Diagnosis. The diagnosis presents no difficulty, for the development and acute course of the disease (the majority of patients die within a week of birth) leave little room for doubt.
This disease is easily distinguished from dysentery in new-born animals, which appears at birth, as also from simple diarrhœic enteritis; in the latter disease the symptoms are delayed, sometimes occurring only when the animals are weaned; moreover, the disease is never so grave as that now under consideration.
Should, however, the post-mortem appearances seem indecisive, the diagnosis can be based simply on the high mortality.
Prognosis. The prognosis is extremely grave. About 95 per cent. of the animals attacked die, and among those which survive many show thoracic complications, that render them useless.
Treatment. Treatment of animals already affected is useless, and, moreover, too costly. Drugs administered through the digestive apparatus to a large extent miss their mark, because the digestive symptoms are secondary, primary infection having occurred through the circulation. The administration of purgatives and internal antiseptics can, therefore, only prove illusory.
On the other hand, prophylactic treatment is of the greatest value; all that is necessary is to prevent the umbilical cord from becoming infected.
The great mortality, which causes such severe loss to breeders, is simply due to want of proper care of new-born animals. Even in carefully kept byres the mortality may be high, for the specific agent develops in litter contaminated with fæcal matter, by lying on which young animals become fatally infected.
Fig. 184.—Dressing for umbilicus of new-born calf.
To check or prevent this septicæmia in breeding establishments, it is merely necessary to take the same precaution as is taken in dealing with young children, i.e., to apply an aseptic or antiseptic dressing to the stump of the cord after ligation. As soon as the young animal has been dried by the mother or by artificial means, a carefully boiled ligature is applied to the cord at a distance of about 1 inch from the umbilical ring. The portion of the cord below the ligature is snipped off, the remaining part is carefully washed with boiled water or boric solution, and is surrounded with a mass of iodoform wool, kept in place by a bandage passed over the back.