“Acute and chronic forms are seen. The former has the general causes and symptoms of pharyngitis—fever, dulness, a disposition to lie with head extended and buried in litter, drooping ears, watery eyes, indifferent appetite, painful deglutition, and sometimes vomiting. Mouth red and hot, breath fœtid, tonsils swollen, their alveoli filled with muco-purulent matter or with fœtid cheese-like masses. Cough at first dry and hard, later loose and gurgling.
In chronic form there is general swelling of the tonsils with distension of follicles by above-mentioned putty-like masses, which are often calcareous. These are due to the proliferation of microbes, which find in these alveoli a most favourable field for their propagation. The affection usually ends in recovery, but may go on to grave local ulceration and general infection.
Treatment. Astringent antiseptics to buccal mucous membrane. Electuaries of honey or treacle and borax, sal ammoniac, chlorate or permanganate of potash and externally stimulating embrocations to the skin of the throat. In some cases solutions of iron chloride or tincture of iodine may be used with advantage and as a wash for the mouth and fauces. Attend to general health. If constipated give Glauber’s salt or jalap, ... and elimination through the kidneys must be sought through the use of nitrate of potash or other diuretic.” (Law’s “Veterinary Medicine,” Vol. II. p. 46.)
PHARYNGITIS.
Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the pharynx is less frequent in the ox than in the horse, a fact probably due to its less sensitive character in the ox and to differences in the methods of working oxen.
Causation. The causes are numerous and varied; and although local microbic infection undoubtedly plays the most effective part in the development of the disease, it is none the less certain that external influences are of considerable importance. For this reason chills, sudden variations in temperature, sudden arrest of perspiration, and currents of cold air have always been invoked as causes. Cruzel thinks that the ingestion of ice-cold water in winter is sufficient to produce acute pharyngitis. The action of rough forage may of itself explain the development of pharyngitis in animals constantly kept indoors under excellent hygienic conditions. In such cases the disease may be regarded as of traumatic origin. Furthermore, it is necessary to mention direct injuries of the mucous membrane caused by clumsy examination, awkwardness in passing the probang, and attempts on the animal’s part to swallow sharp foreign bodies, which scratch, tear, lacerate, or penetrate the mucous membrane and become fixed in it.
Finally, another series of causes, and not the least important, remains to be considered—viz., the forced administration of irritant substances like ammonia, tincture of iodine, oil of turpentine, very hot liquids, etc.
To sum up, the four great series of causes consist in direct irritation, intra-pharyngeal wounds, variations in temperature, or primary or secondary microbic infections.
The symptoms are characteristic. They consist in loss of appetite, difficulty in swallowing, consequent on the condition of the pharynx, and fever, which is often marked from the first. Pharyngeal dysphagia can easily be distinguished from that due to injury of the œsophagus, inasmuch as it occurs on the first attempt to swallow.
Urged on by hunger, the animal grasps food, which it chews and attempts to swallow, but immediately allows it to fall back into the manger, or ejects it by a painful coughing effort. In the case of liquids, even of lukewarm drinks, the same accident occurs, the food or liquid being returned by the nostrils. Slight salivation results from this difficulty in swallowing. The animal’s attitude is similar to that in parotiditis. The head is held stiffly, extended on the neck, in order to avoid compressing the region of the pharynx, and can only be moved slowly and with much pain. There is no apparent swelling of the parotid region, but on manipulating or pressing on the gullet the animal sometimes manifests the very acute tenderness of the parts by coughing and endeavouring to thrust away or to kick the examiner. Finally, examination of the mouth sometimes shows reddening and excessive sensibility of the soft palate and of the pillars of the fauces.