40 



HEALTH AND DISEASE 



gations strangles was directly transmitted by inoculation with the nasal 

 discharge. Similar experiments have been performed by other investi- 

 gators with negative results. Schiitz, however, discovered an organism 

 some years ago, a streptococcus, with pure cultivation of which he suc- 

 ceeded in causing the disease in healthy colts, and from the whole of the 

 evidence it will be decidedly safe to accept the view that strangles is 

 a contagious disease of the horse. 



Strangles only occurs in the equine race, including the horse, ass, and 

 mule. It is common to young horses from two to five years, and occa- 

 sionally it occurs in colts of a few weeks old; also it may appear in very 



old horses, in which case it is com- 

 monly spoken of as bastard strangles, 

 and invariably runs a mild course. 



Symptoms.- It is generally ad- 

 mitted that the earliest symptoms of 

 v? strangles are those of a mild catarrh, 

 slight fever, increase of pulsation and 

 discharge from the nostrils, cough and 

 sore throat, followed by a diffuse swell- 

 ing of the glands and cellular tissue 

 under the jaw. One of the difficulties 

 in dealing with the disease as a con- 

 tagious malady arises from the absence 

 of any special symptoms, rendering 

 accurate diagnosis in the early stage 

 impossible. Practically the question is 

 only one of importance when immediate diagnosis is essential, as in the 

 case of the admission of an animal to a show -yard. This difficulty, 

 however, is lessened by the fact that all catarrhal affections may prove 

 to be more or less contagious, and ordinary benign strangles is probably 

 not more infectious than an ordinary cold in the head. 



In a few hours, or at most in a day or two, more characteristic symp- 

 toms of strangles may be looked for. The nasal discharge becomes puru- 

 lent. A swelling under the throat, the beginning of an abscess, will be 

 apparent, and during the formation of pus, fever is more acute. The 

 animal's appetite is now impaired, the temperature rises considerably, and 

 the pulse becomes much more frequent. When the suppuration is com- 

 plete, and the abscess beneath the jaw has been emptied, the febrile 

 symptoms gradually disappear. 



Treatment. Good nursing appears to be all that is really necessary 

 in dealing with strangles of the ordinary type; fumigations to the throat 



Fig. 216. Steaming for Strangles 



