CUTANEOUS HEMORRHAGES. 



533 



In horses of Oriental races, also in Hungarian, Russian, and 

 Tartar horses, etc., we find cataneoas hemorrhages which are, so to 

 speak, physiological, being altogether harmless, and this condition 

 was formerly considered as an auto-therapeusis. 



These accidents are explained by the considerable development 

 of the vascular system and the distention of the superficial veins 

 in blooded horses ; the increase of the blood pressure by violent 

 muscular efforts would produce the tearing of these dilated vessels. 

 In summer, when the animals are annoyed by itching, slight 

 wounds made by them in scratching themselves may also determine 

 these conditions.^ 



Symptoms. Cutaneous hemorrhages are marked by sweating 

 of blood, the drops pearling on the surface of the skin, especially 

 on the neck and shoulders, on the sides of the chest, and on the 

 extremities. In benign cases the skin only is the seat of these 

 hemorrhages, they are localized, and cease within a few moments ; 

 but if a "hemorrhagic diathesis" exists, we may observe epistaxis, 

 enterorrhagia, hematogalactia, and hematuria, a slight fever, gastric 

 symptoms, etc. A serious anemia results which may occasion the 

 death of the animal. In very sanguine horses the hemorrhage 

 appears sometimes as a jet lasting a more or less long time (venous 

 ectasia). 



Treatment. It is rare that any interference may become neces- 

 sary in order to combat localized hemorrhages ; we may, however, 

 make cold lotions on the regions which are their seat. In cases of 

 hemophilia, on the contrary, it is proper to institute a new internal 

 treatment, of which styptics constitute the base; we may administer 

 ergot, tanniu, sugar of lead, etc. 



A large number of morbid conditions of the skin belong to the 

 domain of general pathology : such are exaggerated sudatious 

 (hyperidrosis), the pathological secretion of sebaceous glands (sebor- 

 rhea), scleroderma, affections of the shedding period, and the anom- 



1 Drouilly has observed in Hungarian horses cutaneous hemorrhages of parasitic 

 origin, which were produced by a threadworm {F. hemorrhagica, Raill). The female 

 only is known; it is whitish, six to seven centimetres in length, about one-third of a, 

 millimetre thick at its centre, and gradually attenuated in its posterior third; its 

 migrations and location are yet unknown. The parasites produce on various regions, 

 but particularly on the ribs, back, and withers, also on the shoulders and the sides of 

 the neck, pustules which are slightly œdematous and which break open a few hours 

 after their appearance, discharging a variable quantity of blood. These hemorrhagic 

 pustules disappear in winter and return in the spring for three or four years success- 

 ively, and later a final recovery occurs spontaneously. — n. d. t. 



