684 PATHOLOGY OF PARTURITION. 



looks prostrated ; the appetite is lost, rumination ceases, the heart beats 

 loud and frequently, and there is grinding of the teeth and convulsive 

 tremors. At the same time the udder swells enormously, the tumefac- 

 tion extending along the abdomen and up the perinasum. At first 

 oedematous, hot, and extremely painful, the swelling soon becomes 

 emphysematous, cold, and insensible ; the skin, which was previously 

 intensely red, assumes a violet, then a grey, leaden, or dark hue, and 

 is cold and clammy — vesicles containing a limpid or reddish serosity 

 appearing on its surface ; the mammary gland can now be readily 

 enucleated by making an incision through the skin. 



The general symptoms become more grave ; the animal appears to be 

 completely exhausted, trembles continually, and the pulse becomes im- 

 perceptible ; at last the creature falls extended on the ground and dies 

 — sometimes within ten or twelve hours, rarely longer than a few days, 

 after the commencement of the attack. 



Death sometimes occurs in phlegmonous and interstitial suppuration. 

 Then the intense pain continues, or becomes still more excruciating ; 

 the animal is continually moaning, lying down and getting up again, as 

 the recumbent posture increases the agony, by making pressure on the 

 mammte; the temperature is elevated; attempts to milk, which cause the 

 utmost distress, only result in obtaining a few drops of reddish or semi- 

 purulent fluid from the teat. All food and drink are refused; emaciation 

 sets in rapidly ; the animal is indifferent to everything around it ; the 

 expression is haggard and anxious ; the conjunctivae are livid ; the 

 respiration is quickened and often noisy ; the muffle is dry and some- 

 times cracked ; the pulse is thready or imperceptible, and there are 

 constant tremblings ; the prostration is soon so extreme that the animal 

 falls, perhaps turns its head towards its shoulder, and dies without a 

 struggle. 



Ewes are very liable to mammitis during the "yeaning" or lambing 

 period, and in very many instances it assumes an almost epizootic 

 prevalence, and the fatal gangrenous form. This is more particularly 

 observed in large flocks, where gangrenous mastitis may be said to be 

 the rule. Of this there are many instances to be found in veterinary 

 literature, and particularly those given by Toggia, Yvart, D'Arboval, 

 Eoche-Lubin, Lafosse, Nocard, and others. That recorded by Yvart, as 

 occurring in the Alfort flock in 1833, is interesting. Kotelmanni gives 

 a very good description of the disease, as he observed it. In the 

 majority of cases he saw only one half of the udder affected, and gener- 

 ally first around the teat, extending thence in every direction. The 

 seat of the inflammation was in the substance of the udder — the gland 

 parenchyma, the swelling being hard, and the skin covering it light red; 

 the pain was very great. Before the inflammation had reached its 

 culminating point, a thin serous fluid {milcliicasser) dropped from the 

 teat, and when the latter was squeezed curdled milk, or milk in firm 

 clots about the size of a jpea, was obtained. The affected Ewe kept 

 apart from its companions, did not eat, looked very dull, head and ears 

 drooping, back arched, hind-limbs widely separated, and movement 

 difficult, the hind-leg tow^ards the inflamed side of the udder being most 

 slowly and cautiously extended, as if lame ; when both mammae were 

 afiected, the gait was markedly straggling, and the steps short. When 

 the Lamb attempted to suck, the Ewe sank to the ground from pain, and 

 could not rise again without assistance. Sometimes in the evening the 

 1 ZeitschriJ't fiir die P. Thierheilkunde von Nehd und Vix, 1836, p. 423. 



