CHRONIC CHOLERA 183 



straw, and does not come out even when called at feeding time. 

 This is nearly always a certain sign that something is going wrong, 

 for a healthy hog will practically never fail to come when called by 

 the owner at feeding time. If the owner is a really close observer 

 of his hogs he will note, even before they refuse to come up at call, 

 that for a day or two a few of the hogs are rather slow in responding 

 to the call, and that they do not squeal for their food, or put up a 

 vigorous fight at the troughs for their share. Any healthy hog will 

 squeal for his food at feeding time, and will keep up a steady 

 running fight for his share of the meal as long as there is anything 

 in sight to be eaten. 



About the next thing that can be noticed is the commencement 

 of an irregular action on the part of the bowels. At the start for 

 a few days this takes the form of a constipation, but a little later 

 on the animal begins to scour. The passages from the bowels 

 during this diarrhea are dark in color and have a very disagree- 

 able, stinking odor. In the course of a few days the bowel dis- 

 charges may be found to be streaked with blood, and in many cases 

 there pass out small shreds of the ulcerated bowel. This is due 

 to the fact that the disease causes a number of ulcers to form, and 

 these may be shed off and pass out with the feces as a part of the 

 blood-stained discharges. 



For several weeks there may be kept up these periods of diar- 

 rhea and constipation. One day the hog is scouring, and the 

 next the bowels are bound up, or there may be constipation lasting 

 for three or four days, and then all at once the diarrhea commences 

 again and the animal scours every few minutes, with a profuse, 

 watery, black discharge. It is not unusual to have this alternating 

 diarrhea and constipation keep up throughout the course of the 

 disease in chronic cholera. 



In chronic cholera the thermometer may show but very little 

 rise in temperature. In most cases, however, there will be a little 

 fever present. There is never seen the rapid rise to 106° or 108° F. 

 that occurs in connection with the acute type of cholera described 

 in preceding pages. 



The red blotches on the skin, which form such an important 

 sign of acute cholera, are not so marked in the chronic form of 

 the disease. There may be a few red spots, especially back of the 



