Treatment. “The first consideration is to correct the unwholesome conditions of life, purify the building and its surroundings, and allow a free range on pasture. Subject each patient to a thorough soapy wash, and if possible allow clean running water in which a bath may be taken at will. Access to green food and invertebrates (slugs, larvæ, etc.) is important, or a varied diet of grain, middlings, bran, roots, fruits, tubers, cabbage, silage, etc., must be furnished. Iron and bitters (gentian, nux vomica) are useful, and sometimes small doses of arsenite of soda solution or cream of tartar are useful. Acorns or horse-chestnuts are recommended. For the mouth a wash of potassium chlorate, soda biborate, or potassium permanganate may be resorted to.... In the case of fat pigs it is more profitable to butcher at once, as soon as early symptoms appear.” From Law’s “Veterinary Medicine,” p. 558, Vol. III.
SECTION II.
DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS.
SEMIOLOGY OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS.
The group of diseases which affect the digestive apparatus is one of the most important in bovine pathology, because almost all animals of the bovine species are bred with the object of utilising to the full their powers of digestion and assimilation.
Whether we consider adult fat animals, calves intended for slaughter or milch cows, the object sought is always the same—i.e., to secure the greatest possible economic return through the medium of the digestive functions.
Even although in working oxen there is no tendency to overfeeding, the animals remain none the less predisposed to diseases of the digestive apparatus; the meal times are often too short, and rumination has to be performed under the yoke or during work—in a word, under unfavourable physiological conditions.
Semiology. To ensure correct diagnosis it is necessary here, perhaps more than in any other department of pathology, to be capable of grasping the symptoms or syndromes and signs afforded by the different parts of the digestive apparatus; to know how to co-ordinate and group them so as logically to deduce the final synthesis, the diagnosis. The diagnosis proving correct, the prognosis becomes easy, and this is the chief object from the economic standpoint. The practitioner who undertakes treatment knows how to deal with the case, and the owner likewise knows what he undertakes to do.
Although this classification may appear arbitrary, we shall consider successively diseases of the mouth, of the pharynx, œsophagus, stomach, intestines, etc., firstly describing the symptoms characterising these diseases. At the same time we should state that many symptoms are common to a large number of diseases and in themselves have absolutely nothing characteristic. They are simply sign-posts capable of showing the way.
Mouth. External examination reveals the condition of the muzzle, the lips and their commissures, and the surroundings of the buccal opening, and detects the existence of any desquamation, rents, eruptions, ulcerations, etc., which may be present.
In quiet animals the practitioner can examine the cavity of the mouth single-handed, but in troublesome animals it becomes necessary to have an assistant, who seizes the muzzle with one hand and the tongue with the other, or who simply fixes the animal’s head. In exceptional cases it will be necessary to secure the patient to a post, tree, or wall. The mere attempt at examination will show whether there is trismus or absolute freedom of movement in the jaws.