“This is a form of stomatitis manifested by a raised white patch on the mucous membrane and determined by the presence of the Oidium albicans (Saccharomyces albicans), a cryptogam discovered by Berg in 1842 in thrush in children. It is closely allied to the mucor, and attacks only the young and feeble. The white crust consists of epithelial cells intermingled with an abundance of the white mycelium and oval spores of the fungus. Andry in his artificial cultures found that it was pearly white when grown on gelatine, dirty white on potato, and snow white on carrot.”
Symptoms. “Buccal mucosa, red, congested and tender, shows here and there white curdy looking elevations, or red erosions caused by the detachment of such masses. These bear a strong resemblance to the crusts seen on this mucosa in rinderpest, but are easily distinguished by the absence of the attendant fever, and by the discovery, under the microscope, of the specific microphyte. The eruption may extend to the pharynx and œsophagus and interfere fatally with deglutition, but usually it merely renders sucking painful and is not serious.”
Treatment. Cleanse and disinfect the sheds, “and invigorate the young animals by sunshine, free air and exercise. Locally ... borax, which arrests the growth of the parasite, whether in artificial cultures or in the mouth. The powder may be rubbed into the sores, or it may be mixed with ... molasses and used as an electuary. As substitutes boric acid, salol, thymol, potash chlorate, or Condy’s fluid may be used.” (Law’s “Veterinary Medicine,” Vol. II. p. 36.)
ULCERATIVE STOMATITIS IN SHEEP.
The name of ulcerative stomatitis of sheep has been given to a disease which is characterised by the appearance of a pultaceous deposit on the surface of the buccal mucous membrane and later by the development of ulcerations and of vegetative growths.
Causation. The cause is imperfectly understood. In certain years the disease appears to attack lambs at the time of weaning, but it may also affect flocks of animals as old as fifteen or eighteen months, two years, or even more. It is contagious, and may extend to one-half or two-thirds of the entire number in the flock. Full-grown and old animals appear to be immune.
It was formerly thought, à priori, and in consequence of the character of the buccal deposit, that the disease was identical with thrush, and that the lesions were produced by Oidium albicans. Neumann in 1885 declared, however, that he could not find the fungus in question in scrapings from the mucous membrane.
Moussu had similar negative results in the experiments he made during 1894, when he examined both young and old animals belonging to flocks in the departments of Berry and of La Brie.
In addition it has been suggested that the disease affects badly cared-for and badly fed lambs, and subjects suffering from “watery cachexia.” This seems correct in many cases, and Moussu has seen ulcerative stomatitis decimate flocks which had previously been attacked with intestinal helminthiasis and verminous broncho-pneumonia; but, on the other hand, in the environs of Melun he saw it in animals which had previously been quite free of disease and were kept under perfect hygienic conditions.
The conditions in which animals are reared, the use of common drinking ponds, and the method of supplying flocks with food, are the chief causes of the distribution of the disease.