Agents applied directly to the inflamed mucous membrane are often requisite. The air of the building should be rather warm, equable and moistened by water vapor, if that can be conveniently done. Calomel or alum powder may be frequently introduced into the larynx by means of a whalebone prob and sponge as spoken of under laryngitis, or a solution of nitrate of silver (10 grains to the ounce of water) may be applied several times a day. These not only hasten the removal of false membranes but counteract their production. They produce violent and convulsive coughing at first and have to be used carefully. Delafond blew in such agents through an opening made in the windpipe. They may be injected with a hypodermic syringe. In prostrate conditions it may be necessary to resort to stimulants (wine whey, carbonate of ammonia) and tonics (gentian, Peruvian bark).
CROUP IN SHEEP.
According to Roche Lubin croup is sometimes observed in spring in lambs and hogs. The common cause is “the shutting up of the animals for the whole twenty-four hours in a hot confined place, the floor of which is covered by a fine dust, and the air loaded with the same, owing to the jostling of the sheep together, the effects being intensified by the weight of the fleeces.”
The disease is manifested by constant working of the jaws, extreme tension of the neck, abundant salivation, respiration hurried and whistling, extreme pain and threatened suffocation when the slightest pressure is made on the throat, and refusal of all food liquid or solid. The weak, hacking, convulsive cough is associated with the discharge of a whitish glairy mucus by the nose until the third or fourth day when false membranes may be expected.
Treatment is like that for the ox, medicine being given in about one-fifth of the doses.
CROUP IN THE HORSE.
The rare cases of croup in foals and young horses appear due to the same general causes as in ruminants. M. Riss records two cases, and Bouley one from breathing smoke when the straw of the stable had taken fire. The suddenness of the attack, the spasmodic symptoms and the duration of the disease and the treatment do not differ materially from those given for the ox.
PHARYNGEAL AND LARYNGEAL POLYPI.
Pediculated tumors. Dyspnœa through change of position, operation by ecraseur, snare, or cricoid incision.
Tumors of varied structure developing in or beneath the mucosa of pharynx or larynx often become slowly detached until they hang by a loose pedicle, and having much latitude of movement they may at times slip between the arytenoid cartilages or even into the glottis producing the most urgent or even fatal dyspnœa. Pediculated tumors in the posterior nares lead to the same accident. In one case of multiple small tumors on the pharyngeal mucosa of the horse, the largest and loosest, attached to the front of the epiglottis, was occasionally displaced into the larynx threatening instant asphyxia. One such attack supervened on the opening of a suppurating guttural pouch by the writer, necessitating prompt tracheotomy. A time was set for the removal of the polypus, but the tracheotomy tube having been accidentally displaced during the preceding night the patient died of suffocation. Dick mentions a polypus growing from the interior of the larynx and causing loud roaring. Such tumors may be removed by operating with the ecraseur through the mouth, or by a snare passed through a long narrow tube and used to seize and twist through the pedicle. If the polypus grows from the laryngeal walls, it may be best reached by incision through the cricoid cartilage and crico-thyroid membrane as in the operation for roaring.