PSEUDOMEMBRANOUS PHARYNGITIS IN SHEEP.
Cause; infected dust on susceptible subject; inoculation. Symptoms; movement of jaws; frothy lips; salivation; viscid nasal discharge; difficult swallowing and breathing; swollen tender throat; extended head; anorexia; cyanosis; open mouth; cough expels shreds of false membrane; asphyxia. Lesions. Treatment; Glauber salts or muriatic acid in water; antiseptic fumigation and drinking water; antisepsis of the pharynx.
Roche-Lubin speaks of this disease as common in flocks, as the result of moving them around for twenty-four hours in a narrow enclosure covered with dust which is raised in a cloud and settles in the fleece so as to increase its weight. The fever and excitement caused by the constant driving and the local action of the infected dust on the respiratory mucous membrane is said to bring about the intense exudative inflammation. It has been seen especially in the spring in young lambs shortly after weaning. Damman claims that he transmitted the disease to sheep by inoculating the diphtheritic exudate of the calf.
Symptoms. There were constant movements of the jaws, with the accumulation of frothy saliva round the lips or the drivelling of this secretion from the mouth, the discharge of a viscid white material from the nose, difficulty of deglutition, hurried, panting, snuffling breathing, swelling and tenderness of the throat, and the occurrence of cough and the discharge of mucopurulent matter whenever it was pressed. The head and neck are held rigidly extended, the eyes are dull or glazed, the appetite is completely lost, the mucosæ red and cyanotic and the animal weak and unsteady upon its limbs. By the third or fourth day respiration has become so difficult that the mouth is held constantly open, the tongue protruded and the painful convulsive cough leads to the expulsion by the nose and mouth of shreds of false membrane. Careful examination of the nose or of the fauces may detect the grayish or yellowish patches of false membrane at an earlier stage. Death by asphyxia is common.
Lesions do not differ materially from those seen in the calf. The inflammation and pseudomembranous exudate may extend as far as the trachea and bronchia in which case the indications of death by asphyxia are clearly marked.
Treatment is the same as for the calf. Tepid drinks slightly acidified with muriatic acid, or the addition to the drinking water of one pound of sulphate of soda to every fifty sheep has been especially recommended. Fumigation with sulphurous acid or chlorine is easy of application in flocks. As alternatives for addition to the water may be named hyposulphite or bisulphite of soda, borax, carbolic acid, or spirits of turpentine. For treatment individually swabbing the throat with antiseptics and dilute caustics, electuaries, and hot poultices to the throat may be tried.