DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP, 



191 



. If the animal is about to recover, the febrile symptoms subside, 

 and begin to disappear about the fourth day, while at about 

 the eighth day the appetite is regained and consciousness well 

 uigh established. If the sufferer be a milk-giving cow, the 

 ■gecretion of milk returns to the normal point, the epithelium 

 again grows over the eroded patches on the surface of the 

 tongue and the lining of the mouth. On the other hand, the 

 ■disease will assume a severe character if the animal is destined 

 to die; the ulceration may spread, the hoofs slough off, and 

 the animal become extremely prostrated, and die at about the 

 ninth day. If this is to be the result, it is probable that vesicles 

 will be formed not only in the mouth and on the feet, but also, 

 and especially in the case of young animals, on the fauces and 

 pharynx (the larynx also being irritated), the lining membrane 

 of the eyelids, that of the windpipe, and also on that of the 

 whole course of the digestive canal. If the intestines are 

 affected, diarrhoea will be manifested, while, if the windpipe be 

 attacked, a hoarse cough is often uttered. If young animals 

 are very virulently affected, they may die even before any 

 eruption has occurred, and after death, in such instances, the 

 langs will very probably be found to be highly congested. It is 

 especially when the udder is inflamed, and when the tongue and 

 feet are much affected that the loss is particularly great. 



Puffy swellings are sometimes formed also in parts, and this, 

 says Williams, was especially the case in the outbreak of 1872, 

 in which the disease introduced into Edinburgh and Leith 

 from Iceland assumed a very virulent form. 



One of the worst features, however, of foot-and-mouth disease 

 is the frequency with which it invades the udders of milch cows, 

 giving rise to mammitis or inflammation of the milk-secreting 

 organs. The vesicles in these cases are usually formed on the 

 teats, but may also invade the ducts which conduct the milk 

 from the cells which secrete it to the openings at the end of the 

 teats. The calves contract the disease in a very bad form from 

 the eroded vesicles on the teats, and from the milk contaminated 

 by the unhealthy secretion from the lining of the tubes. In 

 such cases the mortality, unless proper therapeutic and hygienic 

 measures are taken, is apt to be very serious. Indeed, even the 

 milk from a cow in which the udder is not especially affected is 

 -damaging to young animals. 



