SYMPTOMS IN ACUTE TYPE 169 



When the sick hog tries to get up it is hardly able to do so, and 

 especially has trouble in getting up on its hind legs. The hind 

 parts of the body are especially weak, and even after the animal gets 

 into the standing position the hind limbs are so weak that it is often 

 hardly able to stand. One hind foot is usually crossed over the 

 other, and when the animal starts to walk it is easily noticeable 

 how weak the hind legs are from the staggering gait and weaving 

 of the hind parts. 



When the patient is looked at real closely it will usually be 

 noticed that there is slight trembling of the muscles, and even a 

 light chill may often be seen. If the temperature is taken by a 

 thermometer placed in the rectum it will be found practically 

 always that the hog has considerable fever, often the temperature 

 running as high as 106° F., even this early in the disease. 



Every day the symptoms of the disease become a little more 

 severe, and especially is it noted that the weakness of the muscles 

 of the hind limbs becomes more marked. The animal has greater 

 difficulty in getting up every time it Ues down, and when it is 

 forced to stand or walk it is scarcely able to keep on its feet, so 

 pronounced is the weakness of the muscles. There is more and 

 more marked difficulty in trying to walk, and the staggering be- 

 comes more and more noticeable. This weakness of the muscles 

 keeps getting worse and worse as the disease progresses, until finally 

 it gets so bad that the animal is unable to either get up or remain 

 standing after he does get up. 



The sensitiveness of the skin, especially the skin over the 

 flanks and belly, becomes more severe each day, and the touch 

 causes discomfort and pain, which the hog shows by painful grunts. 

 He is too weak to make any show of resistance, but simply lets 

 you know that it hurts him by plaintive grunts. 



The appetite, which is practically lost from the start, is lost 

 entirely when the disease gets well advanced, and the animal 

 absolutely refuses food of all kinds. There is, however, a burning 

 thirst, as a result of the high fever, and if the sick hog is in a pasture 

 where there is a running stream, this desire for water, both inter- 

 nally and externally, will usually cause him to travel to the banks 

 of the stream, where he will burrow himself in the cooling water and 

 mud to relieve the discomfort produced by the high fever, which is 



