336 Acute Gastro-Iutestinal Catarrh in Young Animals. 



The thin-fluid feces soil the iieigliborhood of the anus ; as a 

 consequence the hairs fall out and eczema and intertrigo develop. 



The abdomen appears eitlier drawn in and sunken in at the 

 flanks or it is, on the contrary, bloated moderately; the latter 

 condition is seen particularly in ruminants. The intestinal 

 sounds are sometimes exceptionally loud and rumbling. Palpa- 

 tion in the region of the stomach elicits tenderness rarely if at 

 all (the abomasum in ruminants). 



If diarrhea is obstinate debility and emaciation rapidly ap- 

 pear. The appetite is now entirely lacking, while thirst may be 

 intense; the eyes sink in, the fur becomes scrubby, the skin is 

 dry or covered with a clammy sweat, the whole body emits a dis- 

 agreeable nauseating odor. Finally the animals are hardly 

 able to stand on their feet; they lie apathetically on the floor, 

 the peripheral portions of the body become as cold as ice, in- 

 voluntary movements of the bowels occur and death takes place 

 in syncope or wdth convulsions. 



Course. In a majority of cases the disease ends in re- 

 covery. The diarrhea stops after a certain time, occasionally 

 after a few hours ; the appetite improves, the animals become 

 more lively and generally recover rapidly, even in those cases 

 where the affection has lasted for some time. Grave cases lead 

 to death in three to five days, occasionally, however, they drag 

 along for several weeks and a catarrhal pneumonia is then usu- 

 ally the terminal affection. Aphthous stomatitis is a frequent 

 complication in lambs. 



Diagnosis. The disease may be confounded with dysentery 

 of sucklings; the latter, however, always attacks the animals 

 immediately after birth or at the utmost during the first few- 

 days of life ; it takes a much more unfavorable course and be- 

 trays clearly its infectious character, wdiile simple gastro-intes- 

 tinal catarrh appears sporadically, and even if there are a num- 

 ber of cases, one is al)le to demonstrate the common external 

 factor in its production. 



Prognosis. The younger the sick animals, the longer the 

 disease lasts and the less favorable is the prognosis. The latter 

 also depends upon whether it is possible to remove the noxious 

 causative factors. 



Treatment. The first attempt at treatment must be the reg- 

 ulation of the diet of the sick animals ; if they are sucklings, the 

 diet of the mother animal must likewise be attended to and 

 errors of diet or external unfavorable conditions have to be cor- 

 rected speedily. In case the young animals have to be brought 

 up by hand, it is advisable to feed them with pasteurized milk, 

 formalin milk (1 to 25.000) or perhydrase milk. The detrimen- 

 tal effect of feeding milk may be diminished by the addition of 



