Sequel of acute: or subacute from the first. Due to œstrus, in cattle to summer catarrh, tubercle or actinomycosis. Lymphatic horses predisposed; attends chronic indigestion; in swine tonsilitis. Symptoms: chronic cough, easily roused, wheezy or mucous; nasal discharge; low condition; lack of spirit. Lesions: congestion; softenings; erosions; cicatrices; tonsilitis; abscesses; specific deposits. Treatment: hygienic; antiparasitic; astringent; antiseptic; derivative; counter-irritant; tonic inhalations and electuaries. Bitters. Iron.
Causes and Nature. Chronic pharyngitis in animals may be a simple continuation of the acute, in a milder form, or it may assume a subacute or chronic type from the first and never rise to the intensity that would characterize the acute. It may be a simple catarrhal affection or it may become more or less follicular or glandular. Again in horses it is not infrequently a result of the hibernation form of the œstrus (bots) attached to the delicate pharyngeal mucosa, and in cattle from the extension of the chronic summer catarrh, or from the local development of tubercle or actinomycosis in the walls of the pharynx or in the adjacent lymph glands. Horses of a soft, lymphatic constitution, with a heavy coat, confined in close warm stalls, and which perspire abundantly are especially liable to the affection. It may also be an accompaniment and result of chronic gastric indigestion. In swine the affection is commonly associated with tonsilitis.
Symptoms. In many cases the main symptom is a chronic cough which is aroused by any cause of irritation, feed, especially dry or fibrous fodder, cold drinking water, sudden passing from the hot stable to the cold outer air, reining in, pressure on the throat, or sudden active exertion. If the cartilages are calcified it may be impossible to rouse the cough by pressure. The cough is often dry and wheezy, rather than soft and gurgling as in the second stage of acute pharyngitis, and is repeated several times paroxysmally. In the intervals there is more or less stertor or wheezing, or a distinct rattle especially when the neck is curved by drawing the nose inward. Deglutition may be interfered with but this shows most with the first swallow, which in the case of liquids may be returned through the nose, whereas those that follow go down without difficulty. A lateral swelling of the parts above the larynx or a bulging of the parotids is not uncommon. Discharge from the nose of a mucopurulent character is usually present, but often so scanty as to be overlooked. There is usually loss of flesh and lack of vigor even if the subject is well fed.
Lesions. In the simple catarrhal form the mucous membrane of the lateral pharyngeal walls, the posterior pillars of the palate and the back of the soft palate, is red, congested, with arborescent vessels, thickening, and puckering into rugæ. The epithelium has lost its translucency, become opaque and granular, and its desquamation in spots and patches may leave erosions, ulcers more or less deep, and white drawn cicatrices. When the follicles and mucous crypts are involved (follicular) they stand out like millet seed, peas or beans, and may show ulceration or minute abscess. In pigs especially, tonsilitis is liable to be present, and the tonsillar follicles are filled and distended with tenacious mucous, a caseous granular debris, or even a cretaceous material. In the vicinity of the tonsils, minute abscesses may exist in or beneath the mucosa.
Ulceration may be the result of tubercle, glanders, actinomycosis, aspergillus, sarcoma, or some local infection, and attendant symptoms of one or other of these diseases will guide the diagnosis. Thus in tubercle there will be the implication of the adjacent lymph glands and usually of distant ones; in glanders the deposits in the nose, submaxillary lymph glands and lungs will enable one to diagnosticate; in actinomycosis the hardness of the neoplasm and the presence of the yellowish tufts which present under the microscope the concentrically arranged club-shaped elements, will show its nature; and in sarcoma or carcinoma the structure of the new tissue will decide its character. The pharyngeal muscles are the seat of granular or fatty degeneration or of fibroid change. Friedenreich speaks of a fold from the vault of the pharynx which had nearly closed the passage and had killed the horse by inability to swallow.
Treatment. Chronic pharyngitis is usually a very obstinate affection and demands careful hygienic as well as medicinal treatment. Hot, foul stables, unduly thick coats, unwholesome food, irregular feeding, excessive meals at long intervals, overwork, undue exposure to cold and wet, lack of sunshine or of grooming are to be corrected. Next, the removal of mechanical irritants such as pharyngeal bots, actinomycosis growths, etc., will be in order. Then the use of astringents and antiseptics internally and of derivatives externally will be demanded. An occasional embrocation of mustard, or the application of ammonia and oil, will often serve a good purpose, and in obstinate cases the hot iron in points will sometimes prove effective.
Internally the inhalation of the fumes of tar, carbolic acid, creolin, oil of turpentine, or of burning sulphur kept up continually or frequently repeated. Giving all drink in the form of tar water will often have a good effect. Electuaries made with boric acid, salicylate of soda, ammonium chloride or iodide, borax, with honey, molasses, liquorice, Iceland moss, or gum arabic will often prove beneficial. Agents that stimulate the mucosa may follow, such as balsams of Peru or Tolu, copaiba, cubebs, pilocarpin, wild cherry bark, or these may be combined with the former. Finally a course of tonics are usually of the first importance; iron sulphate, copper sulphate, arsenious acid, arsenite of strychnia may furnish examples.
DEPRAVED APPETITE. STUMP SUCKING. PICA. LICKING DISEASE.
Common features of group. Ruminants; depraved appetite; objects swallowed: hair balls. Sheep eating wool in winter. Pigs eat bristles. Puppies swallow marbles, etc., wantonly. Solipeds swallow hair, plaster, earth, sand, and lick manger or rack. Fowls eat their feathers. Causes: soil exhaustion, lack of lime, soda, potash, phosphorous; relation to osteo malacia; granitic or sandy soils, peat, muck, causative; digestive disorder; faulty food; yearly breeding and heavy milking; constant stabling; dry seasons. Course: chronic. Lesions; emaciation; anæmia; serous exudate; catarrh of the bowels. Treatment: soil; good fodder; salts of soda, potash and lime, phosphates; tonics; apomorphine. Wool eating; example: digestive disorders; emaciation. Treatment: open air; good fodder; salts of the bones and soft tissues; clip nurses; apomorphine.
Definition. We have here a class of morbid habits, which cannot be referred to any constant lesion or group of lesions, and which appear in certain cases to result from example and to constitute nothing more than a bad habit.