The prognosis is grave.
Treatment comprises administration of alkaline draughts, solutions of bicarbonate of soda, calcined magnesia, etc., and of mucilaginous drinks containing opium, chalk, etc. This may produce temporary relief.
Water mixed with whipped whites of eggs is also extremely valuable, but it is often better to slaughter the animal as soon as the condition is diagnosed.
POISONING BY COMMON SALT.
This form of poisoning is rare in oxen on account of the large quantity of salt which can be ingested without producing bad effects. It is commonest in animals to which old brine has been given or which have received rough salt containing toxic substances (sheep and pigs). Beef, pork, or fish brine, four or five months old, is especially dangerous because of the toxins it contains. Half a pint is a fatal dose for a pig (Reynal). The symptoms include marked thirst, vomiting and diarrhœa; at a later stage motor and nervous disturbance appears, resulting from poisoning of the cerebro-spinal system. Paralysis, epileptiform convulsions, trismus, coma and death characterise extremely acute cases.
To the naked eye, the lesions are those of acute gastro-enteritis; and, in many cases, of marked congestion of the brain and medulla and of the mucous membrane of the bladder.
The treatment is prophylactic and hygienic. Old brine and salt of doubtful purity should be avoided. The symptoms should be treated by administering diuretics, preferably soda bicarbonate, which does not irritate the kidney, and by giving mucilaginous drinks with anodynes.
POISONING BY THE NITRATES OF POTASH AND SODA.
This form of poisoning has frequently been described as following the ingestion of water used for washing sacks which have contained chemical manures. Occasionally it results from the administration of medicines containing excessive doses of nitrate of potash. The symptoms vary in severity with the purity of the salt, with its nature, and with the degree of concentration of the solution: nitrate of potash is more dangerous than nitrate of soda.
The chief symptoms may be grouped as follows:—