STRANGULATION OF THE TONGUE. 
18 
(2.) DISEASES OF THE TONGUE. 
(A) MECHANICAL INJURIES. 
With the exception of those wounds previously described produced by 
foreign bodies, injuries to the tongue occur most frequently in horses. 
The use of the bit sufficiently accounts for this. Moreover, stablemen, 
in order to control unruly or sensitive horses during grooming, not 
infrequently pass a cord around the tongue. If this be sharply pulled, 
the tongue may easily be cut through, and the thinner the cord the 
more easily does the accident occur. Snaffle bits, especially if worn, 
produce the same effect. In horses and ruminants the tongue may also 
be injured by sharp or displaced teeth. 
Rupture of the frsenum linguae sometimes occurs in horses, result¬ 
ing in suppuration, abscess formation, and the production of fistulae. 
In oxen the dorsum of the tongue is abraded by rough fodder. Steffen 
saw the point of a foal’s tongue become gangrenous and slough, after 
having been violently handled during some dental operation. His 
report of the case points to a blood-vessel having been ruptured. The 
injuries so frequently found near the base of the tongue in oxen are not 
always of a traumatic nature; more frequently they are due to actino¬ 
mycotic infection, and will be described later. Hogs often bite their own, 
or one another’s tongues in falling or playing. 
Diagnosis presents no difficulty. The irritation in • the mouth, 
salivation, want of appetite, or slow, cautious mastication readily indicate 
the nature of the injury and its extent. Healing is usually rapid 
and certain, though transverse wounds of the tongue may leave a deep 
depression. But even this is no great drawback, and is only worth 
notice inasmuch as the animal wastes food in eating, and the tongue 
may be lacerated if forcibly handled during examination. But a portion 
of the tongue may be torn away in the first instance or later, and 
if the frsenum linguae be involved, mastication will be rendered 
difficult. 
The attempts to cure protrusion of the tongue have shown that in 
horses the removal of 8—4 inches causes no inconvenience. But where 
more is lost the animals are unable to bring the food between the back 
teeth. At times they seek to effect this by holding the head in the air 
like chickens when drinking, but at best some food must be wasted, 
and mastication takes longer. 
Graf records that a horse, which had lost the point of the tongue, 
had severe swelling of the remainder, accompanied by salivation and 
inability to eat solid food : only fluids and mashes could be taken. 
When the wound had cicatrised, the stump only extended about f of an 
