292 ENZOOTIC DYSENTERY. 



is soon suspended. With loss of, or a morbid appetite, severe 

 symptoms soon usher in, and a frequent hard pulse, which 

 soon becomes weak, accelerated breathing, hot and dry mouth, 

 yellowish-red colour of visible mucous membranes, great 

 thirst, dulness and colicky pains, are characteristic of the 

 disorder. The urine acquires a dark colour, and has a strong 

 ammoniacal odour, it is tinged with blood, and any faeces 

 that are evacuated are also coated with mucus and blood. 

 Diarrhoea soon sets in as in ordinary cases of dysentery, 

 with very offensive excrement, deeply tinged with blood. 

 The animals moan, grind their teeth, and are stiff, with 

 arched back though sensitive loins. Tympanitis, emaciation, 

 coldness of the extremities, are all very manifest as death 

 approaches. A fatal termination occurs usually about the 

 second week, but in young well-fed cattle often much sooner. 

 A return to health in fortunate cases is characterized by the 

 gradual disappearance of all the symptoms, and a regular 

 action of the bowels. 



Special cases are characterized by the greater prominence 

 of some symptoms, and occasionally the discharge of blood 

 with the fences is very abundant. Thus, in the Veterinarian 

 for 1856, a gentleman, signing himself 'Caustic/ describes, 

 under the head 'Melsena or Enterorrhoea in Cows/ some 

 marked cases of moor ill or enzootic dysentery which occurred 

 on a farm where the disease had been prevalent for three years, 

 and the cows which 'Caustic' attended had been at grass 

 about three weeks upon a peaty and, in some parts, badly 

 drained field, and in the month of May. The following is 

 the report of Case 1. The author says: 



" I was requested to attend a cow that had calved about 

 three weeks. She had lived upon grass previous to the time 

 of calving, was in fair condition, and quite well the previous 

 evening. The following morning she gave but little milk 



