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This article was published in 1948
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INSTITUTE OF INSPECTORS OF STOCK OF N.S.W. YEAR BOOK.
Common Ailments of Domestic Stock and their Treatment
D. C. BLOOD. B.V.Sc., Lecturer in Veterinary Medicine, University of Sydney.
AILMENTS OF HORSES
1. COLIC.
Colic is relatively simple to treat once an exact diagnosis has been established. The major difficulty is to establish the diagnosis. Of course, irreversible cases will be encountered, where, in spite of correct diagnosis and treatment, death supervenes. This is particularly so in gastric impaction and intestinal accidents, such as intussusception and strangulation.
The common etiological types and the recommended treatments are:
Spasmodic Colic:
¼-½ gr. atropine subcutaneously with 2-4 drams of aloes, "Istin," "Altan," or other anthracene purgatives immediately. The atropine reduces the excessive motility and the purgative returns normal tone and activity.
Impaction of the Large Intestine:
½-1 gallon liquid paraffin or 2-3 gallons salty water 4(1lb/5 galls.) by nasal tube and 1-2 ozs. chloral if required. When no response occurs in 15-20 hours, give a further larger dose of the lubricant with 3-5 c.cs. Carbachol or ½-1 grain of arecoline subcutaneously. This treatment to be continued every twelve hours until purgation. The simpler cases will be corrected with the lubricant and softening agent, the severer cases require active stimulation of bowel movement.
Flatulence of the Large Intestine:
Trocarisation through the upper right flank or of loops of bowel per rectum, if death is imminent. Then give a purgative, adsorbent and antiferment by mouth. 2-4 drams of an anthracene purgative, 1-2 ozs. turpentine and 2-4 ozs. prepared charcoal should be given as a drench or by nasal tube. This treatment will suffice in mild cases.
Gastric Impaction:
Gastric lavage should always be attempted, preferably by pumping in and siphoning out large quantities of saline, 1 gallon at a time, preferably through a large-bore (1in. diameter) stomach tube passed through the mouth by the aid of a gag.
In many cases this is unsuccessful and an attempt must be made to soften the mass and allow it to move on. This is best done with saline or liquid paraffin. As a last resort, arecoline or "Carbachol" given subcutaneously may be given in small doses (⅛-¼ grains arecoline, 1-2 c.cs. Carbachol, 0.1 per cent.) every 10-15 minutes. There is a possibility that this treatment will cause rupture of the stomach. Sedation with chloral almost to the point of anaesthesia may be necessary to quieten the acute pain.
Intestinal Accidents:
Can be treated by surgical means only.
(2) LAMIMITIS
The common chronic sequelae of this condition make it imperative that prompt treatment be carried out. As the primary lesion is dilation and congestion of the blood vessels in the foot, leading to exudation and separation of horn from matrix, the emphasis is on reducing the vasodilation. The common measures are well known. There must be exercise of at least one hour's duration twice a day, cooling the feet in a water-hole, and sometimes the administration of adrenalin subcutaneously. The trouble with adrenalin is that it is too transient and the vasodilation returns in a short while.
The most modern treatment relies upon the important part played by histamine in causing the vasodilation. Drugs are used which are inert analogues of histamine and prevent that substance from affecting the susceptible cells. The only drug of the antihistamine group used so far is neo-antergan, in doses of 2½ gms. in 24 hours. The drug is administered as a 2.5 per cent. solution intravenously, and 1 gm. is given immediately. 1 gm, 9 hours later, and l gm. 15 hours later still. Again treatment must be prompt, because if transudation already has separated the horn, the damage has been done.
Navel Ill and Septicaemia in Foals:
If the disease is subacute with a course of about a week and occurs in foals 1-2 weeks of age, it is probably streptococcal in origin and is suitably treated with sulphanilamide. 1 gm./10 lbs. B.Wt. initially and 1 gm./10 lbs. B.Wt./day in two or three divided doses. If the disease is acute and occurs within the first few days of life, it probably is due to a gram-negative organism and is best treated with sulphathiazole or sulphediazine: 1 gm./15 lbs. B.Wt. initially and 1 gm./15 lbs. B.Wt./day in two or three divided doses, reducing the dose rate after two days, if a response occurs, to 1 gm./20 lbs. B.WL/day for a further three days.
The principles always with treatment with sulphonamides are:—
(1) If treatment is unsuccessful with one drug in 36-48 hours, use a more potent drug. Such a course may involve the progressive use of sulphanilamide, then sulphathiazole, and then sulphadiazine. If cost is no object, a mixture of these three sulphonamides in approximately equal parts can be given at a dose rate of 1 gm./7 to 8 lbs. B.Wt. initially and 1 gm./7 to 8 lbs. B.Wt./ day.
(2) Penicillin can be given with advantage on its own or in conjunction with a sulphonamide. The dose rate in foals is 300 units/lb. B.Wt. every two hours, or 6,000 units/lb. B.Wt. every 12 hours, in a watery injection; or 3,000 units/lb. B.Wt. every 12 hours of an oil-beeswax preparation.
(3) The water intake must be kept up and if the animal does not drink, it should be drenched, watered by stomach-tube, or given fluids by intravenous injection.
AILMENTS OF CATTLE
1. MASTITIS:
Again, differential diagnosis is the stumbling block, and is impossible to determine with any degree of accuracy without a complete laboratory examination. Acute, subacute and chronic cases of streptococcal mastitis respond well to Penicillin infusion. Three treatments, comprising the injection of 25,000 units of calcium penicillin in 50 c.cs. of water at 24 hour intervals, is the method recommended in Australia. English workers have found that two such injections are almost as effective as three and this is, by far, the most economical method of treatment when the veterinarian is performing the treatment.
Penicillin "mastics," small match-sized lozenges for insertion into the milk cistern, also are used effectively; and a penicillin in oil preparation in a collapsible tube is a most satisfactory way of dispensing the drug.
Chronic and acute staphylococcal mastitis and mastitis due to corynebacteria still are refractory to any treatment. In the acute staphylococcal form, occurring a few days after calving with a severe systemic illness and gangrene and sloughing of the affected quarter, probably the only satisfactory treatment is the injection of large doses of penicillin into the mammary tissue every twelve hours with a long spinal needle; and the administration of sulphanilamide or sulphathiazole by mouth.
Bloat on Lush Pasture:
The most recent advance in the treatment of this condition is the discovery that many cases of bloat respond immediately to the subcutaneous injection of 3-5 c.cs. of 1 in 1000 adrenalin solution. The mode of action of the adrenalin is probably that it reverses the effect of the etiological agent histamine on the forestomach wall.
Actinomycosis and Actinobacillosis:
Intravenous Injections of sodium iodide are frequently difficult in affected animals, and the recorded recovery of large numbers of animals after the subcutaneous injection of the salt in concentrated solution (1oz. in 25 c.cs. water in front of each shoulder offers a newer, more satisfactory method of treatment. No comparison has been made of the relative efficiency of the two methods.
Scours in Calves:
The general principles of hygiene, nutrition and management relating to the control of this disease remain unchanged, but the question of treatment with sulphonamides has been given much consideration. In the past, the practice has been to recommend the insoluble alimentary tract drugs sulphaguanidine, sulphasuxidine, and sulphathalidine. Current medical opinion everywhere is that to control an alimentary tract infection, a soluble sulphonamide drug must be used. Some of the drug will remain in the bowel lumen and control the infection there, but a high blood concentration will be built up, thus surrounding the mucous membrane, the organ mainly attacked and most impertant to protect, with a medium high in sulphonamide activity. Such a high blood concentration also will protect against systemic invasion. As most of the severe scours syndromes in calves are due to gram-negative B coli and Salmonellae, sulphathiazole and sulphadiazine should be the best drugs. No controlled experimental evidence is available to decide this point, but neither is there any controlled evidence for the efficiency of the insoluble alimentary tract drugs.
The other important factor in producing death in scours, that is, apart from infection, is the severe dehydration of the animal, and by possible means, including oral dosing, intravenous and subcutaneous injection, body stores of water and salts must be replenished.