SYMPTOMS IN ACUTE TYPE 175 



burning fever dries up the contents of the bowels, and the animal is 

 unable to empty them for some time. This condition of constipa- 

 tion may remain through the entire course of the disease. In many 

 cases the animals die with the bowels packed full of feces. 



There are a large number of cases, however, in which, after a 

 few days, the condition of constipation changes to just the opposite 

 condition, and we have the starting up of a very free and weakening 

 diarrhea. This diarrhea is of a very pecuhar kind, and, when pres- 

 ent, is a big help in making a diagnosis of the disease. It may start 

 as a rather brownish, semisoHd stool, but a little later on the 

 discharge that comes from the bowels becomes very black in color, 

 has a most disagreeable stinking odor, and is almost as thin as 

 water. This is the typical hog-cholera diarrhea — black in color, ^ 

 thin and liquid-like, and with a very disagreeable odor. 1 



In some cases, where the animals are running on a green pasture 

 range, the diarrhea may be of a greenish color instead of black. 

 There are some other foods that may somewhat change the ap- 

 pearance of this discharge, but the one usually seen, and which 

 always leads one to think of cholera, is the black, watery diarrhea. 

 In some cases there may be one or two days of constipation, fol- 

 lowed by one or two days of scouring, and then another period 

 of constipation. This may keep up throughout the course of the 

 disease, the animal been bound up one day and scouring the next. 

 As a rule, when the scouring once starts it is kept up until the 

 animal dies. 



As a result of this scouring we have a marked increase in the 

 weakness of the hog. This constant diarrhea is very exhausting, 

 and, when kept up every few minutes for a couple of days, the poor 

 animal is hardly able to stand from the weakness which comes on 

 as a result of the constant drain upon the system resulting from 

 this profuse discharge. When we take into consideration also the 

 effects of the poisons produced in the body by the virus itself, and 

 the action which they have upon the muscle cells, it is no wonder 

 that the animal is scarcely able to stand or walk. 



As a result of the large amount of liquid discharge resulting 

 from the continued diarrhea the tail and hams of the sick animal 

 become badly soiled with the black-colored liquid, and have a very 

 disagreeable appearance and a most stinking odor. With the loss 



