Congenital Infections of Calves 659 



for long. Soon in many cases there are streaks of blood in 

 the feces, if any chance to be voided. In one to a few hours 

 later the storm breaks and the observer frequently sees one 

 of the most virulent and rapidly fatal diseases in animals, 

 often destroying life in ten or twelve hours. When dysen- 

 tery sets in, the temperature vacillates. Often the anus is 

 paretic, the rectum is open and flaccid, and the thermometer 

 reveals little of the actual temperature of the body. 



The feces offer the widest possible variation in character. 

 In the fetus, the diarrheic feces are usually yellowish, green- 

 ish-black or black. In post-natal dysentery the fecal dis- 

 charges are much the same as in the intra-uterine diarrhea, 

 if the storm breaks before the calf has taken milk, or until 

 the milk or its derivatives have passed through the digestive 

 tract to modify the excrement. After milk has been taken, 

 the character of the excrement is necessarily altered. The 

 milk-filled stomach serves as a large flask filled with an 

 excellent medium for the multiplication of the bacteria pres- 

 ent, while the body heat provides an ideal incubative 

 warmth. The milk undergoes rapid bacterial decomposition 

 and is hurried along the alimentary tract with great rapid- 

 ity. The feces may contain some small decomposing milk 

 particles still retaining some of its white color, but it has 

 mostly disappeared. The bacteria cause the liberal forma- 

 tion of highly fetid gases, which, mixed in small bubbles in 

 the thin feces may lend to it a whitish color. The color 

 varies greatly, however. Sometimes it is greenish, often 

 brownish or yellow. In very severe cases the discharges 

 are extremely thin and watery, mixed with minute particles 

 of debris, giving it a dirty brown color, and charged with 

 bubbles of highly fetid gas which escape quickly. In large 

 stables where numerous calves are suffering from the dis- 

 ease in various stages, the odor from the calves is highly 

 repulsive, of a sweetish sickening character. 



The general appearance of the calf changes rapidly. The 

 watery feces are forcibly expelled for a time, but later es- 

 cape involuntarily through the paretic anal sphincter. The 

 calf loses weight and volume with enormous rapidity. It 



