154 SPECIAL EQUINE THERAPY 



the viewpoint of treatment only, is from pyemia, and, 

 under certain conditions, malignant edema. 



Symptoms. Septicemia appears in various degrees of 

 severity, depending upon the virulency of the infecting 

 agent and the resisting power of the animal infected. 

 It develops early in the course of wound lesions in contra- 

 distinction to pyemia which appears later and in a less 

 precipitate manner. Septicemia is ushered in with a 

 chUl, which may, however, be mild in character and pass 

 unnoticed. The temperature during the chUl, or imme- 

 diately thereafter, rises rapidly and may reach as high as 

 107 degrees F. in a few hours. Temperatures of 105 de- 

 grees F. and 106 degrees F. are ordinary in this condi- 

 tion. The patient appears generally indisposed ; the res- 

 pirations are increased, and the pulse exceeds its normal 

 rate considerably. Feed is refused, and the patient gives 

 other evidence of the gravity of its condition. The dis- 

 charge from the wound has either ceased entirely, or it 

 has assumed a thin, watery consistency. The immediate 

 vicinity of the wound is the seat of a tense, firm, hot and 

 painful swelling. Cord-like ramifications of this swelling 

 may be seen following the course of the lymphatic vessels 

 in some instances. In well marked cases this swelling 

 rapidly increases in size and area, and in the course of a 

 few hours it may involve an entire limb, or a great por- 

 tion of the body. If the wound from which the infection 

 developed is situated on one of the limbs, great lameness, 

 entirely out of proportion to the extent of the trauma, 

 develops. 



The swelling, when incised or tapped, emits no dis- 

 charge other than a few drops of serum in the early 

 stages. Later a rather free dripping of serum may fol- 

 low when an incision is made. In exceptionally severe 

 cases the patient may succumb within the course of seven 

 or eight hours, collapsing suddenly and dying in a few 



