The point most prominently brought forward by this demonstration of the topographical anatomy and semiology of the digestive apparatus is the difficulty of accurately diagnosing digestive diseases in the ox when one confines oneself to a superficial examination. To have any chance of arriving at an exact diagnosis, methodical and thorough examination is indispensable. Given this condition, accurate diagnosis becomes possible, despite all difficulties.
CHAPTER I.
DISEASES OF THE MOUTH.
STOMATITIS.
Definition. By stomatitis we mean inflammation of the buccal mucous membrane. Stomatitis may be simple—i.e., due to accidental causes, to varying local forms of irritation, or to wounds; or, on the contrary, it may be specific, of infectious origin, like the stomatitis of foot-and-mouth disease, gangrenous coryza, cattle plague, etc.; or, finally, it may be of toxic origin, like the stomatitis of mercurial poisoning.
Here we shall only study the simple forms of stomatitis, the gangrenous stomatitis of calves, and mercurial stomatitis. The others will be noticed in speaking of the diseases of which they form one of the symptoms.
SIMPLE STOMATITIS.
Causation. Simple stomatitis of bovine animals is often due to feeding with rough forage, or forage containing prickly or spiny plants, like thistles, sea holly, eryngo, etc. Sometimes it follows prolonged irritation by rough teeth, premolars or stumps, or accompanies the shedding of the temporary molars. Ingestion of irritant plants like nettles, certain specimens of the orders Labiatæ and Umbelliferæ, leaves covered with vesicant insects, cabbage and turnip leaves infested with aphides, oil beetles, etc., or the swallowing of hot liquids, may also, though more rarely, produce it. Finally, in grave diseases of the digestive apparatus, the buccal mucous membrane may secondarily become affected.
Symptoms. The primary symptoms are usually represented by ptyalism and a certain difficulty in grasping food. In other cases the mucous membrane appears slightly dry for some time before salivation sets in. On introducing the fingers into the animal’s mouth some elevation of temperature may be noted, and on direct inspection the non-pigmented regions are seen to be abnormally vascular, a fact which has earned for this form of stomatitis the names of “erythematous” and “erysipelatous stomatitis.”
If the stomatitis is due to local multiple irritation, such as results from spines and prickles in the food, the abnormal vascular appearance is confined to the neighbourhood of the abrasions or punctures, and the affected regions are of very varying size. In some cases, principally as a consequence of trifling local irritation and of burns of the first and second degree, blisters of varying size may develop and break, leaving behind ulcerations, which, however, always heal rapidly. The aphthous non-contagious stomatitis mentioned by certain authors seems most probably to pertain to this class.
Diagnosis. The diagnosis is usually easy, and a little attention to the accompanying symptoms is sufficient to avoid confusion with the various forms of symptomatic stomatitis.