The lesions are those of hæmorrhagic enteritis.
Treatment is principally of a preventive character. The cakes should be examined, and if they contain insufficiently crushed seeds or beans should be discontinued or given in smaller quantities. The proportion of ricin in mixed rape and castor cakes should be determined.
Curative treatment consists in removing the cause and treating the enteritis. The latter is best controlled by giving emollients, diuretics, and mucilaginous drinks prepared from linseed, marsh-mallow, barley, etc.
POISONING BY COTTON CAKE.
Cotton cake forms a rich food, which fattens animals very rapidly, but given in excess may produce true poisoning, and if prepared from undecorticated seed may produce mechanical irritation ending in obstruction of the bowel.
The latter accident occurs only in the sheep. It consists in obstruction of the omasum (œsophageal gutter), and particularly of the abomasum, by the woody seed covering, the fibres of which become agglutinated and close the pyloric opening, just as do the fragments of wool or the hairs in animals affected with the licking habit (pica, depraved appetite). The mass thus formed passes into the intestine, and is apt to become fixed at some point and to cause death.
In the ox, as in the sheep, true poisoning may result from the action of an injurious principle which Cornevin discovered in the seed and particularly in the meal. The relative rarity of such accidents is explained by the composition of the cakes, which are rich in husks but poor in meal.
In the first series of accidents the symptoms resemble those produced by the intestinal obstructions peculiar to the licking disease; in the second they appear about the eighth to the fifteenth day, and are indicated by sensitiveness of the abdomen and by efforts to pass urine. The urine is albuminous; at a later stage it becomes darker in colour, reddish, and stained with hæmoglobin. The mucous membranes exhibit a sub-icteric tint.
Lesions. The liver shows interstitial hepatitis, consequent on changes in the hepatic cells due to the poisonous principle. The kidney first shows lesions of interstitial, but afterwards of epithelial, nephritis; the endothelium of the tubes appears to be undergoing proliferation.
Treatment should only be undertaken when the organic lesions seem trifling, and suggest the possibility of cure without excessive outlay. Under such circumstances it is sufficient to remove the cause and to supply proper diet.