CHAPTER XXII 



NON-VENEREAL SPECIFIC INFECTIONS WHICH 

 INVADE THE CENITAL ORGANS OF HORSES 



A. Contagious Cellulitis. Epizootic Cellulitis. Pink Eye. 

 Rheumatic Influenza. Muco-Enteritis 



Bibliography. Williams, Epizootic Cellulitis, Principles and Practice of Veterinary Med- 

 icine. 4th edition, 1888, p. 251. Cave, Pink Eye, Veterinary Journal, 1883, Vol. XVI, p. 336. 

 Whitworth, Pink Eye Disease, ibid., 1883, Vol. XVII, p. 153. Pottie, Jour. Comp. Path, and 

 Therap., Vol. I, p. 37. Clark, ibid.. Vol. V, p. 261. Reeks, The Transmission of Pink Eye 

 from apparently Healthy Stallions to Mares, ibid.. Vol. XIV, p. 159, and Vol. XV, p. 97. 



Contagious Cellulitis is a highly contagious acute fever of 

 the horse, which has been generally ignored except by Brit- 

 ish veterinary writers, although it seems to be widely dis- 

 tributed in various countries. It is common in parts of 

 America, but frequently confused with influenza or catarrhal 

 fever. 



A description of the disease is inserted here because of its 

 intimate bearing upon the question of horse breeding, which 

 it aff'ects chiefly in three distinct ways. 



Frequently it spreads from apparently healthy stallions 

 to mares through copulation, in which respect it approaches 

 the character of a venereal disease, but as a general rule 

 this is not the method by which it is transmitted from ani- 

 mal to animal. 



It has a relation to sterility because it causes an orchitis 

 in the stallion which frequently leads to a permanent loss of 

 function in these glands. 



Contagious cellulitis is commonly associated with abortion 

 in pregnant mares. The manner in which abortion is caused 

 by the disease is unknown. Since the bacteriology is un- 

 known, it can not be stated that the infection does or does 

 not enter the uterus or the fetus and bring about disaster. 

 The probabilities are that the infection reduces the vitality 

 of the pregnant mare and enables those bacteria which exist 

 within the uterus to multiply rapidly and cause abortion. 



Symptoms. The symptoms of the disease consist primarily 

 of an elevation of temperature, sometimes accompanied by 



