DISEASES OF HEART 

 ACUTE INFLAMMATION OF THE HEART 



In the hog the most common causes of acute diseases of the 

 heart are the infectious diseases, especially pneumonia and hog- 

 cholera. Hog-cholera is especially hable to be complicated by 

 disease of the heart. These diseases of the heart may take the 

 form of an inflammation of the outer covering of the organ (peri- 

 carditis) ; an inflammation of the inner Uning of the heart (endo- 

 carditis); or there may be an inflammation of the muscular sub- 

 stance of the heart itself (myocarditis). 



Sjrmptoms. — In the hog it is very seldom that a diagnosis of 

 heart disease can be made. The diseases of the heart do not often 

 occur as primary diseases, and when they occur in connection 

 with such diseases as hog-cholera, pneumonia, pleurisy, or rheu- 

 matism the symptoms of the principal disease are so prominent 

 as to entirely overshadow the symptoms due to the disease of the 

 heart itself. 



Among the more important indications of involvement of the 

 heart are rapid, feeble pulse, with irregularity of the beat. With 

 a severe myocarditis the pulse often becomes so weak and irregular 

 as to be imperceptible to the examining finger. With a pericarditis 

 the pulse becomes very irregular. In this disease, if the ear be 

 placed at the chest wall early in the condition, a peculiar grating 

 sound, very similar to that heard in pleurisy, may be detected, but 

 in this case it differs from that seen in inflammation of the pleura, in 

 that it occurs at each beat of the heart instead of with each in- 

 spiration. 



In the acute infectious diseases when the heart is involved there 

 is also a marked rise in temperature, the rise being much higher 

 than in those cases where there is no heart complications. Heart 

 disease is always associated with a certain amount of pain, and 

 this makes the animal restless. 



