Provided the condition is diagnosed early, the prognosis is not grave; but when patients have become exhausted and anæmic they require a long time to recover, even when freed from parasites.
Treatment. Guittard recommends empyreumatic oil as very efficacious, and gives it in doses of 2½ to 3 drachms diluted with ordinary oil, or emulsified with any kind of mucilage.
Calomel gives good results, and maybe administered in doses of 15 to 60 grains, according to the animal’s age and size.
Powdered areca nut would probably be easier to administer with the food. Oil of turpentine is given mixed with ordinary oil, but its action is less certain.
STRONGYLOSIS OF THE ABOMASUM IN THE OX.
Although well studied by Stadelmann and Ostertag in Germany, and by Stiles in America, this disease has not yet been regarded in France as giving rise to accidents.
It is produced by the Strongylus convolutus rel Ostertagi, which becomes embedded under the epithelium of the mucous membrane and causes the formation of small nodules, the size of a pin’s head or lentil, which can be detected on palpation. The cavity thus formed beneath the epithelium communicates with the gastric cavity by a little orifice, through which the cephalic end of the parasite passes.
PARASITIC GASTRO-ENTERITIS, DIARRHŒA, AND ANÆMIA IN CATTLE, SHEEP AND LAMBS.
A disease characterised by anæmia with wasting and diarrhœa is sometimes produced in cattle by the presence in the fourth stomach of small strongyles varying in size between 3 and 9 millimètres in length, according to the variety encountered. One variety of the smaller size has been named by McFadyean Strongylus gracilis. Penberthy, who described the disease in the Jour. of Comp. Path. and Therap. for 1894, p. 249, states that in certain cases he also found the Strongylus ventricosus, the Tricocephalus affiinis, and minute straight worms about ²⁄₂₅ of an inch long, which he regarded as anguillulæ. Neumann declares that pernicious anæmia with catarrh of the abomasum in young animals is due to Strongylus convolutus.
The symptoms comprise anæmia, wasting, and diarrhœa of varying severity. In acute cases, which are common between the ages of six months and two years, husk is sometimes (accidentally) present. The disease is rarest in summer. Certain animals lose flesh rapidly, though appetite is retained. Acute fœtid watery diarrhœa follows. The animal shows tenesmus, appears dejected, and has a temperature of 103° to 105° Fahr. The mucous membranes become pale, the pulse small and weak, the appetite capricious, the eyes sunken, belly tucked up, coat harsh and dry and hide tight. Wasting is rapid. The animals are listless, and often lie down for long periods. Death occurs from exhaustion.