160 DEPRAVED APPETITE — PICA — THE LICKING HABIT. 



or because the changes in the digestive mucous membrane are ah'eady 

 too far advanced to permit of much improvement. 



The lesions comprise: general emaciation, presence of a yellow 

 serum in the fatty tissue, muscles pale and flabby, catarrh of the 

 mucous membrane of the stomach and bowel. The blood seems less in 

 quantity and coagulates feebly or not at all. 



Treatment. The treatment should be directed against the primary 

 cause, if such exists (osseous cachexia, pasteurellosis, gestation, etc.). 



In other cases a change in management and in feeding, and the 

 administration of food rich in mineral salts like chlorides, carbonates, and 

 phosphates of lime, soda or potash, produces the best possible results. 

 The leguminous foods, sainfoin, clover and lucern, are to be recommended. 

 The animal, if formerly stabled, should be turned out and its living con- 

 ditions entirely altered. 



It is often useful to place a block of rock salt in the manger ; when 

 hyperacidity of the stomach is suspected lime water, chalk, or magnesia 

 should be given. Where digestion is weak or slow HCl, pepsin and 

 vegetable bitters are indicated. Nevertheless, one sees cases which refuse 

 to yield to any of the ordinary methods. In treating these, Lemke has 

 recommended the subcutaneous injection of chloride of apomorphine, a 

 drug which may be regarded as a true specific. The doses vary between 

 1^ and 3 grains, and an injection is given once a week for three w^eeks in 

 succession. After this the tendency to pica is said to disappear and the 

 general condition to improve. The treatment must be repeated every 

 three months in countries where depraved appetite appears general and 

 permanent. 



It is difficult to understand by what mechanism this drug produces 

 the effects attributed to it, but those who have employed it speak very 

 highly of its action. 



We may add that in addition to the different modes of treatment, it is 

 not infrequently necessary to hastily perform gastrotomy in order to 

 avoid fatal consequences, which would otherwise follow indulgence in 

 this habit. When an animal has swallowed a considerable quantity of 

 linen, for example (and Moussu has seen cases in which many pounds 

 weight had been devoured), immediate intervention is required to avoid 

 intestinal obstruction. Furthermore, when the history is quite clear 

 gastrotomy allows the entire mass of foreign bodies, ingested at different 

 times, to be removed. 



DEPRAVED APPETITE IN CALVES AND LAMBS. 



Causation. Depraved appetite is commonest in calves and lambs 

 when the animals are insufficiently nourished, or when the mothers are 

 suffering from chronic debilitating diseases and are therefore yielding 



