Definition: Vesicles usually on external genitals, with fever and infection. Causes: Contagion by coition, clothing or stable utensils; inoculated on man or cow, resembles cowpox, but a first attack does not always immunize a stallion; inoculable on sheep, goat and pig. Symptoms: Incubation one to six days; local redness, heat, swelling, tenderness, papule, vesicle, pustule, scab, desquamation, depigmentation on genitals or in sucklings on mouth, lips, nose; may extend to mammary and inguinal regions, with swelling, stiffness and constitutional disturbance. Diagnosis from dourine. Treatment: Cleanliness, astringent, antiseptic lotions; open and disinfect abscesses; laxatives or diuretics. Prevention: Withhold from breeding.
Definition. An acute infectious disease, manifested by hyperthermia, hyperæmia, and the formation usually on the external generative organs of a crop of papules rapidly progressing to vesicles, pustules and open sores, and attended by great local irritation and itching. It runs a mild course and recovery ensues spontaneously in about fifteen days.
Causes. The disease is only known as a contagious affection, propagated from animal to animal by breeding together, or by using the same comb, brush or rubber, or by sucking, and in rare cases by other accidental or experimental inoculations. To make a successful inoculation the virus must be taken from the vesicles or pustules. When transferred to man or ox it develops an eruption which is indistinguishable from cowpox (Trasbot, Peuch, Galtier). Still a first attack does not always confer immunity, as stallions may have two successive attacks within a few weeks (Steinhoff). This implies that either this is not genuine cowpox, as claimed in France, or that two different exanthematous affections have been classed as one. Inoculation with the virus has produced a characteristic eruption in sheep, goats and pigs.
Symptoms. After a period of incubation of from one to six days there appear heat, swelling and tenderness of the affected part, followed by the formation of papules, gradually passing into vesicles, pustules and scabs which scale off, leaving a white depigmented surface. In stallions and mares the usual seat of the eruption is the external generative organs; in young sucking animals the mouth, lips, nose and quarters, and in inoculated cases wherever the virus has been implanted.
In the mare there is swelling of the lips of the vulva and redness of the vaginal and vulvar mucosa with points of a darker red, which become firm, papular, vesicular and finally pustular. A similar eruption shows on the skin of the swollen labiæ, on the lower surface of the tail and on the hips, though on these points the phenomena are obscured somewhat by the abundance of pigment. The contents of the vesicles are at first limpid but gradually change to opaque yellowish white, brown, or even red from slight blood extravasation. It causes not only marked tenderness but great itching so that the patient rubs the tail and rump, rupturing the vesicles, causing blood extravasations and retarding healing. The sores are primarily two or three lines in diameter but may widen and deepen under the friction. The surface may be red and angry and covered by a yellowish viscid discharge. When they heal they leave on the dark skin, round spots white and devoid of pigment. The itching during the acute stage of the disease, leads to generative excitement, frequent straining, contractions of the erector clitoris and ejection of urine. The animal appears to be constantly in heat, yet the absence of hyperthermia shows that there is no constitutional disorder nor central nervous affection. The disease appears to be purely local.
In the stallion after a similar incubation, the penis and usually the sheath become swollen and congested and if free from pigment there are dark points as described in the vulva. These points become firm, prominent, and finally vesicular and pustular. If continued in service the resulting sores may extend and prove protracted. In the absence of service they tend to heal about the fifteenth day. The eruption may extend on the scrotum, the inner side of the thighs, the throat, the lower surface of the neck, and the inside of the forelegs; on any parts indeed that may become soiled on mounting the mare. The meatus urinarius is red, swollen and angry, and shows a muco-purulent discharge. Generative excitement is shown by the more frequent rising and falling of the testicles, protrusion and retraction of the penis, and the frequency of urination.
In bad cases in both sexes the eruption encroaches more widely on the skin, and subcutaneous abscesses may form on the vulva, anus, tail, between the thighs or on the scrotal, mammary or inguinal regions. These are attended by extensive local swellings extending on the croup, or down to the hock, or forward to the hind limbs. In such cases there is more or less stiffness or lameness, with constitutional disturbance, hyperthermia, gastric disorder and emaciation.
Diagnosis. This disease is distinguished from dourine by the known absence of the latter from the locality, by the ready transmission, of the benign exanthema to cattle, by the entire absence of paresis or mental hebetude, by its rapid progress and early recovery, usually in fifteen days.
Treatment consists in thorough cleanliness, and the application of cooling, astringent, antiseptic lotions to the affected parts. Solutions of borax, boric acid, sulphate or chloride of zinc, permanganate of potash, corrosive sublimate, chlorine water, creolin, lysol, carbolic acid, or other such agent with glycerine will act promptly and well. In the severe cases with secondary abscesses the latter must be opened and the cavities treated antiseptically. Cooling laxatives and diuretics with salicylates or hyposulphites may also be desirable.
Prevention. No animal having sores nor discharge from the generative organs should be used for breeding. The owner of the animal infected by breeding has a good claim for damages.