26 SPECIAL EQUINE THERAPY 



count of the pain and interference with the proper action 

 of the muscles concerned in the act of deglutition. 



When the dysphagia has become fully established, at 

 the end of from one to three days, there appears a fullness 

 in the parotid, pharyngeal and laryngeal region. The 

 swelling is smooth and lies rather below and under the 

 parotid glands, pushing these upward and outward. In 

 some cases abscesses form in this swelling. 



The temperature may not be raised more than two or 

 three degrees ; occasionally a case will show temperature 

 as high as 106 degrees F., but this is not common. Cases 

 in which the temperature is much elevated are usually 

 those that later have abscess formation in the swelling 

 described. Despite quite high temperature and marked 

 local swelling, soreness on palpation in the swollen re- 

 gion, and marked indications of a severe disturbance 

 in the affected parts, the horse does not appear very 

 sick. Depression is absent and animals remain bright. 

 Here we have another point against attributing these 

 cases to localization of influenza infection. In the latter 

 there is marked depression, drowsiness, and other evi- 

 dence of genuine sickness. 



Acute infectious pharyngitis requires from one to three 

 weeks to run its course. If no abscess formation occurs 

 two weeks suffice to bring even fully developed cases to 

 a satisfactory termination. The mortality is very low, 

 practically nil, under treatment. 



The danger of transmission is nominal. In some in- 

 stances all the horses in a stable become affected; in 

 others only a part of them, and in some instances a single 

 animal. This is not altogether explained by the fact 

 "^^Jhat the infecting organism is lacking in virulence, but 

 ^rather by the fact that one attack seems to confer a per- 

 manent immunity. Animals in the stable already im- 

 mune from the effects of earlier attacks, will not develop 



