70 DISEASES OF THE HOG. 



Symptoms: The animal appears dull, refuses 

 food, if made to move will go stiffly and may be 

 lame in the right fore leg; there will be tenderness 

 on pressure over the ribs on the right side which 

 will not be the case if pressure should be applied 

 to the left. There will sometimes be a yellowness 

 of the visible mucous membrane and of the skin. 

 The functions of the liver are arrested, thus the se- 

 cretions of bile are not carried on and on this ac- 

 count the bowels become torpid, and the feces of a 

 chocolate color. Sometimes they are affected by 

 looseness and the feces are generally unhealthy, 

 evinced by an excess or deficiency or perverted 

 state of the bile. There is usually a cough which 

 may arise from the pressure of the liver against 

 the lungs or from sympathy. The urine is high 

 colored and scanty, the respiration is somewhat 

 impeded and is short and jerky, the pulse is soft 

 weak and frequent. With these symptoms and 

 the absence of other diseases we may conclude that 

 we have a case of hepatitis. There is a chronic 

 form of this disease which I have met with in pigs. 

 The symptoms are a dry, scurfy skin, with an un- 

 thrifty appearance, in the majority of cases there 

 will be a diffused yellowness of the mucous mem- 

 brane; the animal falls off from condition and has 

 a disinclination to move about; the pulse and respi- 

 ration are unaffected; the feces are of a dry clay 

 color and the urine is usually scanty and high col- 

 ored of a deep yellow color. Hepatitis is so fruit- 

 ful a source of other morbid affections that no time 

 should be lost in its treatment. 



