Although they do not endanger the animal’s life, these conditions give rise to such serious inconvenience as often to render entire animals useless for stud purposes.
Local treatment is impossible, and the practitioner is restricted to the use of anodynes, balsamic preparations and diuretics. The treatment, in fact, differs little from that of cystitis. In cases of suppuration of Cowper’s glands, the abscess usually forms just below the anus and close to the median line. Thus the diagnosis may be confirmed by capillary puncture, the part being laid open if necessary.
SECTION VIII.
DISEASES OF THE SKIN AND SUBCUTANEOUS CONNECTIVE TISSUE.
CHAPTER I.
ECZEMA.
Under the name of eczema may be grouped a series of cutaneous diseases characterised by pruritus, by a discharge from the skin, or simply by epidermic proliferation, without any apparent parasitic or accidental cause.
These diseases have been referred to a special constitutional condition termed a diathesis, although during the last few years we have come to recognise certain microbic and toxic influences in their production. In the ox eczema assumes different appearances. Accordingly, the disease has been divided into the acute, chronic, sebaceous, and toxic forms.
ACUTE ECZEMA.
Causation. In the ox, as in all other species, the determining cause is to be found in bad hygienic conditions, improper feeding, and in a special individual condition of the animal affected, that is to say, a diathesis.
Symptoms. During a preliminary period, which might be termed a prodromic period, only general symptoms can be detected, such as fever, loss of appetite, digestive disturbance, constipation, etc. Local signs are still absent, or at least are not noticeable, and are only represented by congestion of the skin.
The second phase is characterised by a papulous eruption which is difficult to detect, inasmuch as it occurs in the depths of the coat. Nevertheless, the skin is distinctly sensitive, and at numerous small points the hairs appear to stand upright.