Treatment. As broncho-pneumonia is frequently of a secondary character, treatment should at first be particularly directed against the primary condition, whether in the mammary gland, uterus or elsewhere. Early treatment of suppurative mammitis, metritis, etc., is therefore necessary.
Broncho-pneumonia is treated by free vesication of the walls of the chest, the administration of tonics and antiseptics, alcohol in small doses, acetate of ammonia in doses of 1 to 2 drachms, salicylate of soda in doses of 5 to 8 drachms per day, salicylic acid in doses of 1 drachm, and creosote in doses of 1½ to 5 drachms, given in electuary, etc.
Diuretics, farinaceous gruels, etc., may be used freely, and are of value.
If the symptoms persist or become aggravated, and suggest the development of an abscess or gangrene, it is better to slaughter the animal.
BRONCHO-PNEUMONIA OF SUCKING CALVES.
Young animals still with the mother, particularly calves during the first few weeks of life, are liable to broncho-pneumonia of a specialised character, as regards not only its causes, but its development and duration.
Causation. The causes may be grouped under two principal heads:—
(a) In slow or difficult cases of parturition, the fœtus may be injured whilst being delivered, as a consequence of direct compression of the great blood-vessels, etc. (particularly of compression of the umbilical cord, compression of the thorax in the cardiac region, or partial premature separation of the envelopes), and may thus by reflex action make automatic inspiratory movements.
Respiration being impossible, inasmuch as the thorax has not yet passed the posterior passages, such inspiratory efforts made during the passage through the pelvis may cause amniotic liquid to pass into the bronchi. This accident is particularly liable to occur during deliveries with breech presentation. If, as happens frequently, the amniotic liquid has become infected either prior to or as a consequence of obstetrical manipulation, the result is fatal; for the passage of infected amniotic fluid into the bronchi develops a broncho-pneumonia of a degree of gravity depending on the character of infection.
(b) By an entirely different mechanism broncho-pneumonia may occur in sucking calves during the first few weeks of life, even in the case of animals born in a vigorous condition, and kept in warm and well-arranged stables. This form follows diarrhœa, and constitutes a final complication which is always of very marked gravity, and in most cases fatal.