Infective Gastro- Enteritis in Calves, Lambs and Foals. 145 



Guinea-pig- like tlie calf sliowed the diplococci in the blood. 

 Nikolski who studied the affection in lambs seeks to incriminate 

 both micrococci and bacilli. 



It is premature to specify any particular microbe as the sole 

 cause of the affection. It seems not improbable that bacterial 

 ferments of one or more specific kinds, which in a healthy animal 

 have no injurious effect, ma}' by special combination, or by growth 

 in a mucosa in a given morbid condition, acquire properties which 

 render them not only violently irritating, but may retain such 

 properties so as to render them actively contagious. In this condi- 

 tion they may overcome the resistance of the most healthy stomach 

 and bowelsand attack all young animals into which the}' may secure 

 an entrance. Certain it is that the infection may persist in the 

 same stable for years, will enter a new herd with a newly purchased 

 cow or calf bought out of a previously infected lot, and will follow 

 the watershed and affect in succession the different herds drink- 

 ing from a stream as it flows downward. 



The similarity of the germ found by Jensen to the bacillus coli 

 comnuniis, suggests that in this as in a number of other conta- 

 gious affections a pathogenic sport from this common saprophyte 

 is at least one of the microbian factors in this disease. 



Symptoms. These may set in just after birth but usually the 

 disease occurs within the two first weeks of life. When delayed 

 for a few days after birth it may be preceded by .some constipation, 

 t)ie faeces appearing hard, moulded, and covered with mucus. 

 This is especially the case when the meconium has been retained 

 and has proved a cause of irritation. The young animal is care- 

 less of the teat or refuses it (or the pail if brought up by hand), 

 yawns and seems weary. The abdominal muscles are tense and 

 the belly may be swollen if fermentation has already set in but 

 this is rarely excessive. Straining to defecate usually causes 

 eructations of an acid odor, and sometimes vomiting of solid sour- 

 smelling clots. Abdominal pain may be manifested by uneasy 

 movements of the tail and hind limbs, by looking toward the 

 flank and even by plaintive cries. This is followed within six 

 hours by liquid dejections, at first merely soft, slimy and sour 

 but soon complicated by a peculiar odor of rotten cheese which 

 becomes increasingly offensive as the malady advances. The 

 tail and hips become soaked with the discharges and as the 



