544 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



common factors in developing a chronic case into an acute case; that 

 is, an inflammatory process wakens up their vitality and produces a 

 reinfection of the entire animal. The blood of an animal suffering 

 from chronic glanders and farcy is not virulent and is unaltered, but 

 during the attack of acute glanders, while the animal has fever, the 

 blood becomes virulent and remains so for a few days. 



Treatment. — Almost the entire list of drugs in the pharmacopoeia 

 has been tested in the treatment of glanders. Good hygienic sur- 

 roundings, good food, with alteratives and tonics, frequently amelio- 

 rate the symptoms, and often do so to such an extent that the animal 

 would pass the examination of any expert as a perfectly sound ani- 

 mal. But while in this case the number of nodules of the lungs, 

 which are invariably there, may be so few as not to cause sufficient 

 disturbance in the respiration as to attract the attention of the exam- 

 iner, they exist, and will remain there almost indefinitely, with the 

 constant possibility of a return of acute symptoms. 



It is probable that some horses may recover from glanders if the 

 infection is slight, but it will not yet do to depend upon this except- 

 ing under the most stringent veterinary supervision. With good 

 care, good food, and good surroundings and little work, an animal 

 affected with glanders may live for months or even years in an ap- 

 parent state of perfect health, but with the first deprivation of food, 

 with a few days of severe hard work, with exposure to cold or with 

 the attack of a simple fever or inflammatory trouble from other 

 causes, the latent seeds of the disease break out and develop the 

 trouble again in an acute form. 



In several celebrated cases horses which have been affected with 

 glanders have been known to work for years and die from other 

 causes without ever having had the return of symptoms; but allow- 

 ing that these cases may occur, they are so few and far between, and 

 the danger of infection of glanders to other horses and to the stable 

 attendants is so great, that no animal which has once been affected 

 with the disease should be allowed to live unless repeated mallein 

 tests have shown him to have become free from taint of glanders. 



In all civilized countries, with the exception of some of the States 

 in the United States, the laws are most stringent regarding the 

 prompt declaration on the part of the owner and attending veteri- 

 narian at the first suspicion of a case of glanders, and they allow 

 indemnity for the animal. When this is done, in all cases the animal 

 is destroyed and the articles with which it has been in contact are 

 thoroughly disinfected. When the attendants have attempted to 

 hide the presence of the disease in a community, punishment is meted 

 to the owner, attending veterinarian, or other responsible parties. 

 Several States have passed excellent laws in regard to glanders, but 

 these laws are not always carried out with the rigidity with which 

 they should be. 



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