86 VETERINARY STUDIES 



Collapse. — The symptoms of collapse are: temperature below 

 normal ; surface of the body cold ; respirations are very shallow 

 and slow ; and the pulse is feeble and very slow or very fast. 



Collapse may be the result of: very high fever, poison, sup- 

 pression of secretion or excretion, rupture of internal organs, 

 excessive hemorrhage. 



Syncope. — This term signifies a suspension of heart action. 

 It is more sudden; the symptoms are more brief than in col- 

 lapse, and it is usually due to obstruction in the nutrient arteries 

 to the heart. 



Death. — This condition may be general or only local. "When 

 general, there is a permanent arrest of all functions. Death may 

 begin in the heart, lungs, or brain. Heart failure (syncope) 

 is very sudden. Lung failure results in suffocation or asphyxia. 

 Brain failures develop slow symptoms, stupor being present. 

 When death occurs because the blood is altered, the heart is the 

 first organ to cease action. 



Necrosis or local tissue death is seen in ulcers, frozen parts, 

 abscess, etc. It is caused by local disturbance of nutrition, 

 starvation; or by disturbance of circulation, as in anemia, pas- 

 sive hyperemia or inflammation. It may be caused by bacterial 

 toxins, caustic medicine, an injury or a bruise. 



Practical application and suggestion. — It is evident that the 

 student can have no intelligent conception of any disease until 

 he knows something of such pathological processes as inflamma- 

 tion, dropsy, degeneration, etc., which, together, constitute the 

 disease. With this in mind, diseases like sidebone, sweeny, and 

 abscess become clear. 



Many disorders may be averted when one can foresee and 

 change an unfavorable condition to a favorable one. To illus- 

 trate, a heavy horse whose foot is too high on the inside puts 

 excess weight against the outer lateral cartilage, causing irrita- 

 tion, inflammation, and side bone. Leveling the foot will pre- 

 vent the occurrence of this trouble. 



An inflammation may be caused by excess functional activity, 

 for example, overwork as when a horse gets a nail puncture in 

 the right foot, causing him to overwork the left foot, so that 

 founder, which is an inflammation of the sensitive laminae, 

 results. The possibility of this condition should be anticipated, 

 and prevented by inducing the horse to lie down, or by supply- 

 ing him with soft bedding like sawdust, or by the use of slings. 



