Fig. 193.—Scutum and scutellum of female Boophilus annulatus, showing mouth parts, porose areas (p. a.), and eyes (e). Greatly magnified. (Stiles, Ann. Rep., U.S.A. Bur. An. Ind., 1900, p. 392.)
“In other acute cases a twitching and quivering of the muscles will be observed, especially of those situated in the flank and behind the shoulder. The pulse and breathing are much quickened, and the animal will stand and grind its teeth and curl up its upper lip, indicating great uneasiness and pain. The fæces during the early stages of the disease are very often soft, with a tendency to diarrhœa, more especially in transport oxen on the road, but they invariably become hard as the disease advances; but whether hard or soft, they have generally a brownish tinge, and often mixed more or less with blood and mucus. In some severe cases which recover, the favourable crisis is often ushered in by a salutary diarrhœa.”
In the benign form the animal for the space of about a week shows indifference to its surroundings, loses its appetite, wastes, and, less frequently, has slight feverish symptoms, without discoloration of the urine. The only reason for the belief that this trifling disturbance is due to piroplasmosis is furnished by examination of the blood, in which the parasites may be found in very small numbers in certain blood corpuscles.
Calves seldom take the disease except in the benign form.
Fig. 194.—A, red blood corpuscles containing pear-shaped Piroplasma bigeminum (the typical form); B, red blood corpuscles containing round Piroplasma bigeminum. (After Lignières.)
Lesions. At first glance the lesions appear to resemble those of anthrax, but may be differentiated from them in many details.
The skin is covered with ticks or shows traces of their punctures.
Fig. 195.