It may be advisable that catharsis be brought about. As the cow is usually unable to swallow, it is dangerous to attempt to give medicines by the mouth. This may be done if assurance that the cow can swallow is obtained. Some have given medicines successfully through a probang inserted into the stomach. The plan is feasible. Schmidt says that he usually resorted to an aloe powder. If this is done 1 ounce to 1½ ounces of aloes may be given. It would seem preferable to give the aloes in a bolus, capsule, or drench. Some have given linseed oil or Epsom salts. If the animal cannot swallow and a probang is not at hand, one may administer 1½ to 2 grains of physostigmine salicylate subcutaneously, repeating the dose in about three hours if purgation is not produced. Rectal injections should be given at short intervals in order to get rid of the accumulation of hard, dry fæces in the rectum. These injections may be of linseed oil, cotton-seed oil, or warm soap solution. Schmidt recommends, also, enemata of sodium chloride solution. Meanwhile the cow should be kept propped up on the sternum by means of bags of straw or pieces of wood. If the temperature is below normal, as it usually is, the cow should be thickly clothed with blankets and straw heaped up about it. Schmidt used powdered digitalis given by the mouth when the heart was rapid and weak. It would seem much better in every way to give the tincture of digitalis subcutaneously. He has also resorted to subcutaneous injections of camphor and caffeine. This is good treatment. If the cow does not show marked improvement within eight hours the potassium iodide infusion may be repeated. Schmidt has found that as much as 6 drachms may be injected into the udder without harm to the cow. Schmidt, in his first report, made in 1898, recorded 50 cases treated for parturient paralysis by this method with but two deaths from the disease. There were, however, only 46 recoveries, as two cows were slaughtered for beef during the first day of convalescence. A short time later a report was made by Jensen showing that in Denmark up to that time sixty-five veterinarians of that country had treated 412 cases by the Schmidt method, 90 per cent. of which recovered. Such results seem to indicate this as the treatment par excellence for parturient paralysis. It still remained to secure the introduction of this treatment into the United States and to determine what results could be obtained. In all 166 cases were reported; of these 166, 119 resulted in recovery, while 47 were fatal. Of the fatal cases, in eight of the cows death may be traced to some complication, such as prolapse of the uterus, foreign-body pneumonia, etc. In these cases the Schmidt treatment cannot be said to have failed, for it is not in any way intended that it shall be able to overcome such accidental conditions. If the cow has recovered from its condition of paralysis as a result of the Schmidt treatment far enough to be out of danger from that source and to promise recovery, but later falls a victim to some complication that is in no measure a part of parturient paralysis, but only a result of that disease, it may with justice be said that the Schmidt treatment was a success so far as the malady against which it was directed is concerned. Looking at the reports from this generous point of view, in 127 cases out of 166, or 76·5 per cent., the Schmidt treatment was successful so far as the parturient paralysis was concerned.
In a paper published in the Berliner Thierärztliche Wochenschrift in August, 1902, Schmidt reviews the results of his treatment as evinced by 914 patients treated by thirty-one different practitioners: 884, or 96·7 per cent., recovered, twelve died and six were slaughtered during the course of the disease. Twelve others were slaughtered at a later period in consequence of complications. Jensen reported the results of 1,744 cases.
Schmidt also found that the simple injection of air was in many cases sufficient to produce recovery, and subsequent observation tends to show that the fluid injected is of less importance than was first anticipated. A large number of unirritating solutions may be employed. Schmidt, however, still counsels the use of a quart of 1 per cent. solution of iodide of potassium, in which can be dissolved 5 grammes of caffein sodio-salicylate if the heart’s action is weak. About 10 ounces of this solution are injected into each quarter, and are followed by a liberal injection of air. The parts should afterwards be freely massaged.
CŒNUROSIS (GID, STURDY, TURN-SICK).
Cœnurosis is a disease due to invasion of the animal body by embryos of larvæ of the Tænia cœnurus of dogs and wolves. These embryos only develop freely in the brain substance (Cœnurus cerebralis) and medulla oblongata. The hosts of the larvæ include the calf, sheep, goat, roedeer, reindeer and horse.
The disease was formerly erroneously called “turn-sick,” for the turning is only a manifestation, and even a tardy manifestation, of the disease, while in addition it is not invariably present.
Cœnurosis principally attacks lambs of from three to six months, although it occurs up to eighteen months, and sometimes even two years. It is exceptional, however, in adults. Similarly in the bovine species it usually affects young animals up to the fourth or fifth year.
Cœnurosis with diffuse parasitic encephalitis often remains unrecognised, the animals being regarded as affected with epizootic meningitis of unknown cause or septic intoxication, and when they die the owners are ignorant as to the cause of death. The stage corresponding to turn-sick, which is an advanced phase of the disease, is only seen in animals which have been infested to a slight extent, and in which three or four parasites only, sometimes only one, have attained the brain and developed there. Such cases exhibit all the classic symptoms of turn-sick, viz., turning movements, heaviness, vertigo, etc.
Causation. Cœnurosis is due solely to one cause, viz., the ingestion of eggs or embryos in feeding or drinking.
The Tænia cœnurus lives in the dog, and fertilised segments are passed with the fæces in yards, pastures and fields, and on the margins of roads, ditches and ponds. Amongst damp grass or in water the eggs, which contain more or less well-developed embryos, may retain their vitality for several weeks, and when swallowed the embryos are set at liberty in the intestine.