PREVENTION, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT 2 c T 



and foam flow from the mouth. The legs are spread out stiffly and 

 the muscles of the cheek, neck, back, croup and tail are extremely 

 tense, hard and rigid. The jaws are opened and separated with 

 difficulty (lockjaw) and when made to move the animal walks very 

 stiffly. Noises and rough handling exaggerate the muscular spasm 

 and the animal may fall. Prehension and mastication are difficult. 

 Constipation and retention of urine may occur. Breathing is rapid 

 and shallow; the temperature and pulse are elevated only late in 

 fatal cases. Muscular spasm sometimes causes the back to be 

 hollowed, or again it may be arched upward, or the body bent to 

 one side. The symptoms are much alike in all animals. 



When tetanus germs enter a wound they are not disseminated 

 in the blood but remain and form toxins. The toxins combine 

 with the proteids of the nervous tissue and extend along the axis 

 cylinders until the spinal cord is reached, when symptoms first 

 occur. The disease is then indeed far advanced when it first be- 

 comes evident. 



Treatment. — This is generally very unsuccessful, but, on the 

 other hand, by the injection of tetanus antitoxin immediately after 

 infection and before symptoms appear, the disease can almost always 

 be prevented. The use of antitoxin is indicated in the case of wounds 

 contaminated with manure, soil or dust, especially in wounds of the 

 feet in regions where tetanus is prevalent ; also in the new-born, or 

 in cows just calved, or following surgical operations, when tetanus 

 is common to the locality. The administration of antitoxin directly 

 after these events will confer an immunity against the disease 

 which lasts about a month. In the so-called idiopathic tetanus, 

 antitoxin is an efficient preventive and its use is attended with no 

 danger when given aseptically. Antitoxin is also given as a cura- 

 tive agent in tetanus, but, as we have seen, the disease is really ad- 

 vanced when it first becomes clinically evident and its use here has 

 not given such good results as carbolic acid in injections. As a 

 curative agent it is given intravenously, subcutaneously and through 



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