254 



BEONCHITIS. 



windpipe, and the larynx — and also the pleura, or the serous 

 membrane which lines the chest, may all at at the same time be 

 more or less affected. 



Symptoms. — The animal for two or three days prior to the 

 disease being acute may be unwell ; he may be affected with 

 what is designated a cold ; he breathes a little thick ; coughs 

 occasionally ; is dull, and off his food. In this state he is perhaps 

 taken out of the stable for a time, and during his absence he 

 may be exposed to a cold, damp atmosphere, when, upon return- 

 ing, all the previously existing symptoms are aggravated, the 

 pulse has risen from perhaps 40 or 45 to 60 or even 70 per 

 minute; and the respirations to 30 or 40. The respiratory 

 sounds are also loud throughout the lungs, a moist kind of 

 rattle, or r&le, as it is termed, is present within the vdndpipe 

 and the bronchial tubes. The surface of the body and the 

 extremities are of a variable temperature — the animal coughs — 

 the cough is peculiar — it is thick, heavy sounding, and moist — 

 the mouth is hot, and generally contains a quantity of thick 

 phlegm-like matter — the eyes are dull — the head is held low — 

 the extremities are variable in temperature — and the patient, 

 during the acute and sub-acute stages of the disease, does not he 

 down. As the disease proceeds the rattle in the trachea and 

 bronchial tubes becomes louder. Occasionally the mucous 

 rattle is very loud, and the breathing is of a suffocative charac- 

 ter ; suddenly the animal emits a moist kind of cough, and the 

 loud rattle for a time disappears, only in order to again become 

 evident, and agaiu dispersed in a similar manner. 



If th^ patient does well and is judiciously treated, a flux 

 appears at the nose of a muco-purulent character — the cough 

 becomes clearer in sound, and is emitted more frequently — and 

 the appetite of the patient gradually returns. 



