518 DISEASES OF SWINE 



long-drawn-out cases, and, even if the disease should be checked, 

 the animal is so stunted as to be worthless. 



Postmortem Diagnosis. — If the carcass of an animal dead from 

 blood-poisoning be cut open and examined it is usually easy to make 

 a diagnosis if the case be one of the pus-forming type. Abscesses 

 will be found scattered all through the internal organs. Often 

 several of them can be seen in the hver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and 

 in the fat surrounding the intestines. In severe cases large ab- 

 scesses may even involve the muscles and the heart. 



In those cases that are simply a blood-poisoning the postmortem 

 diagnosis is not always so easy, and it may require an expert meat 

 inspector to tell these cases. The principal findings are failure of 

 the carcass to get stiff after death, as a normal carcass should do. 

 If the animal has been slaughtered there is a failure to bleed prop- 

 erly. The lining membranes of the chest and belly cavities rapidly 

 lose their bright, shiny appearance and become dark in color. In 

 a healthy hog this shiny appearance lasts for several hours, and 

 the membranes never take on a dark color. The meat also decom- 

 poses rapidly in an animal that has died of blood-posioning. 

 Numerous small spots of hemorrhage similar to those seen in 

 the kidneys in hog-cholera may occur in various parts of the 

 body. 



Treatment. — The treatment of bloDd-poisoning is almost en- 

 tirely prevention. With proper handling of wounds, proper clean- 

 ing of knives, syringes, and other instruments handled in opera- 

 tions, and careful attention to sows following difficult births, blood- 

 poisoning should not occur. In this connection it is especiallj' 

 important to call attention to a cause for this condition which is of 

 great importance at the present time. This is the injection of hog- 

 cholera serum. In connection with the use of the serum treatment 

 for cholera we have several opportunities for producing fatal blood- 

 poisoning. If the serum used be made carelessly, and without due 

 regard to cleanliness, it may contain large numbers of these germs 

 which cause blood-poisoning, and when such a serum is injected 

 into the body of the animal it is certain to produce very disastrous 

 effects. In cases where the serum is left exposed in a warm room 

 for several days or left in open bottles the danger becomes many 

 times multipUed. This is the reason that such stress has been 



