Lesions. These consist primarily in the great increase of the connective tissue and the relative decrease of the hepatic tissue. This is usually mostly around the divisions of the portal vein and the periphery of the acini, but also in the end around the hepatic veins as well. When it has formed around the biliary canals there is a great increase of the liver (often doubled) and its edges have become rounded. Within the acini the increase of the fibrous stroma is seen between the radiating capillaries, and the hepatic cells are contracted, granular, pigmented, and comparatively destitute of protoplasm around the still persistent nucleus.
Treatment. Glauber salts to clear the bowels of offensive matter, and deplete from liver and portal vein, bicarbonate of soda or iodide of potassium to eliminate the poisons through the kidneys and to lessen the induration, and finally salicylate of soda as a liver stimulant and intestinal antiseptic are suggestive of the line of treatment that may be pursued. The saline laxatives and diuretics, and antiseptics may be changed for others according to special indications, and bitters and mineral acids may be resorted to. Counter-irritants to the right hypochondrium should not be neglected in case of local tenderness. In the otherwise fatal Schweinsberg disease, Imminger, Künke and Stenert had a remarkable success from the free use of potassium iodide, which suggests a cryptogamic origin, as this agent is so valuable in polyuria which results from musty fodder. In all cases, gentle exercise in the open air and a moderate ration of laxative food (green) are of great value. Above all the old suspected diet should be carefully avoided, also any impure water supply.
CIRRHOSIS IN CATTLE.
This has been recorded by different observers and usually as the result of some obstacle to the circulation, or of catarrh and obstruction of the biliary passages. Morot saw it in young calves, which showed greatly enlarged liver (in one case 24 lbs.) and kidneys, the former containing numerous cysts and marked sclerous thickening around the vessels. This advancing thickening of the connective tissue, causes increasing firmness of the liver and absorption, distortion and diminution of the lobules. Albrecht describes a chronic interstitial hepatitis with caseated centres (nontuberculous) many of them an inch in diameter. The liver is brown or grayish with whiter callosities which extend into its substance and make points of attachment to the diaphragm or other adjacent organ. The contrast between the fibrous layers and the hepatic tissue has been likened to a checker board (Höhmann). The enlarged liver may weigh 30 lbs.; in one remarkable case it weighed 300 lbs. (Adam). The bile is of a light color and mixed with mucus.
Symptoms. The symptoms are indefinite: a gradually increasing jaundice, the passage of yellowish red urine becoming more and more red and albuminous, and finally coagulating on the walls of the urethra or on the litter, chronic indigestion, salivation (Schäffer), weakness, breathlessness and more or less fever may give indications of the disorder. Höhmann failed to find tenderness of the right hypochondrium. The disease is liable to go on to a fatal issue, so that it is often sought to prepare the animal for the butcher.
Treatment will follow the same line as in the horse. Green food, pasturage, open air life, saline laxatives, and alkalies with a free use of potassium iodide to check the sclerosis will be indicated.
CIRRHOSIS IN THE DOG.
In the dog, cirrhosis is much more common than in the larger animals, in connection with idle pampered habits, the frequency of diseased heart and consequent disturbance of the circulation, and the presence of parasites in the liver or biliary ducts. Bacteria intoxication and infection are also common.
Lesions. The liver is at first tumefied, with hard consistency and rounded edges, and a deep brownish red color, but this is modified by the grayish fibroid hyperplasia which is especially abundant in and around the vaginal sheaths of the capsule of Glisson. In cases arising from diseased right heart or lungs the induration is rather concentrated around the hepatic veins. The contraction and shrinking of the fibroid hyperplasia as the disease advances causes the projection of the hepatic tissue in minute rounded elevations which give a peculiar uneven appearance to the surface of the organ. The fibroid growth gives a remarkable hardness to the liver which resists even the edge of a knife. The hepatic cells are the seat of fatty and pigmentary degeneration. Inflammation and tumefaction of the kidneys, and ascites are common features of the malady.
Symptoms. The general symptoms are as in parenchymatous hepatitis with a more tardy development. There are impaired or irregular appetite, dullness, sluggishness, in an obese animal short-windedness or palpitations on slight exertion, symptoms of disease of the heart, lungs or digestive organs, a spasmodic cough, constipation followed by relaxation of the bowels, nausea and vomiting. As the disease advances tenderness of the loins, the passage of brownish or reddish, albuminous urine, the formation of ascites and of gastro-intestinal catarrh may be noticed. Icterus may be entirely absent, but, with a flaccid abdomen, enlarged liver and spleen may be detected.