Journal Pratique de Médecine Vétérinaire
, M. Damalix gives an interesting account of the effect of a bite of a rabid dog on a horse. On the 8th of July, 1828, a fowl-merchant, proceeding to the market of Colmar, was attacked by a dog, who, after some fruitless efforts to get into the cart, bit the horse on the left side of the face, and fled precipitately. A veterinary surgeon was sent for, who applied the cautery to the horse, gave him some populeum ointment, and bled him. Everything appeared to go on well, and on the 16th the wounds were healed.
On the 25th a great alteration took place. The horse was careless and slow; he sometimes refused to go at all, and would not attend in the least to the whip, which had never occurred before. In the evening the wounds opened spontaneously, an ichorous and infectious pus run from them; there was salivation and utter loss of appetite: strange fancies seemed to possess him; he showed a desire to bite his master. The veterinary surgeon might approach him with safety; but the moment his owner or the children appeared, he darted at them, and would have torn them in pieces. The disease now took on the appearance of acute glanders; livid and fungous wounds broke out; the stable was saturated with an infectious smell, the horse refused his food, or was unable to eat. The mayor at last interfered, and the animal was destroyed. In the
Treatises on The Horse, Cattle, and Sheep
, in former volumes, accounts are fully given of this dreadful malady in these animals. It may not be uninteresting to give a hasty sketch of it in some of the inferior classes.
[Rabies] in the Rabbit.
— I very much regret that I never instituted a course of experiments on the production and treatment of rabies in this animal. It would have been attended with little expense or danger, and some important discoveries might have been made. Mr. Earle, in a case in which he was much interested, inoculated two rabbits with the saliva of a dog that had died rabid. They were punctured at the root of the ears. One of the rabbits speedily became inflamed about the ears, and the ears were paralysed in both rabbits. The head swelled very much, and extensive inflammation took place around the part where the virus was inserted. One of them died without exhibiting any of the usual symptoms of the disease; the other, after a long convalescence, survived, and eventually recovered the use of his ears. Mr. Earle very properly doubted whether this was a case of rabies.
Dr. Capello describes, but in not so satisfactory a manner as could be wished, a case of supposed rabies in one of these animals. A rabbit and a dog lived together in a family. They were strange associates; but such friendships are not unfrequent among animals. The dog became rabid, and died. A man bitten by that dog became hydrophobous, and died. No one dreamed of the rabbit being in danger, and he ran about the house as usual; but, one day, he found his way to the chamber of the mistress of the house, with a great deal of viscid saliva running from his mouth, furiously attacked her, and left the marks of his violence on her leg. He then ran into a neighbouring stable, and bit the hind-legs of a horse several times. Finally, he retreated to a corner of the stable, and was there found dead. Neither the lady nor the horse eventually suffered.
[Rabies] in the Guinea-pig