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 strongylia- 

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

 undations, 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 reasonable to 

 charge it to the toxins produced by bacterial ferments or crypto- 

 gams 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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