CHRONIC ANEMIA. DROPSY IN CATTI.E AND SHEEP. 

 Definition. Causes, parasitic and microbian. Symptoms. Treatment. 



Definition. A progressive anaemia in ruminants and other ani- 

 mals, resulting in general anasarca, and dropsies of the internal 

 cavities. 



In veterinary works published on the European Continent this 

 affection is given a special place apart from the same train of 

 symptoms which mark distomatosis, taeniasis, and strongyliasis. 

 The disease is described as prevailing in wet years, after inunda- 

 tions, when the vegetation is rank and aqueous, and of course 

 largely aquatic, in animals that are turned out in early morning 

 before the dew has evaporated, in the conditions, in other words, 

 that favor the ingestion of parasites. It prevails also in work 

 oxen fed on the refuse of sugar factories (beets, turnips) in which 

 the nitrogenous materials are held to be deficient, but in Great 

 Britain where cattle are often fattened on an exclusive diet of 

 turnips, containing even a larger proportion of water, this non- 

 parasitic disease is unknown. It is also ascribed to close, ill- 

 ventilated, unwholesome buildings, and to over-kept and tainted 

 fodder, and so far as a separate disease exists, it seems more rea- 

 sonable to charge it to the toxins produced by bacterial ferments 

 or cryptogams than to causes which elsewhere appear to be 

 inoperative. 



The symptoms are essentially those of distomatosis, and the 

 treatment, apart from the parasiticides, is the same. When hel- 

 minthiasis can be certainly excluded prevention would include the 

 avoidance of the factory refuse, especially when in a state of decay. 



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