Symptoms, Diagnosis. Y95 



In the chronic cases, which frequently result in recovery, 

 fever is observed only in the first days of the affection or may 

 be entirely absent. In rare cases intermittent fever may be 

 present. On account of the severe anemia the animals are list- 

 less and languid, their mucous membranes are strikingly pale, 

 while icterus is usually absent. The appetite diminishes, and the 

 patients become greatly emaciated. The urine frequently con- 

 tains albumen, while hemoglobin is only exceptionally present, 

 and even then only in small quantities. The number of red blood 

 corpuscles in the blood diminishes up to 1/4-1/5 of the normal 

 while a simultaneous and marked increase of the colorless cells, 

 especially of the polynuclear leucocytes occurs. 



After the disease has lasted for 3 to 6 weeks the symptoms of 

 anemia gradually disappear, and finally complete recovery takes 

 place. Such recovered animals however harbor the parasites 

 for a long time in their bodies, as their blood proves infectious 

 even after one year (Theiler), and sometimes even after 21/0 

 years (Robertson). If fever is produced in such animals, the 

 parasites reappear in great numbers (Marchoux). 



Diagnosis. This can be established wdth certainty only by 

 the demonstration of piroplasma; in those cases especially in 

 which no hemoglobinuria and icterus but only anemic symptoms 

 are observed. There exists in dogs a disease which in its clin- 

 ical manifestations corresponds completely with piroplasmosis 

 (anemia with disintegration of red blood corpuscles transition 

 forms and hyperleucocytosis, albuminuria and hemoglolnnuria), 

 which probably develops as a result of the ingestion of putrefied 

 meat. In this disease however piroplasma cannot be demon- 

 strated microscopically or by animal inoculation (Szoyka). 

 Nevertheless the suspicion of piroplasmosis is justified in the 

 presence of the s;^anptoms mentioned, especially if it concerns 

 hunting dogs and if ticks are found on their bodies. In the case 

 of negative microscopical findings a positive result may some- 

 times l)e obtained by inoculation of blood into very young dogs, 

 for which especially intravenous or intraperitoneal inoculations 

 are adapted ; for after this mode of infection the disease usually 

 develops in a few dajs. 



Treatment. Nuttall, Graham Smith & Hadwen showed by 

 accurately controlled laboratory experiments, that trypan red, 

 and trypan blue, have a specific destructive action on the piro- 

 plasma of dogs. In dogs which already have harbored numer- 

 ous parasites in their blood, they disappear from the circulating 

 blood inside of 20 to 96 hours with the simultaneous subsiding of 

 the fever, after a single subcutaneous injection of 5-6 cc. of a 

 1% solution of one of these substances. At first the pear-shaped 

 subside later the roundish ameboid forms, although they re- 

 appear after 9 to 12 days, but the animals show no symptoms 

 outside of a short rise in temperature, and finally they recover 



