Mares, cows, sows, etc. Causes: traumas, œstrum, parturition,
leucorrhœa, pus infection, strangles, dourine, glanders, abortion,
tuberculosis, chill, poisons. Lesions: Ovary enlarged unequally, red,
congested, exudate, extravasation, fibroid, caseated, purulent,
abscess single or multiple, indurations, cretefactions, cysts,
blocking of Fallopian tube, adhesions. Symptoms: mare: genital
erethism, soiling of vulva and tail, colics, tender loins and mammæ:
fever, dullness, emaciation, decubitus, paraplegia, swollen tender
ovary: cow: bellows, paws. Sterility, anæmia, pyæmia. Treatment: Cold
to croup, mustard, anodynes to vagina, calmatives, antiseptics.
Castration.
This has been frequently seen in mares, cows and sows, but it may occur
in any of the female mammals or even in birds.
_Causes._ The condition has been ascribed to blows on the flanks,
pressure on the abdomen and the congestion of the ovary which attends on
frequent œstrum in the absence of the physiological quiet which comes
from conception. In a large proportion of the cases, however, the attack
has followed on parturition, abortion, a preëxisting leucorrhœa or
metritis, or a suppurating process in some other part of the body. These
cases therefore, must be looked upon as secondary and infective, the
microbes having been transferred from the womb, along the Fallopian
tubes, or through lymph vessels, or peritoneal cavity, or finally
through the circulating blood. In mares strangles, abortion, leucorrhœa,
dourine and glanders, and in cows and sows abortion, metritis,
leucorrhœa, and tuberculosis, may prove the starting point of the
infection.
Sudden chills when heated, perspiring or exhausted and especially
exposure in inclement weather just before or after parturition, have
been regarded as effective causes, and doubtless these lower vitality
and power of resistance, but back of these we must look for infection
coming from the parturient womb.
Bivort records an extensive epizootic of oöphoritis in sows kept on
waste ground which had been used for herding swine years before. He
attributes the trouble to poisonous plants, without, however, attempting
to identify them, and the probability is even more strongly in favor of
infection left over from the former herds.
_Lesions._ The inflamed ovary is swollen slightly, or to a great size,
in mare or cow like the fist or even an infants’ head. The swelling,
however, is unequal throughout, and the surface may bulge in rounded
masses at different points. In the early stages the organ is firm,
elastic, red and on the cut surface bleeding, with here and there a
distended follicle with bloody or gelatinoid liquid contents. The
exudate into the fibrous stroma may become coagulated, and later may be
organized into fibrous substance giving a hard resistant sensation to
the finger (sclerosis). In some cases this may become partly
cartilaginous. In other cases the distended follicles may have their
contents coagulated and transformed into a caseous mass, while much of
the stroma has become liquefied and absorbed. When suppuration has set
in, the gland is softened at this point, the parenchyma giving way
before the pus. The pus may be in multiple sacs, as if formed in the
Graafian vesicles, or it may be in one undivided abscess. In the ovary
of a cow, Eléouet counted no less than sixty-three separate abscesses.
In cases complicated by ovarian glanders, tuberculosis or actinomycosis,
the gross, microscopic, and mycotic characters of the lesions will
afford the means of diagnosis.
In chronic forms indurations, cretefactions, cystic degenerations,
caseations, and sclerosis may be met with.
Lesions in adjacent structures are common, such as thickening and
stenosis of the Fallopian tube; congestion, thickening and puckering of
the mucosa in the adjacent part of the womb; peritonitis; adhesions of
the ovary to the abdominal walls or to an adjacent organ.
_Symptoms. Mare._ In many cases the early phenomena are those of
excessive genital erethism: the animal is restless, feverish, whinnies
to attract other horses, snuffs the males on their approach, contracts
the vulvar muscles constantly, exposing the congested mucosa and
clitoris, and ejecting a glairy liquid which soils the tail, hips,
thighs and hocks. She strains frequently, passing small jets of high
colored turbid urine, and rubs the tail and hips against available
objects, twisting and breaking the hair and abrading and excoriating the
surface. The croup may be alternately drooped and raised and the tail
switched. These phenomena are not abated by copulation, nor by time,
like ordinary heats, but will last for one or more weeks when a new set
of symptoms set in. Meanwhile dull colicy pains cause restless
movements, arched back, frequent moving from place to place, crouching
by partial bending of the limbs, twisting of the hind parts from side to
side. The loins are tender to pressure, and the middle of the flank to
pressure or percussion. The mammary glands are usually hot, swollen and
tender. The genital erethism may last from four to seven days. Then it
subsides, with coincident improvement of the general symptoms and a
recovery ensues. Relapses are to be expected sooner or later.
In fatal cases the erethism subsides, but fever, dullness and emaciation
continue, the case becomes aggravated at intervals, weakness and
exhaustion increase, decubitus may become constant or paralysis ensue.
The patient dies in marasmus in one to three months.
In some the genital erethism is absent from the first. There is
dullness, prostration, anorexia, fever, hurried breathing, small rapid
pulse, colicy pains, tender abdomen, difficult defecation, coated dung,
a glairy (perhaps reddish or fœtid) discharge from the vulva, hot, tumid
tender mammæ, arched and sensitive loins, and stiffness of the hind
limbs.
In all cases alike a rectal examination detects the ovary swollen and
exceedingly tender.
_Cow._ The same general symptoms appear with characteristic
modifications. Restlessness, bellowing, pawing, inappetence, arched,
tender loins, swollen vulva with discharge, shiny and perhaps fœtid but
without contractions, abdomen pendent and flanks hollow and tender,
udder turgid, hot and painful, movements of the hind limbs stiff,
halting, straddling. There is greater tendency to salacious movements of
the croup. The diagnostic feature is palpation of the ovary through the
rectum.
In _chronic cases_ more or less of the above symptoms are shown in a
greatly mitigated form, but oftentimes there are long intervals of
apparent health. Palpation through the rectum is the final test in this
as in the more acute cases.
_Prognosis._ This is very uncertain. Unless complete recovery takes
place in a few weeks, the inevitable consequence is sterility, or death
from hæmorrhage, peritonitis, pyæmia, or marasmus.
_Treatment._ In acute cases Trasbot strongly urges bleeding in the
larger races and leeching of the flanks in the smaller. Mustard plasters
to the loins and abdomen, and cold or damp applications to the croup are
in order. Vaginal and rectal injections of mucilaginous liquids,
containing anodynes and antiseptics are indicated. Opium, belladonna,
hyoscyamus, chloral, borax, acetate of aluminium may serve as examples.
If needful to quiet the excitement, morphia, atropia or hyoscyamine may
be given subcutem. Or the anodynes may be administered by the mouth. As
a last resort, and by far the most radical treatment, castration may be
performed. With small ovaries this is best done through the vagina in
the larger animals, while with large and adherent ones the flank
operation is imperative. If the peritoneum is involved, careful
antisepsis of the cavity is desirable. In case of adhesions the
operation may be risky, but if successful it will obviate secondary
infections and establish a permanent cure. Complications must be treated
according to their nature.