When the muscles of the croup are attacked the mode of getting up is reversed, the animal rising first on its fore feet and remaining for a time sitting on its haunches or resting on the hocks before it gets on the hind.
If the muscles of the neck are involved there is the same stiffness, soreness, tenderness and twisting to one side or rigid elevation of the neck as seen in the horse in similar circumstances.
In any case there is a tendency to extension or shifting from one part to another, and notably to the implication of the tendons, synovial sheaths and joints. This is especially the case in the acute type, while chronic rheumatism may remain long confined to the groups of muscles which are first attacked. In the acute forms too there is the greatest liability to internal complications not only cardiac, but according to Cruzel abdominal and thoracic as well.
A fatal result is rare, but the impairment of appetite and digestion, the constant and often severe suffering, the destruction of the red globules, and the malnutrition, and increased and perverted metabolism as shown in the pallor of the visible mucous membranes, the steady loss of condition and advancing emaciation, the rigid, dry, scurfy, hidebound skin, tends to wear out the subject or render it unprofitable. In the chronic form it may last for months.
SYMPTOMS OF RHEUMATISM IN SHEEP.
Articular rheumatism seems to be very rare in mature sheep, while it has been recorded in lambs. Muscular rheumatism on the other hand has been seen in connection with untimely shearing, exposure to cold storms and cold, damp folds. The back and loins, are tender to the touch, or in other cases the neck or hind quarter, the limbs are carried straight and rigid, the animal moves slowly and stiffly, falls behind the flock, and is found alone, unthrifty and emaciated. It usually terminates in recovery though it may cause chronic disease and distortion of the affected joints or it may even prove fatal. The usual tendency of the morbid process to shift from joint to joint or to muscles, is here again characteristic.
SYMPTOMS OF ARTICULAR RHEUMATISM IN SWINE.
Climatic influences. Rheumatoid. Joints attacked. Muscles. Decubitus. Stiff, rigid, steps on toes, grunts, swelling, heat, tenderness, chaps, cracks, suppurations, inappetence, emaciation, metastasis, cardiac disorder. Duration; course. Chronic form. Muscular form. Diagnosis from trichinosis. Connection with arthritis. Metastasis. Remissions.
The pig which shows an extreme sensitiveness to climatic vicissitudes and cold winds, fleeing instantly to his lair on their advent, is yet protected by his subcutaneous fat, so that he is not a frequent victim of simple rheumatism. Leblanc attributes it to unwholesome pens. Chaussade to too rapid fattening (overfeeding). Rheumatoid attacks are very common at the onset of hog cholera, swine plague and other infectious diseases, when they are probably but local manifestations of the general infection.
The lesions are mainly concentrated in the stifle, hock, knee and fetlock. In some cases the dorsal and lumbar muscles suffer and there is arching of the back with great tenderness on manipulation. In other cases the muscles of the quarter or shoulder are involved as shown by their stiffness and extreme sensibility to touch.