Symptoms. As a congenital condition in the improved meat producing animals the condition is rarely recognized in life and cannot be said to be a defect. The collapsed lobule being farther removed from the air may be a more favorable field for the growth of pathogenic bacteria, but on the other hand these do not so readily penetrate it as if the tubes were open. When the collapse is more extensive, the contrast in the flatness on percussion and indistinctness of the respiratory murmur on the affected side, and the marked resonance and loud murmur on the other, may serve to identify the affection. In extensive, traumatic cases this contrast is much more prominently marked, as the expanded portions have to take on extra compensatory work and are not infrequently rendered emphysematous. The drum-like sound in percussion of such parts, and in the upper part of the chest in pneumothorax are pathognomonic of these conditions. Again in hydrothorax the horizontal upper level of the area of dulness betrays a liquid cause. Severe cases are marked by cyanosis.
The lesions seen in atelectasis consist in depressed areas of a dark fleshy color on the surface of the lung, usually sharply limited by the borders of the lobules, and in strong contrast with the bulging, light colored lobules adjacent, which are often emphysematous. The collapsed lobule may usually be dilated when air is forced into the bronchium, but if it has been of some standing this is often difficult or impossible. If it has resulted from bronchitis or compression of a previously inflated lung it will often float in (not on) water, from a little retained air, but in congenital atelectasis it is airless and sinks to the bottom.
When treatment is demanded it will vary according to the cause. In congenital atelectasis the respiratory centres must be roused. The new born animal may be sprinkled alternately with ice cold and hot water, or the chest may be slapped with the palm of the hand or a wet towel. The nostrils must be cleared of mucus, and the lungs inflated by blowing or bellows, the larynx being pressed back against the gullet to prevent inflation of the stomach. If available electricity may be applied to the chest walls. These measures may be repeated at intervals and the systemic weakness overcome by nourishing food, stimulants and friction of the skin.
In acquired atelectasis we should seek to correct the disease to which it owes its existence. In bronchitis the measures already indicated for the liquefaction and removal of the expectoration will be in order; in hydrothorax a judicious paracentesis and in pneumothorax the aspiration of the gas, and the closure of any traumatic opening through which that gas has gained access.
HÆMOPTYSIS.
Causes, over-exertion in plethoric, glanders, pulmonary tubercle, petechial fever, embolism, aneurism, ulcerated new formations, anthrax, septicæmia, hæmorrhagic diathesis. Symptoms. Inappetence, cough, cold limbs, rigor, hard pulse, jugular pulse, violent heart beats, unsteady gait. Discharge, bloody, crimson, frothy, with cough, without acid, excited breathing, debility. Indications from pre-existing disease. Treatment, quiet, elevated head, cold irrigation, ice bags, acetate of lead, opium, ergot, matico, tannin, iron, oil of turpentine, laxatives, cool stable.
The term hæmoptysis (αιμα, blood, πτυω, I spit,) is now entirely restricted to bleeding from the lungs and lower air passages. It is a very rare complaint in the lower animals, but is sometimes seen in both horse and ox. In very plethoric subjects the overloaded circulatory organs give way in the delicate membrane, lining the ultimate bronchial tubes and the air cells. The exciting cause in such cases is usually some severe effort of draught, a violent gallop, or other unwonted exertion. It occurs in glanders from rupture of caseated pulmonary nodules. It does not appear to be so common in phthisis in the lower animals as in man, but one case occurred under the eye of the writer in which the bursting of a large tubercle in the lung of a cow involved the rupture of a considerable vessel with a fatal result. Pulmonary embolism and infarction, petechial fever, aneurism, ulcerated neoplasms, anthrax, and septicæmia are additional causes. Lastly hæmoptysis sometimes takes place in hæmorrhagic subjects without any appreciable rupture of vessels, the blood sweating from the surface of the bronchial mucous membrane.
Premonitory symptoms are sometimes noticed, such as dulness, and lassitude, loss of appetite, a frequent short cough, coldness of the limbs and surface, shivering, full, hard pulse, pulsation in the jugulars, tumultuous action of the heart, and unsteadiness of gait.
More commonly it comes on suddenly as the result of severe muscular strain or excitement. The blood flows from the nose, and rarely from the mouth in solipedes, but indiscriminately from both in other animals. It is bright red, clear, frothy, or mixed with mucus, and variable in amount. It is easily distinguished from nasal hæmorrhage, which is not frothy, and from bleeding from the stomach, which is clotted and blackened, with an acid odor from the presence of the gastric juice. The cough of hæmoptysis contrasts with the sneezing of epistaxis and the retching of hæmatemsis. The rattling cough increases the discharge, as does also a dependent position of the head. Besides the cough there is usually an anxious countenance, accelerated breathing and considerable lifting of the flank. When the loss is excessive there is weakness, giddiness, rolling of the eyes, and pallor of the visible mucous membranes.
The previous ill-health of the patient, the presence of tubercle as ascertained by auscultation and percussion, and the hæmorrhagic constitution as shown by occurrence of bleeding from other parts of the system will lessen the chances of a favorable termination. Sometimes, too, the flow is so profuse that the blood cannot be coughed up, and filling the bronchial tubes it destroys life suddenly by suffocation.