24 DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND ADJACENT SINUSES 



Natural Infection. — Takes place thi-ough the nose from the 

 pigs rooting in infected straw, manure, etc. 



Symptoms. — The prodromal symptoms are those of fever 

 (loss of appetite, languor). Nasal symptoms soon appear. 

 The patient passes air rapidly in and out of the nostrils, 

 producing a snorting or snifHing sound; the snout is fre- 

 quently rubbed against objects. There is bloody nasal 

 discharge mixed with pus. The snout becomes edematous 

 and swollen. In severe cases in about the third day of the 

 attack, sjTnptoms of cerebral excitement occur, the pig 

 showing rabiform symptoms and convulsions. 



Course. — ^The usual course of the disease is from two 

 to seven days. Sometimes it assumes a chronic form. 

 Recovery is rare. 



Diagnosis. — ^The high fever, rhinitis with pronounced brain 

 sj-mptoms and without deformity (bulging) of the facial 

 bones are characteristic. It is distinguished from rachitis 

 by the absence of fever, facial deformity and dropping of the 

 hard palate in this disease. 



A sporadic nasal catarrh occurs in swine. The symptoms 

 of nasal discharge (often blood-tinged), snuffling, etc., 

 resemble infectious rhinitis. The disorder, however, is 

 benign, produces no general symptoms except in neglected 

 cases, and once the predisposing causes (damp, draughty stys, 

 cold cement floors, lack of adequate bedding; inhalation of 

 dust, irritant vapors, etc.) are removed healing is usually 

 prompt. 



Actinomycosis and tuberculosis may cause thickening of 

 the snout and nasal discharge in swine. The course, however, 

 is chronic and there is no nasal hemorrhage. In doubtful 

 cases a microscopic and bacteriological examination of the 

 discharge may be made. It might be confused with hyper- 

 acute cases of hog-cholera, in which at times epistaxis and 

 brain sjTnptoms occur. The epizootic character of this dis- 

 ease, the bowel lesions on postmortem and the absence of 

 rhinitis make the differentiation usually easy. 



Treatment. — Of little avafl. In valuable pigs irrigating the 

 nostrils with bichlorid solution (1 to 1000) may be tried. 



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