TUBERCULOSIS 305 



Clinical Symptoms and Course. — On account of the various ways 

 in which tuborcuhj.sis ai)])ears, no postive line of symptoms can be made. 



Acute miliary Tuberculosis is very rare and runs its course with 

 intense rapidity, and generally it is only by the presence of the tuber- 

 cular bacilli in the blood that it can be recognized. 



Chronic Tuberculosis. — The animal is easily fatigued, short breath, 

 particularly after any slight exertion, irregular appetite, there is a dry 

 hollow cough, generally on rising after resting or after eating, later the 

 cough becomes more frequent and painful, and there may be a muco- 

 purulent discharge from the nose, difficulty in respiration — this at first 

 is slight, but sooner or later it is very pronounced; on auscultation 

 there is a vascular murmur, and later bronchial rales of diverse forms and 

 intensity; later a pleuritis and a hydrothorax. Valuable animals pre- 

 senting these symptoms may have the diagnosis made positive by in- 

 oculating a rabbit (intraperitoneally) with the pleural exudate, and if 

 the exudate was tubercular, three weeks afterward the spleen and the 

 peritoneum of the rabbit will show the tubercular lesions, or w^e find a 

 tubucular mass on the liver. 



Tuberculosis of the lungs only will show marked symptoms after 

 it has made considerable progress, and as the symptoms are ver}^ similar 

 to chronic catarrh of the lungs or chronic lobular pneumonia, it is apt 

 to be confounded with these two diseases (see this disease). Notwith- 

 standing a good appetite, when there is rapid emaciation and a quick 

 loss of strength we should suspect the animal has tuberculosis of the lungs 

 but we can only be positive of our diagnosis by recognizing the tubercle 

 bacilli in the secretions, although it is very difficult to find the bacilli as 

 it is not only extremely difficult to obtain sputa from a dog, but to find 

 the bacilli if we do get some of the sputa (see later, tuberculin test). 



Tuberculosis of any of the abdominal organs is very difficult to 

 recognize. The only way we might succeed is by manipulation of the 

 abdominal cavity, recognizing swollen lymphatic glands or tubercular 

 masses on the liver. We do find, however, great emaciation and symp- 

 toms of chronic catarrh of the intestinal tract. These last two symptoms 

 are generally sufficient to make us suspect intestinal tuberculosis. In 

 one case of tubercular ulceration of the intestines which was observed 

 by the writer, the dog was very thin and had shown this emaciation for 

 some time. There were also present symptoms of catarrh of the lungs, 

 and upon the upper portion of the neck a deep abscess had formed. 

 This was ciuite large and contained ciuantities of thin pus. In the region 

 of the neck near the abscess we observed a granular mass the size of a 

 chestnut. This could be pushed under the cutaneous membrane and 

 moved about freely. There were also present a few enlarged lymphatic 

 glands in the upper portion of the neck. 



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