PERITONITIS IN BIRDS.
From caponizing, accidental traumas, ruptured oviduct, perforations of bowels by foreign bodies or worms, pyogenic susceptibility slight. Symptoms: inappetence, drooping head, wings, tail, erect plumage, stiffness, straining, tense, tender, pendent belly. Treatment: unload cloaca, puncture and irrigate abdomen, laxatives. Prophylaxis, by laxative food, expulsion of worms, antisepsis in operations, unloading cloaca, etc.
Causes. Male birds contract peritonitis from caponizing, and other penetrating wounds of the abdomen, from rupture of the oviduct impacted with egg matter, from perforations of the intestines by foreign bodies, and from perforations by worms.
The danger from ordinary pyogenic germs is, however, at its minimum, since birds stand at the opposite extreme from the horse, and their wounds rarely suppurate.
Symptoms. The bird loses appetite, droops head, wings and tail, ruffles its feathers, walks stiffly and heavily, and expels fæces with much effort and even with cries. When caught the abdomen is found to be full, tense and pendent and very tender to the touch. There is more or less hyperthermia (108° and upward), and the subject becomes more and more dull, stupid and feeble until death.
Treatment. In certain cases relief may be had by the unloading of the cloaca, or the evacuation of peritoneal fluid, followed by antiseptic, irrigation of the cavity. Laxatives may also be resorted to. The most important measures are however prophylactic, and run in the direction of careful manipulation and antisepsis in caponizing, the unloading of impacted cloaca, before it has developed serious disease, the maintenance of a suitably laxative diet, and the prevention and treatment of worms. In case of tumors causing chronic peritonitis, laparotomy can be resorted to with great confidence.
ASCITES IN SOLIPEDS.
Causes: follows peritonitis, obstruction of portal vein, tumors, hepatic diseases, pressure on posterior cava, dilated right heart, heaves, ovarian disease, nephritis or kidney degeneration, hydroæmia. Symptoms: slow advance, pot-bellied, with fluctuation, hollow above, dropsy in limbs, sheath and under belly, percussion sound flat below, weakness, debility, no fever. Diagnosis: Absence of fever, and of fibrine, cells and granules in effusion. Lesions: those of primary disease, amount and composition of effusion. Treatment: treat primary disease glandular swelling or actinomycosis, iodide of potassium, remove diseased ovary or tumor, draw off fluid, compress abdomen, saline laxatives, diuretics, iodides, pilocarpin, electricity, bitters.
Causes. Ascites may be a remnant of a pre-existing chronic peritonitis, or it may occur from any obstruction of the portal vein, such as compression by organized false membranes, thrombus, in the vessel, or pressure by lympadenoma in the portal fissure, melanosis, sarcoma and other tumors. It results from cirrhosis and other diseases of the liver which retard its circulation, from pressure on the posterior vena cava, from insufficiency of the right auriculo-ventricular valves, from dilatation of the right heart, and from heaves or other obstruction in the pulmonic circulation. Other causes are cystic or other disease of the ovary, diseases of the kidney and hydroæmia, the latter two tending to general œdema as well as ascites.
Symptoms. The disease comes on slowly and insidiously and at first it usually passes unnoticed. When more fully developed the abdomen is distended but somewhat pendent (pot-bellied), fluctuating below, with falling in beneath the lumbar transverse processes. Later the whole abdomen may be full, rounded, smooth and tense, and the hind limbs œdematous to above the fetlocks or hocks. There may be œdema of the sheath or lower wall of the abdomen. Fluctuation can still be felt as a shock when an assistant makes sudden concussion with the fist on the opposite side from that on which the hand is pressed. This may be felt even more distinctly by the hand introduced into the rectum. Percussion gives a flat sound below and more or less resonant above. The pulse is small, weak, and accelerated, heart beats irritable (sometimes palpitating), and respiration labored and with lifting of the flank. From first to last there is no hyperthermia.