Symptoms. When Adynamia prevails there is great dullness and depression, the senses are blunted, the head depressed resting on the manger, the eyes sunken, weeping and half covered by the drooping upper lid, the conjunctiva is congested, sometimes yellow or marked by petechiæ. The mouth is hot, the lower lips pendent, the tongue furred, the abdomen somewhat tympanitic, with slight colics, but with little rumbling or indication of peristalsis. There is a primary constipation, a few small, hard pellets being passed with effort. The temperature may be 102° to 104°, breathing short, pulse small, weak; the walk unsteady, the animal preferring to stand, completely apathetic. In some cases a profuse diarrhœa sets in and may prove fatal.
In the cases attended by diuresis, the weakness is extreme, emaciation advancing rapidly, but the other symptoms of nervous depression are less marked, the poisons being apparently eliminated by the kidneys (see diuresis).
In the Vertiginous form the disease may set in with more or less hyperthermia, anorexia, a dislike particularly of the spoiled fodder, yellowness of the visible mucosæ, slow breathing, small accelerated pulse, costiveness, tympany, colics more or less intense, tenderness of the belly, and sooner or later marked nervous disorder. This may be in the form of stupor, the head resting in the manger, the senses are manifestly clouded, the animal walks unsteadily, staggers, steps heavily, striking the feet against obstacles, and stumbling. At the end of a variable number of hours (2 to 6 or 8 after feeding) nervous excitability and vertigo may supervene. He may push the head against the wall, the jaws clenched, grinding the teeth, the eyes fixed, pupils dilated, facial muscles contracted, respirations hurried, heart palpitating and the skin perspiring. He may continue in this position, moving his feet as if walking, or he may rear plunging his feet into the manger or fall back over, and rising push anew against any object he may come in contact with. Coulbaux speaks of rabiform symptoms such as attempts to bite but any such deliberate purpose is rare.
There may follow complete amaurosis, insensibility to pricking of the skin, and even paralysis or coma. Hyperæsthesia may also be temporarily present.
Course. Remissions and exacerbations usually alternate, the duration of the former furnishing some criterion by which to establish a favorable prognosis. Death may take place in 24 hours or it may be delayed for several days. Recovery is usually heralded by the resumption of defecation and urination, and the return of appetite. It is liable to be at first only partial, some of the senses remaining dull, or a general stupor persisting.
Diagnosis. In all such forms of poisoning there is the history of the ingestion of the toxic matters, and in any suspicious looking cases a careful examination of the food should be made. From meningo-encephalitis the presence of the abdominal disorder will serve to identify and to incriminate the food.
Lesions. These vary much with the poison. There is always, however, inflammation of the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane, usually with ecchymosis, and infiltration of the submucosa. The contents of the bowels are imperfectly digested, the mesenteric glands congested and enlarged, the liver congested and softened, and the brain and its meninges hyperæmic or infiltrated. The leucine and tyrosine present in the urine during the acute attack is said to disappear when improvement sets in (Pellagi, Azzaroli).
Treatment. The first object must be the removal or neutralizing of the poison. In some instances the stomach pump or tube might be tried. Usually one must fall back on antiferments such as naphthol, naphthalin, salol, salicylic acid, and above all iodide of potassium. The last checks the growth of the fungi or bacteria and favors elimination of the toxins. It may be given freely to act on the kidneys. Creolin, 1¼ drachm, repeated three times a day has been found effective (Albrecht). In addition the action of the bowels may be solicited by full doses of sulphate of soda and abundance of water.
When the brain is implicated Cadeac recommends bleeding as an eliminating as well as a sedative measure. In any case use cold water, snow or ice to the head, elevation of the head, and purgatives which may as a rule be doubled. Potassium iodide or other antiseptics should be pushed, and diuresis as well as a relaxed condition of the bowels maintained. Counter-irritants such as mustard may be applied to the abdomen, and enemata used at frequent intervals. It is important to fix the patient to a ring in the centre of a box stall or barn to keep him from injuring himself.