Not only does tracheotomy obviate immediate danger of suffocation, but by removing the source of irritation in the continuous and forcible rush of air through the narrowed and inflamed tube, and in securing for the blood a freer æration and a purer constitution it often induces a rapid change for the better in the character of the inflammatory action. The wound may be daily cleansed and dressed with sodium hyposulphite.
Some veterinarians following the example of Bretonneau and Trousseau have treated sore throat from the first by what is called the abortive treatment. For this purpose a long whalebone prob with a pledget of tow firmly attached to its end and covered with powdered alum is introduced through the mouth into the pharynx and larynx even. Violent paroxysms of coughing are induced, but cures are affected in from two to five days. Under Delafond’s treatment calves and foals recovered in twenty-four hours. A more modern method is to inject a solution by means of a hypodermic syringe inserted between the upper rings of the trachea.
Milder treatment such as the inhalation for an hour several times a day, of the fumes of burning sulphur and water vapor will be found generally successful. The air should be impregnated with sulphur fumes only so far as can be breathed without inducing coughing on the part of the patient. Such measures should not divert attention from the necessity for general care, a control of diet, clothing, air, the state of the bowels, nor from local external applications to the throat.
Treatment of Chronic Laryngitis. The patient should have a loose airy box with an equable temperature. The avoidance of work and exposure must be sought for the time. Green food, cut roots, boiled grain, or bran mashes, with little or no hay, or other dry food, must be given. The bowels must be regulated. An electuary compound of linseed meal, molasses, and a drachm of belladonna extract to every tablespoonful of the mixture, may be given to the extent of a tablespoonful smeared on the inner side of the cheek twice daily. A mustard poultice to the throat has often a good effect. Light firing over the larynx is sometimes beneficial.
If secretion is defective and cough hard and dry chloride of ammonium, carbonates or bicarbonates of soda, potash or ammonium or borax, in solution or in gaseous form, may be given, the various bitters being at the same time drawn upon as tonics. If secretion is excessive, with a loose gurgling cough, astringents are indicated like ferric sulphate or chloride, (½ dr.), or they may be applied as spray: alum or iron alum five grains to the ounce, zinc sulphate or sulphocarbolate two grains to the ounce, silver nitrate one-half grain to the ounce. These may be introduced through the nose with the head elevated, or in small genera through the fauces. Tar, oil of turpentine, creosote, carbolic acid or eucalyptol may be inhaled from hot water.
PHARYNGO-LARYNGITIS IN CATTLE.
Susceptibility. Causes, symptoms, cough, salivation, wheezing, lachrymation, muzzle dry, tender throat, dysphagia, disturbed innervation and circulation, hyperthermia. Duration. Abscess. Treatment, laxative, local treatment, lancing.
Cattle are less subject to sore throat than horses. The skin appears less sensitive to the influences of cold and heat. The ox is not subjected to the same severe exertions. It is rarely seen to sweat, the moisture passing off from the surface as insensible perspiration only. The disease, however, recognizes the same causes as in the horse, though these are manifestly less injurious.
Symptoms. The disease usually affects at once the larynx and pharynx so that the symptoms are somewhat modified. In the simplest form there is only a small, hacking cough, a flow of saliva from the mouth and some loss of appetite but no fever. In more acute cases the breathing is loud and wheezing, the cough, soft and rattling, is followed by a free discharge of mucous from the mouth, the nostrils and eyes are red, the muzzle dry, the pulse accelerated and full, the throat tender to the touch, and swallowing difficult, part of the food and drink being rejected through the nose. If the larynx is chiefly involved the loud noise in breathing is the predominant symptom and sometimes almost the only one.
Course, etc. The cough and other symptoms are usually moderated with the access of the abundant secretion on the second or third day, and recovery is perfect on the eighth to the fifteenth. If abscess results, to which there is a far greater liability than in the horse, it may not burst till the twentieth day and the case is correspondingly protracted. This should be carefully distinguished from the deposits of tubercle which take place around the throat in cattle. In rare cases the disease becomes chronic.