DISEASES OF DOMESTIC AMIMAL8. 149 



ipthae or Thrush. — This is properly a disease of the digestive 

 system, or sometimes called a dietetic disease. It is called a sporadic 

 apthae, to distinguish it from epizootic apthae, which is rarely seen in 

 this country. The sporadic affects the mouth and the whole alimentary 

 canal. Vesicles and pustules appear on the tongue and lips, and may 

 extend to the skin of the lips, and I believe it extends throughout the 

 whole alimentary canal. It is dae to indigestion and poor food of any 

 description, bad hay being particularly apt to cause it, and the feed 

 affecting many at the same time has given rise to the supposition that it 

 is sometimes contagious. There is a dietetic disease called stomatitis 

 cantagiose, which is also from faulty digestion. 



Symptoms. — The appetite impaired, the mouth hot, the pulse 

 quickened some but not much and the temperature slightly in- 

 creased, perhaps one or two degrees. He is unable to masticate, 

 and then these small vesicles appear, which run into pustules in some 

 cases. 



Treatment. — Kemove the cause; give a slight laxative — two, three, or 

 four drachms of aloes — but do not give a large dose, for the alimentary 

 canal is already irritated. You may give it in connection with gentian 

 or ginger, or a small dose of oil. Give vegetable and mineral tonics, or 

 ginger and carbonate of soda, one drachm each, once or twice a day. 

 Use a gargle of alum and water, or a little carbolic acid may be added. 

 Sulphate of copper, nitrate of silver, etc., may be used as stimulants, or 

 you may give quinine in one-half drachm to one drachm doses. Dis- 

 solve it in sulphuric acid, and the best way to give it is in a drench in 

 water. 



Inflauimatiou of the Palate and Pharynx sometimes results from 

 balling with a stick, or it may iDroceed from some little foreign body 

 lodged in the parts. Laryngitis is more common and much more severe 

 than pharyngitis, and is sometimes produced by the violent use of the 

 probang. 



Symptoms. — There is great fever ; swelling both internally and ex- 

 ternally, and perhaps the fever is followed by death in from twenty-four 

 to sixty hours. There are all the ordinary symptoms of sore throat, and 

 a stench comes from the throat, and in cattle the swelling extends 

 towards the ear. especially if produced by the probang. Use fomen- 

 tations, give a moderate dose of sedative medicines, and use judicious 

 counter-irritation ; try the inhalation of vapour, and if it gives relief, 

 continue ; if it seems to cause distress, do not use it. And use any of 

 the ordinary gargles, and it may terminate in resolution. Abcesses also 

 occur in the pharynx and it is hard to say what causes them. It is 

 more likely to attack cattle that have a tubercular tendency. In the 

 horse it may result from sore throat, direct injury, etc. If it is high up 

 it interferes with respiration, and there is usually a discharge from the 

 nose ; a difficulty in swallowing, etc. The symptoms in cattle are 

 similar, but are not generally so violent ; he may take some food, but 

 there js a peculiar breathing. You may detect a bulging by pressing on 

 either* side of the throat. The treatment given is to open these abcesses, 

 but it is not very successful. I have never seen it done with success in 

 the horse, but it is more easily done in cattle. There is danger of the 

 matter passing down and suffocating the animal. Use a guarded knife, 

 or a concealed bistouri ; a small knife well guarded, is very good. But 

 you are working in the dark to a certain extent ; however, opening m ay 

 save life occasionally. 



