APPENDIX 



-?H9r<- 



Experience with Mammitis,* 



The subject of this paper will be understood by most veterinary practitioners, 

 and I believe it is one which is very difficult of treating satisfactorily, especially for 

 the owners of dairy cattle, and is known as mastitis, mammitis, caked bag, garget, 

 and sundry vague terms. It is an acute inflammation of the mammary gland, or 

 " udder." 



The disease is due to the most diverse causes, — lactation is the principal pre- 

 disposing cause, — and appears immediately before or soon after parturition ; some- 

 times it is the result of external injuries, such as blows, or injuries caused while milk- 

 ing, as well as many others too numerous to mention. One other common cause is 

 overstocking, which consists in the preparation of the cow for show or market, by 

 allowing her to go unmilked until' the, udder becomes enormously distended with 

 milk, and which is done to give the gland a fine appearance ; at times it again arises 

 through not thoroughly milking dry, the milk remaining in the gland, and acting as 

 an irritant. ' , , 



My experience has. been mainly in cow-sheds which were in a filthy condition, 

 and I am satisfied that mammitis is due to putrid infection, and believe that the ma- 

 jority of cases are of septic origin. Much could be said on this subject, but experi- 

 ence is better than theory, as a specific treatment will give good results ; my views 

 ' have been, and are now, that in the majority of cases mammitis is purely a form of 

 erysipelas of the quarters of the mammse. 



The disease rarely attacks the whole gland, but is usually confined to one or two 

 quarters ; the affected parts are hot, hard, swollen, tender, and red ; the. skin is tense 

 and shining ; the quarter is enlarged, hard, and sensitive to manipulation ; some 

 parts feel lumpy, from the presence of coagula ; by stripping or mulsion of the teat a 

 rose-tinted fluid is obtained, with strings of clotted milk, and usually mixed with 

 blood: 



The constitutional symptoms depend upon the severity of the attack, the disease 

 often being ushered in with rigors ; the bowels are usually costive, and at other 

 times unusually 1 loose, the muzzle more or less dry, appetite slightly impaired, pulse 

 quickened, together with general fever. 



The prognosis, as given in text-books, is generally unfavorable, and for the first 

 few years of my experience the treating of the disease was most certainly discour- 

 aging. I resorted tp all authors, where mention was made in their work, and fol- 

 lowed their treatment, and invariably the quarters of the cow affected were lost for 

 the season, I finally resorted to homeopathy, and treated with their specific Phyto- 

 lacca decandra, or poke root, but with no better results ; ointments of various kinds 



*Read before the New York State Academy of Veterinary Science and Comparative Pa- 

 thology, by the late Charles A. Meyer, D. V. S. 

 (1114) 



