LIVER FLUKE
A few liver flukes in an animal causes little trouble, as the injury is largely mechanical anyway. No peculiar symptoms are conspicuous when only a few flukes are present. The greatest damage is done when hundreds of flukes develop in a single individual. In these cases the flow of the bike is checked. As result the health becomes impaired and the usual penalties of malnutrition follow. Swelling of the jaws and diarrhœa are often noticed in connection with the disease.
When the host is badly infected with the flukes and in a badly run-down condition the trouble is always serious, and medicinal treatment is of little real value. Tonics and good food may be given to help along—but death usually follows. Salt is helpful as the flukes are sensitive to it. If an animal that has succumbed to the disease be examined, the liver will be observed to be fairly rotten as a result of the inroads of the parasites.
Treatment is in line of prevention only. Clean, pure fresh water, free of the eggs or the parasites, is necessary if the trouble is to be eradicated. The old ponds, ordinarily filled with stagnant water, should be drained. They harbor many bad parasites, and their harm is far beyond their value. When water for sheep and cattle is taken from pure streams or wells the trouble from liver flukes and other parasites is reduced to a minimum.
LOCKJAW.
—This disease, very frequently called tetanus, is an infectious disease in which the body muscles are spasmodically contracted or stiffened. The muscles that move the jaw are frequently affected and the animal is unable to open the mouth. Because of this condition the disease is commonly known as lockjaw.
The spread of the disease does not occur through healthy animals coming in contact with animals having tetanus, but by inoculation. The germ of tetanus is present in the soil, manure and dust. It enters the body by way of wounds, especially punctured and bruised wounds. The injury may result from stepping on a nail, and the germs are planted in the deeper structures of the foot. Such a wound usually has poor drainage, the horn of the hoof closing the mouth or opening. Here the germs grow and produce a poisonous toxin that is said to be the most powerful produced by any bacteria. This toxin acts on the nerve centers of the brain and spinal cord, causing extensive spasmodic contraction of the body muscles.
Tetanus sometimes occurs in the absence of any noticeable wound. It may be in such cases that the seat of the infection is a slight abrasion of the skin, or the lining membranes of the respiratory and digestive tracts. The tetanus bacillus is a slender, spore-producing bacterium. The spore is located at one end of the rod in the form of a round head, that gives the organism a pin shape, hence the name of pin bacillus. It is very resistant to outside conditions and the action of the chemical disinfectants. It is because of its ability to resist the action of disinfectants and the fact that it develops best when protected or covered by the tissues and wound secretions, that this disease so often follows ordinary wound treatment.
