13 

 SYMPTOMS. 



Before describing the symptoms or signs by which tuberculosis is recog- 

 nized or suspected in a living animal, it is well to state that there is no symptom 

 that can be relied on with certainty. Any of the symptoms may sometimes be 

 caused by some other disease, and not one of them is characteristic of tubercu- 

 losis alone. 



Many of the symptoms that are relied on by the human physician in 

 roaching his opinion are not available in examining cattle. The thickness of 

 the skin and chest wall, for instance, makes it difficult to detect a diseased 

 condition of their lungs by listening to the sounds made in breathing, whereas 

 this is comparatively easy in human beings. 



It must also be clearly remembered that cattle may be very badly diseased 

 and yet show no symptoms of ill health. They may be fat and sleek, looking the 

 picture of health, while their lungs and other organs are full of tubercles. 

 Such cases can only be detected by the tuberculin test. 



As tuberculosis may attack almost any organ of the body, we may have 

 ill each ca?e the symptoms connected with the part fiffected, as well as those 

 affecting the general state of the body as a whole. We will take up in detail 

 each of the more important symptoms suggestive of the disease. 



Unthriftiness. 



The animal is not doing as well as it should for the care and feed it is 

 getting. Its coat is rough and its skin has lost its suppleness, and feels harsh 

 and thick. 



Loss of Flesh. 



Along with the unthriftiness is noticed a gradual loss of flesh ; the animal 

 gets thinner from week to week. It appears to be pining away, and such cows 

 have been known to dairymen for a long time under the name of " piners,'' 

 0] "wasters." After a time they are reduced almost to skin and bone. 



Cough. 



This symptom is only present when the disease is attacking the lungs or 

 some part of the breathing organs. It is not a loud, sonorous cough, but rather 

 a subdued and infrequent one, and may be heard only at such times as when the 

 stable is first opened in the morning, or when the animal is driven. At a 

 later stage of the disease it may be heard at any time of the day. Cows do 

 not usually appear to cough up anything. This is because they do not spit. 

 Most of the material coughed up from the lungs is swallowed, but many tuber- 

 culosis germs escape from the mouth in the form of spray or are discharged 

 from the nose. 



