PLEURISY. 8? 



year-old horses, especially such as are kept in warm stables 

 and live high. 



The causes are cold, immersion of legs in or drinking 

 cold water when heated, sympathy with contiguous in- 

 flammatory diseases, blood contamination, morbid growths, 

 external injury to membrane, overexertion, &c. 



Williams describes i epizootic pleurisy/ which is "pre- 

 ceded and accompanied by a low typhoid or adynamic 

 (sinking) form of fever." It lasts from one to two weeks. 



Symptoms. — Slight chill or rigor; fever; uneasiness, 

 gradually increasing till acute pain is manifested, when the 

 animal heaves or rather pants violently at the flanks, puffs, 

 blows, and casts piteous looks at its flanks ; heat all over 

 body, in parts actually sweating with pain ; great nervous 

 irritation ; cannot be quiet for a minute ; looks here and 

 there, pawing, lying down, getting up. Pressure on the 

 rib spaces causes flinching, usually a characteristic grunt, 

 and an attempt to bite ; a cough is often present, causing 

 such pain that the animal, in its effort to suppress it, makes 

 a sort of reiterated, hacking, half-cough of it ; pulse very 

 quick, firm, and wiry; mouth hot and dry; breath cold; 

 nasal membrane reddened and moist ; no discharge, unless 

 some catarrhal or bronchial irritation be also present. 



When there is inflammation of the muscles (pleurodynia) 

 the horse moves in a very rigid manner ; may fall ; steps 

 slowly and very short ; dejected ; back arched ; skin tender. 



In the chronic form the symptoms are mostly very dif- 

 ferent, and some the reverse. Instead of restlessness and 

 watchfulness, dullness and dejection continue from first to 

 last. Even respiration does not cause embarrassment until 

 shortly before death, when the chest is nearly or quite full 

 of water. The inflammation of the pleura is about the 

 same, as are also the tenderness of the sides, the grunt, 

 and the respiratory murmur. The cough, if it still ex- 

 ists, becomes faint and sore, and now and then causes the 

 before mentioned grunt. 



