120 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 
BRONCHITIS AND BRONCHO-PNEUMONIA. 
Bronchitis is an inflammation of the bronchial tubes. When this 
inflammation extends to the air sacs at the termini of the smallest 
branches of the bronchial tubes, the disease is broncho-pneumonia. 
Bronchitis affecting the larger tubes is less serious than when the 
smaller are involved. The disease may be either acute or chronic. 
The causes are generally much the same as for other diseases of the 
respiratory organs, noticed in the beginning of this article. The 
special causes are these: The inhalation of irritating gases and smoke 
and fluids or solids gaining access to the parts. Bronchitis is occa- 
sionally associated with influenza and other specific fevers. It also 
supervenes on common cold or sore throat. 
Symptoms.—The animal appears dull; the appetite is partially or 
wholly lost; the head hangs; the breathing is quickened; the cough, 
at first dry, and having somewhat the character of a “barking 
cough,” is succeeded in a few days by a moist, rattling cough; the 
mouth is hot; the visible membranes in the nose are red; the pulse 
is frequent, and during the first stage is hard and quick, but as the 
disease advances becomes smaller and more frequent. There is a 
discharge from the nostrils that is at first whitish, but later becomes 
creamy or frothy, still later it is sometimes tinged with blood, and 
occasionally it may be of a brownish or rusty color. By auscul- 
tation, or placing the ear to the sides of the chest, unnatural sounds 
‘can now be heard. The air passing through the diseased tubes causes 
a wheezing sound when the small tubes are affected, and a hoarse, 
cooing, or snoring sound when the larger tubes are involved. After 
one or two days the dry stage of the disease is succeeded by a moist 
state of the membrane. The ear now detects a different sound, 
caused by the bursting of the bubbles as the air passes through the 
fluid, which is the exudate of inflammation and the augmented mu- 
cous secretions of the membrane. The mucus may be secreted in 
great abundance, which, by blocking up the tubes, may cause a col- 
lapse of a large extent of breathing surface. Usually the mucus is 
expectorated; that is, discharged through the nose. The matter is 
coughed up, and when it reaches the larynx much of it may be swal- 
lowed, and some is discharged from the nostrils. The horse can not 
spit, like the human being, nor does the matter coughed up gain 
access to the mouth. If in serious cases all the symptoms become 
aggravated, the breathing is labored, short, and quick, it usually in- 
dicates that the inflammation has reached the breathing cells and that 
catarrhal pneumonia is established. In this case the ribs rise and 
fall much more than natural. This fact alone is enough to exclude 
the idea that the animal may be affected with pleurisy, because in 
that disease the ribs are as nearly fixed as it is in the power of the 
