422 DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, ETC. 



both conditions often exist together. Both eyes usually become af- 

 fected, unless it is due to an external injury. 



In favorable cases the exudate within the cornea begins to dis- 

 appear within a week or ten days, the eye becomes clearer, and re- 

 gains its transparency, until it eventually is fully restored. In un- 

 favorable cases blood vessels form and are seen to traverse the af- 

 fected part from periphery to center, vision becomes entirely lost, 

 and permanent opacity (albugo or leucoma) remains. When it 

 arises from constitutional causes recurrence is frequent, leaving the 

 cornea! membrane more cloudy after each attack, until the sight is 

 permanently lost. 



Suppurative keratitis may be a sequel of diffuse keratitis ; more 

 commonly, however, it abruptly becomes manifest by a raised swell- 

 ing on or near the center of the cornea that very soon assumes a 

 yellow, turbid color, while the periphery of the swelling fades into 

 an opaque ring. Suppurative keratitis is seldom noticed for the first 

 day or two not until distinct pus formation has occurred. When 

 it is the result of diffuse keratitis, ulceration and the escape of the 

 contained pus is inevitable; otherwise the pus may be absorbed. 

 When the deeper membranes covering the anterior chamber of the 

 eye become involved, the contents of this chamber may be evacuated 

 and the sight permanently lost. 



Treatment. Place the animal in a darkened stable, give green 

 or sloppy food, and administer 4 ounces of Glauber's salts (sulphate 

 of soda) dissolved in a quart of water once a day. If the animal is 

 debilitated a tablespoonful of tonic powder should be mixed with the 

 feed three times a day. This may be composed of equal parts by 

 weight of powdered copperas (sulphate of iron), gentian, and ginger. 

 As an application for the eye nitrate of silver, 3 grains to the ounce 

 of soft water, with the addition of 1 grain sulphate of morphia, may 

 be used several times a day. If ulceration occurs, it is well to dust 

 powdered calomel into the eye twice daily, or to the eyelids apply a 

 salve of yellow oxide of mercury, 5 per cent in lanolin. Some of 

 this may go onto the cornea and beneath the lids. Apply twice 

 daily. (See below, Ulcers of the Cornea.) 



To remove opacity, after the inflammation has subsided, apply 

 a few drops of the following solution twice a day: Iodide of potas- 

 sium, 15 grains; tincture sanguinaria, 20 drops; distilled water, 2 

 ounces ; mix. Sometimes keratitis exists in a herd as a transmissible 

 disease, spreading like infectious conjunctivitis. Calomel, applied 

 to the eye, is especially useful in such cases. 



ULCERS OF THE CORNEA. 



An ulcer comes from erosion or is the consequence of the burst- 

 ing of a small abscess, which may have formed beneath the delicate 

 layer of the conjunctiva, continued over the cornea; or, in the very 

 substance of the cornea itself, after violent keratitis, or catarrhal 

 conjunctivitis. At other times the ulcer is produced by bruises, 

 scratches, and other direct injury of the cornea. 



Symptoms. The ulcer is generally at first of a pale gray color, 

 with its edges high and irregular, discharges instead of pus an acrid 



