DISEASES OF HORSES 73 



slowly, developing at times in a horse placed in a stall where the 

 previously sick one had stood, or it may pass next to an animal 

 several stalls away. One attack is usually protective. 



Symptoms. The symptoms are ushered in by fever, in which 

 the acceleration of the pulse and respiration is in no way in accord 

 with the great elevation of temperature. With the appearance of 

 the fever is developed a diffuse bronchitis, which is, however, sub- 

 acute both in its character and in its course. At times the trouble 

 of the bronchi may extend to the trachea, larynx, pharynx, or even 

 to the nasal fossae 



In two or three days a trifling grayish albuminous discharge 

 from the nostrils occurs, which continues, variable in quantity, for 

 eight to fourteen days, or may even last three weeks. The cough is 

 short, rough, and painful, spasmodic in its occurrence and in char- 

 acter. The slight watery or slimy discharge may become more pro- 

 fuse, purulent, or even rusty, if the bronchitis has extended to the 

 neighboring structures. The respiration is moderate and affected 

 only during an excess of coughing, or in complicated cases. The 

 pulse undergoes but little quickening. The temperature rises 

 rapidly to 102.2, 104, and in some cases even to 107.5 F. 

 The latter temperature usually, but not always, indicates com- 

 plication by pleurisy. In ordinary cases the temperature drops in 

 two or three days after the appearance of the cough. The skin is dry 

 and rough, with the hairs on end, but the horse appears as an animal 

 out of condition rather than as a sick one. Emaciation may be rapid. 

 The mucous membranes are moderately reddened. The appetite is 

 diminished, but the animal chews constantly. Deglutition, either 

 of food or water, is frequently, the cause of spasms of coughing, 

 and these in turn seem to warn the animal against attempts at swal- 

 lowing. On percussion no alteration of resonance is to be detected. 

 On auscultation of the lungs mucous rales are heard with at times 

 tubular breathing; the latter, however, we will study under the com- 

 plications, as also the friction warning of pleurisy. Throughout the 

 course of the disease we have still one constant and characteristic 

 symptom nervous irritability. With temperature of 104 to 107 

 F., the horse still flinches to the touch on the loins; it stands fre- 

 quently with the head up, and is on the alert for the entrance of 

 anyone to the stall. The previously good-tempered and quiet horse 

 will turn and bite, will strike with the hind legs, or at the first 

 touch on the side, head, or throat will half rear and back into the 

 corner of the box, or, breaking the halter, turn backward out of the 

 stall. 



The course of the disease is from five to eight days, but the 

 cough, may continue for two or three weeks with variable eleva- 

 tion of temperature. As a stable plague the course is from two to 

 three months, as the contagion is much more uncertain than in 

 strangles or influenza. The termination is by resolution and recov- 

 ery or by complications. In resolution the temperature drops, the 

 cough becomes less frequent and less spasmodic in character, the 



