ULCERATIVE STOMATITIS. 



23 



other times their location seems to indicate the spreading of the 

 trouble by means of the lymphatics. Some cases are met (in 

 young dogs) where the teeth and gums are perfectly healthy, the 

 ulcerations are on other points of the mucous membrane, and on 

 the lips or commissures of the mouth. In the latter form we have 

 seen the destructive ulceration spreading upon the cutaneous 

 surface. 



These accidents are always accompanied by symptoms of simple 

 stomatitis. 



Course. When the evolution of the disease is regular, and the 

 animals young, the ulcers extend little in depth and surface. The 

 general condition is but little influenced ; fever is often absent ; 

 sometimes, however, the temperature rises to 39.5° ; the appetite 

 is usually retained. When once the ulcerative process is arrested 

 and the sloughs eliminated, healing often takes place in from eight 

 to ten days. Cases of this kind are the most numerous. 



In old animals or those having suffered from other diseases, in- 

 filtration and destruction of the tissues progress rapidly ; the sores 

 become deep and sinous, the diseased teeth loosen, and their roots 

 are covered with a grayish' fetid pulp, produced by the destroyed 

 alveolar periosteum ; decay and necrosis of the maxillary may then 

 complicate the disease. Sometimes a bucco-nasal fistula is formed 

 with consecutive purulent rhinitis. The lips and cheeks are tume- 

 fied, hardened and deformed by an œdematous infiltration sur- 

 rounding the ulcerations ; the lymphatic ganglions of the diseased 

 regions are engorged. The general condition is alarming and the 

 cure doubtful. Most frequently, persisting, intense, and increasing 

 fever sets in, in connection with the appearance of new^ eruptions ; 

 the pulse becomes more frequent and weaker (in small dogs 140 

 to 160 pulsations per minute may be counted). Soon the appetite 

 is entirely lost, diarrhea appears, and weakness is extreme; great 

 stupefaction or even coma follows, and the animals die from septic 

 infection. 



Under these conditions the disease lasts from six to twelve days ; 

 it may, however, take a chronic course. 



Berndt has described an ulcerous stomatitis of lambs, which is 

 essentially a very intense stomatitis and rhinitis. He describes 

 the symptoms thus : great weakness, staggering gait, rapid and 

 painful breathing, short and weak cough. The mucous membrane 

 of the mouth shows numerous erosions on the gums, on the surface 



