Fig. 57.—Examination of the mouth.
By introducing the fingers between the commissures and applying them to the bars or to the free portion of the tongue, the practitioner will be able approximately to estimate the local and general temperature. The sensations experienced will also inform him of the degree of moisture or dryness of the mouth and of its sensibility.
On separating the jaws, he will note the odour exhaled and its possible abnormalities—its acid, sourish, fœtid, or putrid character. He will directly observe any anæmia or hyperæmia of the mucous membrane, from the inner surface of the lips and cheeks up to the soft palate, although owing to the thickness of the buccal epithelium it is not always easy to estimate anæmia or hyperæmia in the ox. The surface of the tongue should also be examined, and a note made whether it appear dry, pasty, dusty, sooty, etc., though these appearances are occasionally apt to lead one astray. The observer should also inquire regarding want of appetite, depraved or exaggerated appetite, etc.
Even the manner in which the animal picks up its food will serve to direct his attention to the development, or possible existence, of some disease of the mouth, although want of appetite is not always characteristic of a lesion in the pharynx or œsophagus, but sometimes of a lesion in its neighbourhood, like hypertrophy of the retro-pharyngeal or bronchial lymphatic glands.
This examination will also detect the existence on the lips of wounds, cuts, injuries or specific eruptions (aphtha, tuberculous ulcerations, the ulcerations of gangrenous coryza, etc.) on the gums indications of gingivitis, periostitis, mercurial poisoning, actinomycosis of the maxilla, and ulcerations of all kinds; on the tongue, of wounds, of simple or specific inflammatory eruptions (aphtha, the ulcerations of actinomycosis, tuberculosis, gangrenous coryza, etc.), as well as the swellings due to superficial or deep-seated glossitis. By the same method of examination, though with somewhat more difficulty, one can detect abnormal mobility, irregularity of development, caries, etc., of the teeth, the condition of the excretory ducts of the salivary glands, the state of the hard and soft palate, and the existence of fissures, vegetations, polypi and tumours.
Fig. 58.—Examination of the mouth.
Salivary glands. The salivary glands, particularly the parotid and submaxillary, should be examined by direct inspection and palpation.
Direct inspection reveals the existence of swellings, deformity of parts, increase in salivation, or ptyalism, which sometimes occur in conjunction with foot-and-mouth disease, actinomycosis, acute stomatitis and mercurial poisoning, as well as increase in size of the salivary ducts.