The mouth is usually dry, hot, and clammy, and the edges of the tongue red. Temperature is usually elevated, yet with tartar emetic it may be distinctly reduced. Thirst is usually marked, and urination frequent. Icterus and albuminuria attend on phosphorus poisoning. When vomiting takes place the appearance or analysis of the matters rejected, or otherwise of the urine, will often indicate the nature of the poison.
Lesions. The gastric mucosa is congested and discolored, but the corrosion and even the ulceration are especially characteristic. Patches of necrotic mucous membrane may be more or less detached exposing a deep red submucosa. The coloration otherwise varies;—white or black with sulphuric acid or silver nitrate; white with muriatic acid, the caustic alkalies, or zinc chloride; yellow with nitric acid; or green with salts of copper.
Similar lesions are found on the buccal, œsophagean and intestinal mucosæ, and even at times on the respiratory.
Treatment. In the treatment of this form of gastritis the first consideration is to expel, or use an antidote to, the poison. In the soliped, emetics are useless. The stomach pump or tube may, however, be applied with good effect in nearly all cases, alternately throwing in water and drawing it off. Demulcents and coagulants are also universally applicable. Milk, eggs beaten up in milk, blood albumen, flaxseed tea, well boiled gruels, or slippery elm bark, may be used as may be most convenient. Next come the other chemical antidotes the use of which however demands a previous knowledge of the poison present. For the mineral acids one can make use of calcined magnesia, lime water, chalk, or carbonate of soda in weak solution. For alkalies the appropriate antidote is vinegar. For carbolic acid, vinegar, alcohol, or failing these a weak solution of soda or oil. For tartar emetic, gallic or tannic acid. For bichromate of potash or chromic acid, calcined magnesia, magnesia carbonate, or lime carbonate. For phosphorus, old oil of turpentine and demulcents—no oil. For ammonia, vinegar followed by almond, olive or sweet oil. In case of œdema glottidis, tracheotomy. For copper salts yellow prussiate of potash, which precipitates the copper in an insoluble form, and demulcents. For mercuric chloride, demulcent drinks can be resorted to, there is no other reliable antidote. In all cases after the evacuation of the stomach and the use of the antidote, mucilaginous agents must be given freely with morphia or other anodynes.
CATARRHAL INFLAMMATION OF THE FOURTH STOMACH.
Usually a complication. Causes, predisposing, exciting, changes of food or water, spoiled, frosted or fermented food, green potatoes, caterpillars, nitrogenous food, irritants. Symptoms: Separation from herd, grinding teeth, eructation, depraved appetite, fever, tender epigastrium, coated dung, red eyes, fixed or retracted, dilated, blind eyes, drooping ears, nervous symptoms, reckless unconscious movements, bellowing, tender skin, tremors. Lesions: Congestion and exudate in gastric mucosa, hemorrhagic discoloration, desquamation, excess of mucus, resemblance to rinderpest, Texas fever and malignant catarrh. Treatment: Empty stomach by bland laxatives, stimulants of peristalsis, calmatives, cold to head, counter-irritants, enemata, bitters.
This affection is by no means rare in cattle, though it is usually complicated with inflammation of the first three stomachs or of the intestines. Nevertheless, when the disease appears to be concentrated on the fourth stomach mainly, it may well take its name accordingly.
Causes. A predisposition to the affection occurs in the weak and debilitated, the overworked oxen, underfed cattle, in those that are just recovering from a severe illness and in which the gastric secretions and functions are still poor. The usual exciting cause is some fault in the food, it may be a sudden change from one kind to another, and especially from dry to green, or from one kind of green food to another and more tempting one, as when the animal breaks into a field of grain which is advancing to maturity. Even a sudden change of water, as from soft to hard has seemed in our experience to contribute to its development. Next come spoiled aliments, frosted or frozen turnips, beets, carrots, potatoes, apples, turnip tops, fermented grasses, musty hay, sun-exposed potatoes, putrid vegetables, and caterpillars on cabbages, tree leaves and other vegetables. Next come products that are highly nitrogenous, like vetches, alfalfa, sainfoin, clover, and the cakes of linseed, rape and cotton seed. Irritant plants such as colchicum, digitalis, yew, radish, etc., have been charged as causative agents.
Symptoms. These are often difficult to distinguish from those of indigestion or acute lead poisoning, and they vary in different cases according to the severity of the attack. In the milder cases there may be loss of appetite and rumination, some tympany, arching of the back, uneasy movements of the hind limbs and tail, a disposition to leave the herd, grinding of the teeth, and frequent gaseous eructations. Some show a depraved appetite, picking up and chewing various non-alimentary substances. Somewhat more characteristic are the dry, hot muzzle, the hyperthermia of the body, the tenderness to pressure of the epigastrium, and the baked appearance and glistening surface of the fæces. In the more severe forms the suffering is increased and the nervous system participates in the disorder. The eyes are congested, fixed or rolled back, the pupils dilated, the vision appears to be abolished, the ears are pendant, if tied the subject attempts to get loose, if at liberty he moves steadily in some one direction regardless of obstacles or dangers, he bellows, pushes against walls or other obstructions and may seriously injure himself or others. There is, however, no mischievous purpose, he is simply impelled to blind motion, and no regard is had to anything which may be in his way. In some instances the nervous disorder is manifested by a sensitiveness of the skin, so that the animal shrinks when handled or pinched along the chine or back. Tremors is another marked symptom.
Lesions. These consist mainly in congestion and swelling of the gastric mucosa, which is further covered by a thick layer of mucus. The folds are especially thickened and discolored, and the seat of hemorrhagic extravasations (petechiæ) and exudations in spots and patches. Desquamation of the epithelium may be met with at points and even distinct ulcers. Exudation in the submucous tissue, and petechiæ in the peritoneum are common. The condition may bear a close resemblance to what is seen in rinderpest or malignant catarrh.