Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 335
teeth, and difficulty hi the swallowing of liquids ; a tucked appear-
ance of the belly, mingling with the enlargement of the left flank
—
and the whole of the belly is exceedingly tender. Until he is too
weak to raise himself, he is exceedingly restless, lying down, and
immediately getting up again, and with convulsive movements of the
muscles of the neck and extremities. The evacuation of the feces is
entirely suppressed, or a little stream of liquid excrement forces a
passage through the hardened mass by which the rectum is distended,
and that which is voided has an exceedingly fetid and putrid smell.
This symptom is characteristic. The person who is accustomed to
'
cattle says that the beast is fardel-bound or sapped, but he often
mistakes the nature of the case, and fancies that diarrhoea instead of
costiveness exists. The urine becomes thick and oily and brown, and
has a peculiarly disagreeable and penetrating smell. As the disease
proceeds, the weakness and suffering increase, until the animal dies,
sometimes exhausted, but mostly in convulsions, and frequently
discharging a bloody fetid fluid from the mouth, the nose, and the
anus.
Sometimes, when the disease has not been attacked with sufficient
energy, and often in despite of the most skillful treatment, other symp-
toms appear. The animal seems to amend ; the pulse is slower and
more developed—rumination* returns
—
:the patient eats a little—the
enlargement of the flanks subsides—the excrement, whether hard or
fluid, is more abundantly discharged : but the beast is sadly thin—he
is daily losing ground—his coat stares—the hair is easily detached
the skin clings to the bones—he is sometimes better, and sometimes
worse, until violent inflammation again suddenly comes on, and he is
speedily carried off.
s
On examination after death, the first thing that presents itself is the
engorgement of the sub-cutaneous Vessels with black and coagulated
blood, and the discoloration of the muscles, softened in their consistence
and becoming putrid. The abdomen exhibits the effusion of a
great quantity of bloody fluid ; eight, ten, and twelve gallons have
been taken from it. The peritoneum is inflamed—almost universally
so ;—there are black and gangrenous patches in various parts, and on
others there are deposits of flaky matter, curiously formed, and often
curiously spotted. The liver is enlarged, and its substance easily
"torn ; the rumen is distended with food, generally dry, and its lining
membrane inflamed and injected, and of a purple or blue tint ; the
reticulum does not escape the inflammatory action ; the manyplus is
filled with dry and hard, layers, which cannot be detached without
difficulty from the mucous membrane of that stomach ; the fourth
stomach is highly inflamed, with patches of a more intense character,
and its contents are liquid and bloody, particularly towards the pyloric
orifice. The small intestines contain many spots of ulceration; the
lining membrane is everywhere inflamed, and they are filled with an