Once acute mammitis has developed, general and local treatment must both be attempted.
The older practitioners were in the habit of bleeding from the mammary or jugular vein. Since their time, however, objections have been made to bleeding because acute mammitis has been proved to be of an infectious character, and, therefore, it is undesirable to lower the patients’ resisting power.
This reasoning, however, appears to be erroneous. Little by little the advantages of bleeding, both in intoxications and infections, have been recognised, and one thing at least is beyond dispute, namely, its action on fever. Undoubtedly, it must not be resorted to without judgment, nor should it be freely employed in debilitated animals; but in well-nourished patients its effect on fever and on the accompanying respiratory and circulatory disturbance is immediate.
We, therefore, recommend moderate bleeding from the jugular.
Bleeding from the mammary vein entails too great a risk of infection to be commendable.
Purgatives and diuretics diminish or prevent accidents such as intoxication and the complications resulting from temporary suspension of the digestive function.
Local treatment is more or less efficacious in mammary infection. To relieve pain and check infection it should be of an emollient and antiseptic character. Ointments containing 10 per cent. of carbolic acid, boric acid or iodine, or 12½ per cent. of camphor, opium or belladonna, are of real service during the first stages, particularly of mammary lymphangitis and interstitial mammitis.
Repeated applications of 10 per cent. carbolic glycerine have similar advantages.
In the less acute forms originating in the parenchymatous tissue, mild ointments of plumbic iodide, Goulard’s extract, or mercury may also be used if precautions are taken to prevent the animals from licking, and so poisoning themselves.
When the tendency to suppuration is marked, vesicants hasten the development of the abscess and facilitate puncture. The most commonly used are the 33 per cent. tartar emetic ointment or the 10 per cent. biniodide of mercury ointment.