Feser and especially Lemcke strongly recommend apomorphia. It is used hypodermically in doses of 2 grains for horse or cow repeated daily for three days.
Secondary Symptoms in Wool-eating Lambs. Lambs from two to six weeks old especially such as suck ewes with woolly udders (merino, Cotswold) first swallow the wool inadvertently, and then acquire a liking for the saline matters in the abundant yolk (merino), till finally the accumulating wool balls produce digestive and nervous disorder and a craving for the indulgence. Thus the breed must be considered in estimating the symptoms. For the same reason the wool about the hips or elsewhere soiled with salts of the urine or liquid fæces prove attractive to the victim. The proximity of other wool eaters is another cause which starts others to follow the bad example. The general conditions of debility, exhausted soil, and the absence of alkaline and earthy salts must be borne in mind. So too with prolonged confinement indoors in winter, the absence of invigorating exercise and the restriction of the animals (dams) to food which is deficient in saline matters.
Beyond the mere eating of the wool and the destruction of fleeces, the lambs do not usually suffer seriously. But if the consumption of wool is excessive the accumulating balls of the size of marbles in the stomach, and the blocking of the pylorus and small intestine, may give rise to intermittent constipations and diarrhœas, deranged digestion, muco-enteritis, mucous covered stools, loss of condition, emaciation and retarded development.
Treatment consists first in the securing of a more healthy regimen. This is but one of the evils of the close winter confinement of an animal preëminently adapted to freedom and exercise. Turning out in a wide range, especially if pasture is available, is a prime consideration. The separation from the flock, of the first wool eaters, will check the propagation of the vice by imitation. Food that is defective in one or more constituents must be supplemented by that which will correct the deficiency. Salt, potassic salts and above all phosphate of lime or bone meal will sometimes benefit. May recommends the separation of the lambs from the ewes except when nursing, three times a day. Finally Lemcke claims for apomorphia the same curative effect as in other animals. The dose is 2 grains, subcutem, as in the cow and may be repeated three days in succession.
LACERATION OF THE PHARYNX.
Trauma of pharynx from objects swallowed; from whip or other instrument in choking; lesions. Symptoms: swelling; rapidly extending; dysphagia; salivation; retching; dyspnœa; roaring; asphyxia. Treatment: as for pharyngitis; open pouch, suture laceration; use antiseptics; liquid diet.
Laceration of the velum palati has been already referred to, and the remaining walls of the pharynx sometimes suffer in the same way and from identical causes. Pins, needles, and other sharp pointed bodies taken with the food sometimes perforate the walls and determine an advancing ulceration which furnishes a way for their escape externally in the region of the throat. In other cases a rigid staff, a whip, or even a probang introduced to overcome choking, is forced through the walls of the pharynx forming a pouch for the accumulation and septic fermentation of ingesta, and extensive ulcerative and gangrenous lesions.
Lesions and Symptoms. These depend mainly on the extent of the laceration. If there is a mere abrasion, superficial laceration or prick of the mucosa, it determines a prompt inflammation, with exudation which covers or closes the wound and a speedy healing may ensue. When, however, the whole thickness of the mucosa has been extensively lacerated and a pouch has been formed beneath it, it becomes filled with decomposing mucus and ingesta, and the resulting septic products determine ulceration, abscess, or gangrene. The result is too often a general and fatal septic infection.
In the milder forms there are only the common indications of a moderate pharyngitis. In the more severe form, the throat swells at first on the lacerated side and later all around. This swelling soon fills the intermaxillary space and extends over the face and the entire head. From the first, deglutition is extremely difficult or impossible, liquids are returned through the nose and saliva flows abundantly from the mouth. Retching is not uncommon and saliva mixed with alimentary matters is discharged by the nose (solipeds) or mouth (other animals). The swelling of throat and head has a doughy, œdematous feeling, it is very tender, and soon causes rattling, wheezing breathing, roaring, dyspnœa and asphyxia.
Necropsy shows the general œdematous exudate, the laceration of the pharyngeal walls, and the collection of debris and pus in the lacerated cavity. The pus may have extended between the muscles following the course of the gullet and trachea as far as the chest. Extensive patches of necrosis may also be shown. Treatment. In the slighter cases the ordinary treatment for catarrhal pharyngitis is demanded. In the more severe the lesions are so redoubtable and their progress so rapid that a fatal result is virtually inevitable. As a desperate resort the septic pouch may be opened from without, its contents removed, the pharyngeal wound sutured if possible, and a thorough irrigation with antiseptics (acetate of aluminium solution) employed at frequent intervals to check if possible the septic process. The animal should be fed with well boiled milk or other liquid which will not add to the fermentation, and this may be given through a stomach tube, or by the rectum when deglutition is impossible.