146 Veterinary Medicine. 



putrid fennentatiou goes on after their discharge of the faecal 

 matters, the air becomes more and more repulsiv^e. The same 

 odor pervades the mouth and the breath and the tongue is coated 

 with a whitish, grayisli or yellowish fur. 



The faeces become more watery and slimy, with much 

 casein in course of putrefaction, and the patient is rapidly run 

 down by the profuse discharge and the general poisoning b3' ab- 

 sorbed putrid products. In the worst cases this may prove fatal 

 in one or two days. 



When the illness is more prolonged the alvine passages which 

 at first number five or six per day. increase to fifteen or twenty 

 and are passed with more effort, usually leaving the anus in a 

 liquid stream. The color of the stools clianges from a yellow to 

 a grayish yellow or dirty white, hence the common name of 

 white scour, and the foetor is intensified. 



Appetite may be in part preserved for a time but is gradually 

 lost, and the subject becomes dull, listless and weak, indisposed 

 to rise and walking unsteadily when raised. A general appear- 

 ance of unthriftiness, .staring coat, scurfy, unhealthy skin, pallor 

 of the mucous membranes, arching of the back, tucking up and 

 tenderness of the abdomen, excoriation of the margins of the anus, 

 and congestion of the rectum as seen everted during defecation, 

 mark the advance of the disease. Emaciation becomes very 

 marked, and weakness and prostration extreme. 



Fever usually sets in as the disease advances, as marked by 

 hyperthermia, hot dry muzzle, hot ears, accelerated pulse and 

 breathing. 



When the intestinal fermentation is extreme there ma}' be 

 distinct bloating, more acute colicy pains, rumbling of the bowels 

 and a frothy and even bloody condition of the dejections. The 

 prostration may become extreme and the temperature reduced to 

 the normal or below. 



Death may result from inanition and exhaustion, or from ner- 

 vous prostration and poisoning. 



The affection may be complicated by purulent arthritis, peri- 

 tonitis, pneumonia, hepatitis, keratitis or laminitis. It may 

 prove fatal in from three to ten days. 



Mortality. This is always high. For foals it has been set 

 down at 80 per cent, of the numbers attacked, for calves at 54 



