even violent inflammation with perhaps sloughing after it has been thawed. The persistence of such tissue debility is familiar to us all in the example of chillblains. A less extreme application of cold affects the tissues and nuclei less powerfully, but none the less surely. The increased liability to disease of the chilled system is strikingly illustrated in the experiment of Pasteur with anthrax. The chicken which had proved refractory to an ordinary dose of anthrax virus, was dipped in water at ordinary temperature until the heat of its body was reduced, and then it fell an easy victim to the anthrax bacillus. In the same way the person who recklessly exposes himself to wet and chill falls a ready victim to intermittent or yellow fever from which he would otherwise have escaped. Debility from another cause, such as bruise or laceration, favors deep-seated invasion by pus cocci, and a resulting abscess, from which the patient would have remained free, but for such traumatism.

But the effect of cold is not confined to the sympathy between the skin and respiratory mucous membrane, nor the revulsion of the blood toward internal organs, nor to the debilitating of the tissues. The application of cold constringes the vessels and lessens the freedom of the circulation and suppresses the normal cutaneous exhalation. A somewhat similar condition may be induced by prolonged exposure to the rays of a burning sun, the skin becomes hot, dry and rigid, and incompatible with the maintenance of the respiratory function. In either case there is a retention of effete and deleterious matters in the circulation which it was the function of the skin to have eliminated. The danger of such retention may be best exemplified by noting the result of the complete repression of perspiration in the remarkable experiments of Fourcault and Bouley. The former covered dogs and other small animals with an impermeable varnish which induced death after some days or in some cases in a few hours. Bouley shaved three horses and covered the skin with tar. There resulted dullness, torpor, deep, slow breathing, weak and diminishing pulse, muscular tremors, manifest cooling of the body and expired air, and deep violet color of the mucous membranes. They died respectively on the seventh, ninth and tenth days. A fourth horse covered with a layer of strong glue and then with tar perished nine hours after the application. The bodies were like those of animals that had died of suffocation. The mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels was gorged with black blood, the lungs violently congested—dark red and heavy—the air tubes filled with frothy material, and the lining membrane of the heart had dark spots of blood extravasation. It is no longer then matter for surprise that temporary suppression of the insensible perspiration should be followed by diseases of the chest or abdomen, that extensive burns of the surface of the body should be speedily followed by inflammations of internal organs or that extensive and severe cutaneous inflammations should be associated with internal lesions.

Since the days of Hippocrates it has been universally acknowledged that moist seasons and localities are less salubrious than dry ones. As already observed moisture in a cold atmosphere intensifies its effect. In a hot, close atmosphere it strongly conduces to putrefaction in dead organic matter, and the air becomes loaded as a consequence with noxious gases, and in its lower strata with bacteria in a state of active growth. This condition is most intense in close, unventilated stables, and manifestly operates in both predisposing to and exciting those diseases of the chest and other parts, so frequent in such places. Winds raise and carry such germs, but also sooner rob them of virulence. (See Zymotic Diseases). Susceptible, young animals, newly housed, usually suffer the most severely from these injurious conditions. Often in their case frequent, extreme and sudden changes, and great atmospheric impurity, are combined with a diet to which they have been hitherto altogether unaccustomed. In young horses there are superadded the exertions—too often extreme—connected with training or work. There are the heats and chills, the soaking perspiration and the frigid winds and rain, the general exhaustion, but particularly the overwork of the respiratory organs, each of itself calculated to superinduce disease. Percivall justly remarks that among young horses, newly stabled and put to work, the prevailing diseases are “catarrh, sore throat, strangles, bronchitis, pneumonia and pleurisy.” His tables of the diseases attacking the horses of his own regiment (1st Life Guards), are so instructive that I here reproduce them:

A TABLE (COMPILED FROM EXTRACTS FROM A “REGISTER OF SICK HORSES”
LIMITED TO A GIVEN PERIOD) SHOWING THE COMPARATIVE AGES AT WHICH HORSES
APPEAR MOST DISPOSED TO CERTAIN ORGANIC DISEASES.

─────────────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────
│ │ │ │ No. 10 │ │
│ │ │ No. │ Years │ │
│ │ │above 5 │ and │ │
│ No. of │ No. in │ Years │Upwards │ No. 20 │
│Patients│ Their │ and │ but │ Years │
│Under 5 │ 5th │ Under │ under │ and │
│ Years. │ Year. │ 10. │ 20. │Upwards.│ Total.
─────────────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────
Disease of the │ │ │ │ │ │
lungs │ 170│ 50│ 20│ 50│ 10│ 300
Disease of the │ │ │ │ │ │
bowels │ 10│ 20│ 40│ 70│ 20│ 160
Disease of the │ │ │ │ │ │
brain │ 4│ 2│ 5│ 14│ 2│ 27
Disease of the │ │ │ │ │ │
eyes │ 30│ 10│ 70│ 35│ 5│ 150
─────────────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────

It will be seen that nearly one-half of the sicknesses, occurring among the horses of the regiment, were chest diseases, and that nearly three-fourths of these were in animals under five years old, or in those newly purchased from the country.

The subjoined table shows the relative prevalence of disease in different months of the year, deduced from the Register above referred to:

───────────────────────┬───────────┬───────────┬───────────┬─────────── │Disease of │Disease of │Disease of │Disease of │the Lungs. │the Bowels.│the Brain. │ the Eyes. ───────────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼───────────┼─────────── January │ 20│ 12│ 1│ 10 February │ 25│ 8│ ...│ 9 March │ 23│ 11│ 1│ 7 April │ 19│ 10│ 6│ 10 May │ 13│ 3│ 3│ 9 June │ 14│ 16│ 1│ 13 July │ 13│ 13│ 3│ 19 August │ 11│ 23│ 3│ 17 September │ 11│ 5│ 10│ 19 October │ 24│ 3│ 3│ 9 November │ 19│ 10│ 3│ 9 December │ 16│ 9│ 1│ 4 ───────────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼───────────┼─────────── Totals │ 208│ 123│ 35│ 135 ───────────────────────┴───────────┴───────────┴───────────┴───────────

In this table the extraordinary prevalence of lung diseases in spring and autumn is very noticeable. There only remains to notice the number of deaths occurring in the same regiment from pulmonary and other diseases.

Deaths from pulmonary disease 77 Deaths from other diseases (Glanders and Farcy and accidents 57 excepted)

It is thus seen that though individually less dangerous than many affections of the abdomen, brain, etc., yet by reason of their greater frequency chest diseases induce the greatest mortality among this class of stock.

In treating of the diseases of this class of organs they will be sub-divided according as they affect the _nose_, the _throat_, the _neck_, and the _chest_.

DISEASES OF THE NOSE.

EPISTAXIS. BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE.

Epistaxis as a primary and secondary affection. Causes—mechanical,
over-exertion, blood pressure, new formations, diseased mucosa,
disease of the nasal venous plexus, disease of heart or lungs, in
blood diseases, in hæmorrhagic constitution, in bacteridian diseases
of the respiratory organs. Symptoms. Often one nostril, blood bright,
red, clotted, sneezing, (not retching, acid, nor cough). _Treatment._
Mechanical, astringent, cold, plugging in solipedes and other animals:
hæmostatics.

As a primary affection this occurs more frequently in the horse than in any other domestic animal, though as a symptomatic disease it is common in all farm animals.

_Causes._ The most common causes are mechanical injury of the Schneiderian membrane, violent congestion of this membrane during extraordinary excitement or exertions, as in coughing, in a closely contested race, in a trying hunt, in drawing heavy loads, especially if uphill and with a tight collar. It may coincide with congestion of the brain acting to some extent as a vicarious discharge, or with the formation of new structures as polypus, or cancer, in which, from the looseness and friability of their texture, the vessels readily give way. The softened membrane is equally liable to laceration or rupture during the progress of inflammation and particularly when fibrinous (croupous) exudations are being detached. In all these cases animals of a strong, vigorous constitution and with a full or plethoric habit are most liable to be attacked. Various congestions of the mucosa in diseases of the heart or lungs are additional causes. Disease or injury of the cervical branch of the sympathetic nerve, and varicosity of the pituitary venous plexus must be accepted as occasional causes.

Epistaxis is also met with in states of general weakness and with deteriorated blood, as in anæmia, in the course of various fevers and in those hemorrhagic constitutions in which the altered blood appears to find an easy passage through the debilitated or ruptured coats of the bloodvessels. Thus it is seen in the so-called _purpura hemorrhagica_ in the horse, in _small-pox_ in sheep, in anthrax, and in _swine plague_ and hog cholera. _Hering_ records the case of a number of pigs suffering from a scorbutic affection and which bled profusely from the nose. In bleeders (hæmophilia) and in leucocythæmia it is liable to appear.

The ulcerations of the mucous membrane occurring in _glanders_ and _chronic catarrh_ have proved exciting causes of the hemorrhage. Lastly the intense heats of summer and prolonged exposure to the direct rays of the sun induce a general relaxation and a determination of blood to the surface which rouses to activity the latent tendency.

_Symptoms._ The bleeding, usually from one nostril only, falls in a succession of drops, (rarely in a stream), collects in clots around the nostril, and bespatters surrounding objects as it is expelled forcibly in sneezing. It is usually of a bright crimson hue or, in fevers or poisoned conditions of the blood, of a dark or blackish color. It is distinguished from pulmonary hemorrhage by the absence of cough and of a frothy condition, and from bleeding from the stomach by the absence of the blackened clots and acid odor which indicate the presence of the gastric juice.

It is usually to be further distinguished from these in all animals, save solipedes, by the absence of blood in the mouth.

_Treatment._ Nasal hemorrhage often stops spontaneously, but if the discharge is profuse or long continued, and especially in weak or anæmic conditions it must be treated energetically. Care should be taken, however, to ascertain first, whether it is not vicarious of some other and more dangerous condition like cerebral congestion.

The head should be placed in an elevated position by tying it up to the rack, and cold water or ice kept applied over the head and neck. Matico powder may be blown into the affected nostril during inspiration, or a solution of alum (4 drachms to 1 pint of water) or other astringent may be thrown in by means of a syringe. A tablespoonful of peroxide of hydrogen thrown into the nose with an ordinary syringe will give immediate relief. (Gillette.)

Plugging the affected nostril with a pellet of tow covered with matico, tannin, tincture of chloride of iron (1:10 or 20) or other astringent may be employed when other means fail. By means of a cord attached to the plug it may be withdrawn after all danger is past. In solipedes, if both nostrils must be plugged, wrap the tow around two elastic caoutchouc tubes and introduce these, or in the absence of these perform tracheotomy.

Any tendency to recurrence may be met by the internal administration of gallic acid (horse and cow ½–1 drachm), acetate of lead (horse and cow ½–1 drachm) or, in anæmic conditions, tincture of the perchloride of iron (horse and cow ½ oz.) in water.

RHINITIS. CORYZA. NASAL CATARRH. COLD IN THE HEAD.

Coryza in the horse: Causes, wet, cold after perspiration, damp
climate, stable, soil, new buildings, hygroscopic building materials,
youth, age, poverty, nervous sympathy, local irritants, iodine,
specific disease poisons. Symptoms, dry congestion, watery discharge,
muco-purulent discharge, eyes involved, chill, fever, circulatory and
breathing disturbance, defecation, urine, glandular swelling.
Inflammation of the sinuses, the severe effects. Duration in slight
cases, in severe, in sinus complication. Treatment, hygienic, nursing,
dietary, steam, sulphur dioxide, febrifuges, insufflation,
electricity, solvent, antiseptic, stimulant.

Under this head will be considered simple inflammation of the nasal mucous membrane. This disease might be considered as a mild febrile affection with the local manifestation in the nose, but it is more convenient to treat of it here as a malady of the nasal chambers.

CORYZA IN THE HORSE.

The chief _causes_ are exposure to wet and cold and especially when the subject is exhausted and the skin relaxed and covered with perspiration. In these circumstances a piercing wind, a cold drizzling rain, or a draught in the stable is particularly dangerous. Sudden alternations of temperature and especially a change to a warm stable when the general effect is aggravated by the impurity of the atmosphere and the irritant emanations from dung and urine. Damp climates are more injurious than those that are clear, dry, and bracing, and so are equally damp stables whether the moisture is due to the nature of the soil, such as a cold impervious and undrained clay, or of the building which, from its newness, may retain a dangerous amount of moisture in the plaster, or because of the hygroscopic properties of the building materials which draw moisture from the surrounding soil. It mainly attacks young horses after they have passed out of the hands of the breeder or dealer, and have been placed in new conditions of life alike as regards feeding, stabling and work. Old and ill-conditioned animals are more susceptible than the strong and vigorous, and the changes of the coat in spring and autumn prove strong predisposing causes. Nervous causes are potent in causing engorgement of the erectile tissue covering the turbinated bones, and local irritants, like septic dust, lime, ipecacuanha, pollen of certain plants, smoke, and irritating fogs may precipitate it. Iodine in large doses produces temporary catarrh. The weakness of the mucosa from a previous attack predisposes to a second. Occasionally the disease sweeps over a country, assuming the form of an _epizootic_ when it may perhaps be preferably considered as a catarrhal fever, strangles or mild type of _influenza_, _which see_.

_Symptoms._ In the _milder forms_ of _coryza_ the symptoms may be almost exclusively local, consisting in redness and dryness of the membrane lining the nose and sneezing, soon followed by the bilateral discharge of a thin transparent watery liquid, succeeded by a turbid flow (epithelial cells in excess) and after two or three days by a thick, white, flocculent, puriform fluid (suppuration diapedesis). With the supervention of the purulent discharge, comes an abatement of the local inflammation and the freer the discharge the greater usually is the relief obtained and the more rapid the recovery. The eyes are usually red and watery and sometimes the eyelids are swollen. This implies the continuity of the inflammation through the lachrymo-nasal duct, and the obstruction to the flow of tears into the nose.

When _constitutional disturbance_ exists a rough or staring coat appears as one of the first symptoms, the sneezing is more violent, the nasal mucous membrane is more reddened and swollen, the eyes more dull, sunken and watery, the mouth hot and clammy, the temperature of the body raised, the pulse more frequent and having a sharper beat, the impulse of the heart may often be felt by applying the hand to the chest just behind the left elbow, the appetite is fastidious and the secretions of the bowels and kidneys are diminished, the latter being denser and more highly colored, from the absorption of irritating or infecting matters the glands under the throat are swollen and the swelling of the mucous membrane may be such as to impair breathing and even to threaten suffocation. In severe cases in which the inflammation extends to the nasal sinuses there is heat and tenderness over the forehead and the pain and weight are manifested by the pendent head and the red sunken, watery eyes and tumefied eyelids. When it extends to the throat, the cough, the difficulty in swallowing and the local tenderness on handling are characteristic.

_Course._ With the occurrence of suppuration, improvement commences and if the inflammation does not extend beyond the nasal chambers, and if it is not kept up by a repetition or continuance of the cause the disease will have terminated in recovery in eight or ten days. For ulterior consequences in bad cases see _chronic catarrh_, _conjunctivitis_, _abscess of the nasal sinuses_, _laryngitis_, _stomatitis_, _staphylitis_.

_Treatment._ In slight cases the simplest treatment only is required. Place the animal in a dry, airy, loose box, clear of draughts, and with uniform temperature of 55° to 60° Fah., if obtainable. In the cold season blanket warmly, and hand-rub and loosely flannel bandage the legs. Feed on sloppy bran mashes only and add half an ounce to an ounce of powdered nitrate of potash daily. Give fresh water _ad libitum_, solicit the action of the bowels by giving injections of warm water three times a day, and encourage the nasal discharge by causing the patient to inhale steam for half an hour or an hour twice daily. This may be done by giving scalded bran in a nose-bag or by keeping the head over a bucket containing hay with boiling water poured over it, the steam being meanwhile directed by a bag open at both ends one of which is fixed around the animal’s nose and the other round the mouth of the bucket. As a local astringent, tonic and antiseptic the fumes of sulphur (burned behind the animal and no more concentrated than can be breathed with comfort) will do much to cut short the attack. It is more soothing if combined with steam. Shut doors and windows, add a few drops of alcohol to some pinches of sulphur and burn on paper laid on a clean shovel or piece of sheet iron. When enough has been used extinguish by covering with a cup or other object. Repeat several times a day. Under this treatment recovery may be completed in three or four days.

In severe cases attended with fever, besides the above a dose of laxative medicine may be given (three or four drachms of aloes), with this precaution, that if the fever is of a low type or the malady epizootic, half the dose only can be safely allowed (2 dr.) on account of the danger of superpurgation. The nostrils must be more assiduously steamed and linseed tea may advantageously replace fresh water as a beverage. If there is much swelling and tenderness of the glands a poultice should be applied to the throat and between the jaws, and sulphur fumes as advised above, or anodyne astringent insufflation powder may be resorted to. Morphia chlorate two grains, bismuth nitrate, six drachms and finely powdered gum arabic three drachms may be blown into the nostril during inspiration, or the astringent anodyne injection advised below for chronic catarrh may be used. Cocaine spray is often very helpful, or the same agent may be used in the liquid form on cotton wool inserted in the nasal chamber. If this is without effect a weak continuous current of electricity will cause constriction and give prompt relief. It may be repeated every few hours. In the absence of this the emanations from a weak solution of ammonia or from carbonate of ammonia may be used. In cases with excessive and persistent muco-purulent discharge, with presumptive infection from outside sources, or in the young, from the diseased maternal passages, insufflation with calomel, painting with a two grains to the ounce solution of nitrate of silver, or injection with some other germicide may be resorted to.

In case the fever is of a low type, liquor of the acetate of ammonia (4 ozs.), salammoniac (¼ oz.), or even carbonate of ammonia (½ oz.), may be given several times a day, with sweet spirits of nitre (½ oz.) and tincture of gentian (1 oz.) Alcoholic stimulants are often used. Inhalations of iodine and iodide of potassium with ether and chloroform are often successful.

SIMPLE CORYZA IN CATTLE.

Coryza mild in cattle. General treatment. Coryza in sheep from
exposure, intemperate seasons, clipping. Acute and chronic. Wholesale
treatment in flocks. Coryza in pigs. Coryza in dogs, simple,
secondary. Treatment, food, laxative, febrifuge, nauseating,
expectorant, antiseptic, gaseous, electric.

This is usually a very simple malady when confined to the nasal chambers, and not of infective origin. When, on the other hand, it attacks the sinuses it becomes a disease of extreme gravity. (See Catarrh of the Sinuses). Symptoms are as seen in the horse, but the discharge may be overlooked because of the animal licking it out with his tongue. Treatment does not essentially differ from that laid down above, and recovery may be expected in seven or eight days. If a laxative is wanted give from one to two pounds Epsom salts.

SIMPLE CORYZA IN SHEEP.

_Coryza_ is usually slight and is manifested by sneezing and running from the nose. It occurs in animals clipped or badly sheltered during the more inclement seasons. In the worst cases the discharge becomes persistent and emaciation ensues so that it is necessary to interfere. Valuable animals may be treated on the same principles as oxen, and in the case of large flocks by shelter in a warm, dry, cleanly and airy place and fumigations of steam and the fumes of burning sulphur repeated daily, together with nourishing diet, such as boiled barley or other grain, and quarter ounce doses of nitre and common salt.

CORYZA IN THE PIG.

Hogs are not very subject to this disease and are easily treated by warm, sloppy food, and as a laxative three or four croton beans, according to size, powdered and given in the aliment.

CORYZA IN DOGS.

Dogs are rarely the subjects of simple coryza, though it is constant in distemper. It sometimes proves troublesome in puppies and old dogs. A laxative (½–1 ounce castor oil) may be followed in strong and very feverish cases by tartar emetic (¼—½ grain) three times a day. Spraying or sponging the nose with a weak solution of chlorate of potass, common salt, or potassium permanganate will greatly relieve. Inhalation from burning sulphur, or from carbonate of ammonia, or both may be used when sponging or spraying is difficult. In inveterate cases, the weak electric current sent through the cheeks, or the insufflation of acetanilid, iodoform or calomel may be tried. As a rule, saltpeter in five grain doses, given in the water, will prove helpful, and in weak conditions wine, tincture of gentian or nux vomica may be used.

CHRONIC NASAL, CATARRH. NASAL GLEET. OZŒNA IN THE HORSE.

Chronic catarrh in horse, simple form, loss of tone, inflammation,
nature of discharge, glandular swellings, differentiation from
glanders. Treatment, astringent, tonic, stimulant, hygienic, locally
astringents, antiseptics, injections.

A chronic discharge from the nose is often seen in the horse as a sequel of _coryza_ or _sore throat_, or as an attendant on other affections of the upper air passages, and the different conditions productive of this symptom may here be noticed.

1ST. SIMPLE NASAL CATARRH. NASAL GLEET. OZŒNA.

In long standing _coryza_ the nasal mucous membrane becomes relaxed, fails to acquire its lost tone and continues to pour out a muco-purulent product. This is really a persistence of inflammation of a low type, under the influence of which the membrane secretes pus in place of its normal mucus. The discharge is white, thick, creamy, has little tenacity, and flows uninterruptedly. There may be slight enlargement of the submaxillary glands, and if the case is of long standing and the patient in low condition sores may appear on the mucous membrane. These ulcers are distinguished from those of _glanders_ by the absence of the unhealthy angry aspect and excavated borders of the latter, by the absence of the small nodular deposits on the mucosa, by the less viscid nature of the secretion, and by the absence of submaxillary swellings, or if these exist, by their being less nodular, less indurated and less firmly attached to surrounding parts. The coincidence of ulcers and submaxillary swellings is always, however, matter for the gravest suspicion, and such cases should, as a rule, be subjected to the mallein test. (See Glanders and Farcy).

_Treatment._ In simple nasal catarrh, due alone to the relaxation of the mucous membrane, the internal use of tonics and the local application of astringent solutions to the nose rapidly restore the parts to a healthy state.

Among _stimulants_, cubebs, cayenne pepper and copaiba have a stimulating and styptic effect on the mucous membrane and each of these has been successfully used in such cases. _Cantharides_, in five grain doses, have proved even more successful, (Vines, Percivall). _Sulphate of Copper_ in drachm doses in mucilage night and morning has proved very efficient (Sewell, Percivall). _Arsenious Acid_ has been employed with still better results. The dose, of five grains may be intimately mixed with a scruple of bicarbonate of soda and given daily in food.[1]

Footnote 1:

In giving this agent, any redness or watering of the eyes, or colicy
pain should be carefully watched for, and when these premonitory
symptoms of poisoning are noticed the medicine should be at once
suspended to be commenced a few days later in smaller doses.

But the most efficient tonic in these cases is arseniate of strychnia. Its good effects may be secured by combining with the above mentioned powders of arsenious acid and bicarbonate of soda, half a drachm of powdered nux vomica for each dose.[2] These powders will usually be taken in food, and may be continued for a month, or until the discharge ceases.

Footnote 2:

Whenever nux vomica or its alkaloids, strychnia or brucia, are given,
increased irritability and nervousness should be carefully watched for
and especially any involuntary twitching of the muscles. On their
appearance the agent must be suspended and commenced a few days later
in half the former doses.

In all cases the general health must be carefully attended to. Keep the patient in a dry, clean, airy building without draughts of cold air; give moderate exercise in the open air; and good grooming; and allow nutritious food of mildly laxative properties,—as occasional bran mashes and roots in winter and succulent grasses in summer.

_Local Applications._ These are the most important remedial measures and usually of themselves succeed in reestablishing a healthy condition.

The agents proving most useful are of an astringent nature and in obstinate cases one may be substituted for another as the last appears to lose its effect. Sulphate of Zinc or Sulphate of Copper in the proportion of half a drachm of either to a quart of water, may be used, or if there is much fœtor, a solution containing a drachm each of carbolic acid and carbonate of potash in a quart of water is to be preferred. In either case the addition of an ounce of pure glycerine renders the lotion at once more soothing and more efficient. The solution must be rendered tepid before injecting it, to obviate the irritation attending on the contact of a cold fluid with the delicate membrane of the nose. Among other agents may be named creolin, creosol, creosote, acetate of lead, potassium permanganate, and silver nitrate. Peroxide of hydrogen may be used either as injection or in spray.

The mode of injection is a matter of no small moment. It has been done in some instances by means of a large syringe but the irritation attendant on such a process is an insuperable objection to its use. A better instrument is that introduced by Professor Rey of Lyons. It consists in a tube bent on itself at an angle of 35° so as to form two arms of unequal lengths. The longer fifteen inches in length, one and a half in diameter and widening into a funnel at its free end;—the shorter about five inches long and tapering towards its free end where its aperture is only two-thirds of an inch across. The instrument is made of block tin or extemporaneously of gutta percha. Over the shorter arm is placed a tightly fitting leather ring four and a half inches in diameter on which is applied some wet tow to adapt it to the nostril and effectually close it. The nose having been drawn in so as to place the head in a vertical position, the short arm of the instrument is introduced into the affected nostril, and the liquid being gently poured into the long arm rises slowly in the nose until it is filled and the liquid flows from the nostril on the opposite side. In introducing the tube care must be taken that it may not irritate the inner wall of the nose on the one hand, nor pass into the blind pouch, known as the _false nostril_, on the other.

The greatest gentleness and tact are requisite in thus injecting the nostrils, though in troublesome animals it is sometimes necessary to resort to blindfolding or even to the application of a twitch on the ear, or finally to strapping the animal (head included) to a smooth firm vertical surface (operating table).

COLLECTION OF PUS IN THE NASAL SINUSES.

Nasal Sinuses, position, orifice, suppuration, symptoms, treatment,
tonics, astringents, antiseptics, trephining, significance of the
fœtor, mode of recovery.

In severe _coryza_ the nasal sinuses become implicated as shown by the intensity of the symptoms, the prostration, the hanging head, and the heat and sometimes tenderness between the eyes and immediately beneath them on the side of the upper jaw. These sinuses are large spaces filled with air, situated between the superficial and deep plates of the bones of the face and opening into the nostrils by a narrow orifice in the upper part of the nasal chambers. When pus is largely formed in these it fails to flow out as rapidly as produced, parts with a portion of its liquid elements, increases in consistency and sometimes even undergoes decomposition, so that the discharge from the nostril has a putrid odor.

The most distinctive symptoms of this form of _nasal gleet_ are obtained by percussing the sinuses, and in those cases in particular in which the accumulation is confined to one side of the head, the contrast between the two sides is unmistakable. By gently tapping the forehead with the middle finger from one eye to the other the flat solid sound on the diseased side is easily distinguished from the clear drum-like resonance on the healthy one. By tapping on the bone beneath each eye and just above the ridge on the side of the upper jaw, the difference between the two sides will be recognized in the same way. In some old standing cases increased tenderness and slight bulging of the bones over the affected sinuses are often superadded to the other symptoms. The eye on the affected side is usually retracted so as to seem smaller.

_Treatment._ In some cases the use of tonics and astringent injections as recommended for the treatment of _ozœna_ will prove successful, but more usually it is needful to open and inject the sinuses.

For this the following articles are required: scissors, a knife, forceps, a trephine or circular saw from half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter and a whalebone or metallic prob.

The horse is thrown and made fast with the diseased side of the head uppermost. A point is then selected on a line drawn between the centres of the two eyeballs and an inch to one side the median line of the forehead; the hair is closely removed with the scissors, and a semi-circular flap of skin over an inch in diameter is dissected from the bone and turned back toward the poll. The trephine is next applied on the bone and a circular portion, having been cut through, is pulled out by the forceps, when the imprisoned pus will commonly ooze from the opening. A second point is chosen just above the lower end of the bony ridge of the upper jaw already referred to and opposite the third molar tooth, counting from before; the hair is removed as before, a flap of the skin raised upward and backward and the bone trephined to open the second sinuse. The point of election for this orifice is more important than that of the first. If it is too near the eye the lower part of the sinus, which is separated from the upper by an imperforate bony plate, is not opened and may continue to keep up the discharge from the nose. If on the contrary it is made too low down, the lower sinuse only is opened and the upper being imperfectly washed out from the wound in the forehead will keep up the discharge. Either then this plate must be struck with the trephine or it must be afterward perforated to secure a favorable result. The prob introduced by the wound in the forehead should further appear at the lower orifice.

The cavities are to be washed out first with clear tepid water, and thereafter daily with an astringent solution such as that used for injecting the nose. If the discharge does not escape freely by the lower orifice its exit may be facilitated by drawing a tape through the sinuses, from the upper to the lower, and retaining it there by a knot on each end.

Marked fœtor of the wound will usually indicate necrosis at the edge of the wound, and demands the use of bone forceps or chisel to remove the offending bone.

A cure is affected by the restoration of the membrane to its natural state, or in other cases by the filling up and obliteration of the cavity by granulation.

ABSCESS OF THE FALSE NOSTRIL OR TURBINATED BONES.

Structure of turbinated bones: suppuration or abscess, obstructed
breathing, treatment, puncture, plugging, injection, trephining.

The turbinated bones are two fragile bony structures attached to the outer wall of each nasal chamber. The posterior half of each bone closes the corresponding nasal sinuse; the anterior half is rolled upon itself as a sheet of paper might be, and is accordingly open along one side. In this latter a collection of pus may result from severe inflammatory action and the resulting discharge may become somewhat chronic. The flow is greatest after the nose has been raised, from the pus having previously gravitated into a sac in the lower end of the bone. The pus may moreover pass backward into the larnyx from the raising of the head and induce a violent fit of coughing. Sometimes the inflammation has extended to the bones covering the nose which are bulging and tender. The thin turbinated bone gives way under the distension, bulges into the nose, and often stops the passage of air through that side. This symptom and the appearance of the swelling cause a close approximation in symptoms to nasal polypus. The facts that it supervened on a severe _coryza_, that it fluctuates on pressure if within reach of the finger, and that pus escapes when it is punctured, exclude the idea of polypus.

_Treatment._ Puncture of the abscess inside the nose, plugging and daily astringent injections will usually rapidly cure. Gamgee, Jessen and others, recommend trephining of the bone above the nose and washing it out daily, adding that an extensive removal of the bone will correct any existing bulging and deformity.

NASAL DISCHARGE FROM CARIOUS TEETH, ETC.

Ulceration into sinus from caries, loss of molar, overgrown molar.
Fœtor, tenderness. Foreign body in the nose.

In cases of a diseased molar tooth in the upper jaw, food getting firmly impacted in the hollow space, irritates the pulp in the fang and the adjacent bone until the progress in ulceration reaches the nasal chamber or sinuse and a nasal discharge is established. If an upper molar tooth is lost the molar formerly opposed to it in the lower jaw grows out and sets up the same train of symptoms. In all cases then in which nasal gleet is associated with much fœtor and with difficulty in eating, a careful examination of the teeth should be made. (See Diseases of the Teeth).

FOREIGN BODY IN THE NOSE.

Professor Gamgee records the destruction of an animal for glanders in which the cause of the discharge was afterwards found to be a physic ball coughed up into the posterior part of the nose and firmly impacted there.

COLLECTIONS OF PUS IN THE GUTTURAL POUCHES.

Structure, position and opening of pouches, inflamed by extension.
Symptoms, discharge intermittent with pendent head, swallowing,
pasturing, cough, roaring, dyspnœa, inhalation of food, parotid
swelling, glandular enlargement. Nature of contents. Treatment,
pasturage, blister, tonics, irrigation, puncture, injection.

Though this is commonly a result of severe sore throat or strangles, yet as it causes a chronic discharge from the nose liable to be confounded with those properly due to diseases of the nasal chamber, it is noticed in this place.

The guttural pouches are two mucous sacs peculiar to solid footed animals. They lie side by side above the throat, and in direct contact with the lower surface of the superior bones of the head and the first bone of the neck. They are properly speaking dilatations of the Eustachian tubes which in all animals establish a communication between the pharynx and the middle ear. The opening into the pharynx is at the anterior extremity of the pouch and close to the posterior opening of the nostril, hence the discharge takes place chiefly or exclusively when the head is lowered, since gravitation then favors the escape of the fluid.

Frequently implicated in severe sore-throat the walls of the guttural pouches pour out pus as readily as other mucous membranes in a state of inflammation. As the escape of this product is hindered alike by the narrowness of the orifice and, in the elevated position of the head, by gravitation, it frequently becomes imprisoned and inspissated and proves a permanent source of irritation and discharge. In the early stages the contents are glairy with whitish or yellowish clots; later they are creamy, caseous or even cretaceous. The mucosa, at first red, congested and tumefied, becomes in chronic cases, hard, thick, puckered and adherent to adjacent structures. It sometimes ulcerates and the contents escape in mass, through the pharynx and nose, or externally behind the angle of the lower jaw. In the last case water swallowed may escape through the opening. More commonly the pus remains pent up, and thickens, and may dry and roll into round or oval pellets from the movements of deglutition. The discharge may be arrested for weeks or months when such masses block the outlet.

_Symptoms._ The nasal discharge is intermittent or irregular, being often partially or wholly suppressed by keeping the head elevated, and reappearing or becoming profuse when it is lowered. Feeding from the ground, nibbling roots, or pasturing increases the discharge, as the dependent position of the outlet, the jerking and shaking of the head and the movements of deglutition all favor its exit. Swelling of the parotidean region, a flatness instead of resonance on percussion, and the flattening and discharge and sometimes gurgling by manipulation are characteristic. There is cough, roaring during active exertion, sometimes dyspnœa, and, in bad cases, food may be drawn into the bronchia with serious and even fatal results. When the orifice is blocked and the pouch filled with gas the elastic swelling and resilience are characteristic, and pressure may flatten it with a gurgling sound. These symptoms serve to differentiate it from peripharyngeal abscess. The submaxillary lymphatic glands are usually swollen but less than in glanders and not so hard.

_Treatment._ In mild and recent cases in which the contents of the pouch have not yet become thick and dry, a cure may be effected; _in winter_ by feeding the animal from the ground and largely with roots; _and in summer_, by turning out to grass. In either case the matter is allowed to escape almost as soon as formed and the irritated membrane tends to resume its healthy functions. This result will be favored by giving a course of tonics as recommended in _simple ozœna_, and the application of a mild blister to the throat.

Should this fail an operation must be resorted to. Günther, of Hanover, uses an instrument in the form of a tube a yard long, half an inch in diameter, slightly curved for two inches at one end which is blind, and having an orifice on one side close to this extremity. This tube having been introduced through the chamber of the nose on the affected side and its curved end having been carried into the narrow opening of the Eustachian pouch, tepid water is pumped in and the pouch thoroughly cleaned out. Astringent solutions are then employed. The introduction of the tube is, however, a very difficult operation and one quite impossible to any one who has not the most accurate knowledge of the parts in question.

A second mode of operating is by external incision. For this purpose are wanted scissors, knife, artery forceps, iron probe bent in the form of the letter S, and a tape. The horse having been thrown and fastened and the head extended, the hair is removed from a surface in front of the prominent border of the first bone of the neck, and an incision made between this border and the parotid gland. The incision is made immediately beneath a tendon which may be felt as a flattened cord crossing the border of the bone in its upper third, and it should be carried downward one and a half inches parallel to the margin of the bone. In this preliminary stage the operator has to carefully avoid injury to the parotid gland and the posterior auricular artery and vein. The skin and fascia having been divided the index finger of the left hand is pushed inward and forward until the prominent angle of the large cornu of the hyoid bone is felt, together with the muscle (stylo-hyoid) inserted into this bone above the angle referred to. The next step is important since crossing on the inner side of this muscle and bone at their point of union is the (internal carotid) artery which becomes subsequently enveloped in a fold of the membranous wall of the guttural pouch. The slightest variation in the position of the artery may here prove fatal unless the greatest caution is used. With the knife guarded by the index finger of the right hand the muscle is cut through from behind forward and the pulsation of the artery felt for beneath. Avoiding its position the knife, with its cutting edge turned forward and its point directed toward the horse’s nose, is pushed through the walls of the sac. The curved prob is now introduced and carried downward until it is felt beneath the skin just behind the angle of the lower jaw. This may be safely cut down upon with the knife as important parts (vessels and nerves) have been turned aside by its pressure. A tape attached to the prob is now drawn through the pouch and retained by a knot on each end. Tepid water must be injected through the lower orifice daily for three weeks, astringent antiseptic injections thrown in occasionally and the horse fed from the ground. At the end of this period the tape may be removed, and the wounds allowed to heal. During the course of treatment it is always advisable to change the tape several times by cutting the knot off one end of the old one, stitching the new one to it and drawing it through.

_Puncture of the pouch at its lower part_ is a very simple operation when the accumulation of pus is abundant and chronic. The distended pouch gravitates downward largely separating the parotid from the deeper vessels and nerves, and finally fluctuates toward the lower end of the gland. In extreme cases it even opens and discharges. When fluctuation can be felt the sac may be incised with a bistoury or abscess knife and treated like a common sore. Opening with a pointed or olive-shaped cautery has the advantage of checking hæmorrhage and securing more perfect drainage. When there is no fluctuation the incision must be made just beneath the lower border of the parotid, the parotidoauricularis being first cut through, then the gland dissected from the deeper parts when the distended sac can usually be felt and opened. If not felt at once it can easily be reached by a careful dissection upward through the loose subparotidean connective tissue, with the finger nail or handle of the scalpel. A free opening may be made and the wound injected daily with a weak antiseptic solution.

ABSCESS OF THE FALSE NOSTRIL.

In young horses as the result of injury from the bridle or severe _coryza_, a circumscribed swelling sometimes appears on the outer flap of the nostril, at first firm, hot and tender, with a surrounding pasty infiltration, then forming into a tense elastic ovoid mass, the size of a pigeon’s or chicken’s egg. It may become chronic and remain for an indefinite period comparatively insensible to touch and only slightly interfering with the movements of the nostrils. As soon as the elastic tension betrays the presence of pus it should be evacuated by a free incision made from inside the nostrils and the wound plugged with medicated tow and allowed to heal by granulation.

NEOPLASMS IN THE HORSE’S NOSE.

Nasal fibrous polypus, connection, form, size, bony distortion,
obstructed breathing, abrasion, ulceration, sloughing, submucous
polypus, structure, degeneration. Symptoms, sneezing, snuffling,
discharge, palpation, bony swelling, tenderness. Treatment, forceps,
hook, ecraseur, knife, saw. Actinomycosis. Sarcoma, Carcinoma.
Consistency, structure, fœtor, glandular swelling. Treatment.
Recurrence. Fatty tumors. Bony tumors: cancellated or compact tissue,
localized or extended. Cysts. Strongyli. Angioma. Varicosity. Color,
obstruction to breathing, hæmorrhage, cicatrization.

These are essentially surgical diseases yet as they induce Chronic Catarrh they may be profitably noticed here.

I. =Fibrous Nasal Polypus.= These are connected to the mucosa by a pedicle or broad base, and vary in size from a pea to a mass which fills the entire nasal chamber, projects from the nostrils and presses outward the septum and facial bones. At times they weigh one or more pounds. They may cause whistling or rattling in breathing, or may completely obstruct the passage of air on the affected side. In time they may cause bulging or even attenuation and perforation of the bony walls, projecting through the hard palate or on the face. Sometimes the surface becomes the seat of granulation, ulceration, or sloughing, causing more or less fœtor. The large polypi make their main growth forward and backward, moulding themselves to the form of the chamber, and displacing the turbinated bones. They commence to grow under the mucous membrane and as they grow and become more loosely attached they carry this as an outer covering and pedicle. When incised they show a structure of interlacing bundles of fibres, with cell elements more or less abundant, according to the rapidity of growth. Gravitz found amyloid degeneration of the walls of the blood vessels and mucous follicles and of the fibres.