IMPETIGO IN THE PIG.
The term impetigo is used to describe a disease characterised by an eruption of papules, the discharge from which forms yellowish crusts, which when dry are of a grey or brown colour. The point of origin of the eruption is unknown, but the crusts rapidly become infected on contact with the air, and the bodily lesions may end in suppuration. The disease is not frequent nowadays except in sucking pigs and in large or badly-kept piggeries.
Symptoms. The eruption usually appears between the ages of two and three months, and is accompanied from the first by moderate pruritus. The papules rupture after two or three days and discharge a lemon-coloured liquid, which is distributed over the surface, dries rapidly, and causes the bristles to stick together at the roots. The crusts formed in this way remain adherent to the skin, though their surface becomes cracked. They increase in thickness, cover the head and part of the body, particularly the belly and the inner surface of the thighs, and if removed, an operation of some difficulty, leave exposed a bleeding, sanious, or purulent wound. The animals lose condition and appetite, cease to grow, seem as though attacked with rachitis, and may die if the general conditions of their maintenance are not improved.
The diagnosis is not difficult, but the prognosis depends on how long the disease has existed and the bodily condition of the patients.
The treatment consists entirely in improving the hygienic conditions and the feeding. The patients must be repeatedly washed or bathed and carefully disinfected, and they must have better food.
The crusts should be softened before the animals are washed, so that bleeding may be avoided and the affected areas not be transformed into suppurating wounds. By applying oil or some fatty matter to the crusts it is possible to cleanse the parts with bran water. If considered necessary, this cleansing can be followed by dressing with boric or weak creolin solution. Open-air life and good food soon relieve the principal symptoms.
ACNE IN SHEEP.
Acne, that is to say, localised inflammation of the sebaceous glands and hair follicles, sometimes occurs in sheep apart from any parasitic invasion. The eruption is particularly seen after shearing, and it is probable that, as in the horse, irritation produced by the machine, and possibly by accidental infection, constitute the principal determining causes.
Symptoms. The disease is indicated by the appearance of cutaneous pustules, which are only slightly painful on pressure and which involve the entire thickness of the skin. The dermis is hardly congested, and no constitutional disturbance occurs.
Acne lesions may be more or less confluent, and may attain the size of a small hazel-nut.