SYMPTOMS 
The initial stage of typical fistula of the 
withers develops unnoticed. As long as the 
cyst located in its mesial position is not large 
enough to bulge to the exterior of the body on 
one side or the other and before it has become 
infected with pyogenic microdrganisms, there 
are no symptoms that would attract attention 
to the developing disorder of the region. 
Everything is normal in appearance and the 
patient suffers no apparent discomfort. Yet 
there is this initial stage of fistula of the withers 
to reckon with. How long the trouble is de- 
veloping at the center before there is any 
change in the profile of the region is not known. 
The fact, however, that we find on post-mortem 
examinations accumulations of a serous fluid 
at the level of the second dorsal spine varying 
from small sacs the size of an egg to that of a 
base ball enclosed in a feebly developed sac, in 
animals that were never suspected of having 
any such a condition and which died from other 
causes, is ample evidence that the disease exists 
a long time before the symptoms begin to ap- 
pear. Finally, however, the region begins te 
enlarge, first on one side and then on the other. 
