Diseases of cattle, sheep, goats and swine

by G. Moussu; Jno. A. W. Dollar

Symptoms. The disease usually appears within twenty-four to forty-eight hours after parturition. In extreme cases it may not occur until two months or even six months after parturition. It may rarely occur before birth. It usually follows an easy birth. At the onset of the disease the cow manifests some uneasiness; it moves about in a restless manner, stamps, strikes the abdomen with its hind legs, perhaps bellows, grinds the teeth, and may have spasms of groups of muscles or even a general convulsion. After this period, which may be unnoticed, the symptoms of paralysis come on. The cow shows weakness, staggers, and at last falls. As the paralysis advances it stretches on the ground, lying on its side usually with the neck bent to one side so as to bring the nose into the flank or the costal region. This is the characteristic position in parturient paralysis. If the head is brought into the normal position, it at once returns to the unnatural position in which it was found. The animal is in a state of partial or complete unconsciousness, does not respond to blows or calls, and takes no note of its surroundings. The eye is dull and not sensitive to the finger touch, sunken, pupil dilated, and the upper lid is drooping; the tongue is paralysed, saliva runs from the mouth, the pharynx and œsophagus have lost the power of motion, so that the animal is unable to swallow; the peristalsis of the stomachs and intestines is in abeyance, and as a result digestion is arrested, fermentation sets in, and the animal becomes tympanitic; the contents of the rectum and colon are hard and dry, and may be covered with mucus or blood, urination is suspended; the os uteri is almost invariably dilated if the disease occurs within a day of parturition; pulse small, often imperceptible, 60 to 120 per minute; temperature, usually normal or below normal, may be as low as 95° Fahr., in some cases may be as high as 105° Fahr. Such a high temperature probably does not occur in a case of pure parturient paralysis, but only when there is a complication of parturient septicæmia. The extremities are cold. The after-birth is sometimes retained. There may be accompanying prolapse of the uterus.

Course. Without treatment, and, indeed, with most kinds of treatment which have been applied in the past, the disease usually runs rapidly to a fatal issue. It lasts two to three days, and in some cases longer, the condition gradually becoming more and more aggravated. Death results from sudden failure of the heart or brain, and is often preceded by profuse diarrhœa. In milder cases the cow may linger as long as two to four weeks and then die of pneumonia, which results from the inhalation, or introduction through attempts at medication, of foreign substances into the lungs during the period of paralysis of the pharynx and œsophagus. If recovery occurs, the animal is entirely well in two to five days. In rare cases paralysis of the hind parts may persist for a long while.

Diagnosis. This is made by a study of the history and symptoms. It is comparatively easy.

Differential diagnosis. It must be distinguished from ante-partum paralysis, broken-back, parturient septicæmia; but one familiar with the character of these diseases will find no difficulty in making this differentiation.

Treatment. This may be considered under two distinct subdivisions, viz., preventive treatment and curative treatment.

(a) Preventive treatment.—By considering what has been said under the head of “generation of the disease,” one can easily infer what measures should be adopted to prevent the disease. Cows in the later stage of gestation should be fed moderately, grain especially being given sparingly or entirely withheld; the animals should be given an opportunity to take plenty of exercise; the bowels should be kept in good condition by the administration of such salines as magnesium sulphate, sodium chloride, and sodium bicarbonate. The after-birth should be removed soon after parturition and several uterine douches administered.

(b) Curative treatment.—The older methods of treatment comprised: warmth and friction to the mammary gland; the administration of sedatives, such as opium, chloral and bromide of potassium; stimulants, including ammonia, ether, turpentine and alcohol; washing out the uterus with water or disinfectant solutions; the relief of tympany by the use of the trocar and canula (by which instrument medicines may also be injected directly into the rumen); the removal of fæces from the rectum; warm clothing of the body and general attention to the animal’s comfort, and to the teachings of hygiene. For all these widely diversified methods good results have been claimed, and, we may add, bad ones at times recorded. F. T. Harvey (Cornwall) estimates the average mortality at from 40 to 66 per cent., though he claims for his more recent practice a lessened mortality of only 20 per cent.

Schmidt does not claim that his method of treatment disposes bodily of the morbid condition, but that it does measurably assist Nature in her efforts to restore the animal to the normal physiological state. It is well known that after the beginning of the attack the animal, if left to itself, rapidly grows worse until the crisis of the disease is reached, at which time death occurs or convalescence begins, usually the former. It has been observed, however, that if the treatment is applied within a few hours after the inception of the disease its progress is modified in such a way that convalescence at once begins, as a rule, and the animal hastily recovers its health, usually within twelve hours, although in extreme cases it may be as late as forty-eight hours. The following is an outline of the plan of treatment of parturient paralysis suggested by Schmidt. The operator should disinfect his hands and the udder and teats of the cow by washing with a 5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid or creolin, or a 1½ per cent. solution of lysol or trikresol. The apparatus needed for the treatment consists of a small glass funnel, a rubber hose three feet long and one-eighth inch in calibre into which the funnel fits, and an ordinary milking tube over which the rubber hose fits. This apparatus should be sterilised immediately before it is used by boiling or soaking in such a solution as recommended for washing the udder. Dissolve from 2 to 2½ drachms of potassium iodide—the size of the dose depending upon the size of the cow and the character of the attack—in about one quart of clean water previously boiled to sterilise it, and allow the solution to cool to a little above body temperature, or 40° C. or 104° Fahr. The temperature may be determined with the clinical thermometer. Withdraw all the colostrum or milk from the udder. Then insert the milking tube, with hose and funnel attached, into one of the teats, elevate the funnel about two feet above the teat and slowly pour in one-fourth of the solution, allowing the funnel and hose to become empty several times during the process in order to permit the entrance of a liberal quantity of air. Repeat this infusion with the other three quarters of the udder. After all is introduced, knead the udder carefully so as to cause the solution to permeate the ducts and acini as much as possible.

As the condition of the cow is usually such as to call for additional treatment, the veterinarian should not be content with injecting the potassium iodide solution, but should resort to any and all other measures which promise assistance.

As the cow is usually unable to urinate, the bladder will be found filled with urine. This should be removed with the catheter, and its removal accomplished at intervals until the recovery of the cow renders this procedure no longer needful.