Causes: friction, inside thighs, side of scrotum or mammæ, inner side
of elbow, between digits on clipped heels, under harness. Dried sebum,
sweat, dust, clay. Pricks with stubble. Symptoms: lameness on
starting, abduction, straddling, knuckling, steps on toe. Treatment:
abate cause, cleanse, rest, dusting powders, zinc, lycopodium,
magnesia, starch, bismuth, alum, lead, morphia, surgeon’s cotton.
Carron oil, vaseline, antiseptics.
This occurs where the folds of skin come in contact and rub on each
other as between the thighs or beside the scrotum, sheath or mammæ in
fat horses and other animals, on inner side of the elbow, between the
digits in ruminants, on clipped heels in horses, and under harness.
Irritant perspiration and sebaceous matter dried on, and mixed with more
or less gritty or septic road dust contribute to it. Drying of clay and
mud in the cleft of the frog, or in the interdigital space of ruminants
is a common cause, also pricking with stubble.
_Symptoms._ These are most marked when the animal has been standing with
the raw surfaces partially dried and adherent. After moving for some
time, and when the surface has been moistened by the exudate there may
be little lameness. Until then he moves hesitatingly and stiffly, with
the legs abducted or in case of the hind ones straddling. With
intertrigo of the pastern or frog, the horse stands on the toe or with
the fetlock knuckled forward, and avoids as far as possible a full
extension. The same is true of cattle with interdigital intertrigo.
The affected part is hot, perhaps swollen, red, damp and exceedingly
tender. Under renewed work, lameness disappears, but becomes worse on
standing, and an extensive exudation may occur subcutaneously. If this
becomes infected it may result in severe and even destructive lesions,
but it usually remains simple and proves readily responsive to soothing
and protective treatment. It is most amenable to treatment in dogs and
meat producing animals of which no work is required. On the contrary the
latter when travelled long distances on foot may suffer severely.
_Treatment._ First abate the cause. With castile soap wash from the
affected part the dried accumulations of sweat, sebum, dust and other
matters, remove clay from frog, interdigital space or heels. Rest until
the congestion and tenderness subside. Drying applications in the form
of dusting powders are usually best: zinc oxide, lycopodium, magnesia
oxide, may be dusted in freely after the affected part has been
thoroughly exposed and dried. In the absence of these use gloss starch,
corn starch, farina or white bismuth. To one or other of these may be
added a little alum, lead acetate or morphia. The addition of a layer of
surgeons’ cotton is useful, if in a place where it will be retained. Of
liquid applications the veterinarians white lotion (zinc sulphate and
lead acetate, of each 1 oz. water 1 qt.) is one of the best, being at
once sedative and astringent. It may be applied on cotton. Astringent
preparations with glycerine are useful but glycerine has the serious
drawback of attracting moisture and increasing the secretion when drying
is desirable. Carron oil (equal parts of lime water and linseed oil) is
most effective and free from this objection. Vaseline alone or medicated
with zinc oxide, lead acetate, alum or tannic acid may be resorted to
when dusting powders fail. Morphia and camphor have been added when
itching is violent.
In intertrigo of the frog or interdigital space the danger of infection
from the floor or road is so great that the demand for antisepsis must
overcome other considerations. Calomel freely applied to the surface,
previously cleansed and dried, is most successful. It may be bound in
place by a pledget of cotton and bandage. In other cases alum 5 parts,
copper sulphate 1 part, or carbolic acid and tar may be bound to the
part.
ERYTHEMA CALORICUM: SOLAR ERYTHEMA.
WHITE FACE AND FOOT DISEASE IN HORSES.
England to Africa, on white skins, especially of face. Symptoms: local
congestion, swelling, itching, desquamation, during extreme heat: in
worst cases fever, dullness, inappetence, costiveness, diarrhœa, head
constantly moving, rubbing, vesicles, pustules, excoriations, cracks,
fissures, septic ulcers in nose and mouth, submaxillary and pharyngeal
swellings, recovery with dermal thickening and tenderness. Diagnosed
from petechial fever by the itching, and the absence of petechiæ.
Prevention: breed solid dark colors, avoid white skinned in hot
climates or work in shade, away from hot winds; sunshade; avoid
friction and wetting in sunshine. Treatment: shade, astringents, cool
irrigation, vaseline, zinc ointment, lamp black, antiseptics. Tie so
as to prevent rubbing.
This has been observed in different latitudes from the cool climate of
Great Britain, to the burning suns of Africa, though it reaches its
highest intensity in the hotter regions. The parts to suffer are those
that are devoid of pigment, as the white star, snip or blaze on the
face, the white feet or legs, the white areas in the piebald, and the
whole surface in the albino. The white face, however, suffers more than
the white legs, apparently because of its more constant exposure, the
absence of shadow from the trunk, and the delicacy of the skin and
fineness and thinness of the hair.
_Symptoms._ In slight cases there may be no constitutional disorder,
only redness, itching, swelling and subsequent desquamation of epidermis
on the white portion of the skin, which may prove persistent so long as
hot weather lasts and recover on the advent of cold.
The more violent cases seen in warmer climes, may be heralded by febrile
reaction, dullness, prostration, inappetence, constipation and sometimes
diarrhœa. The head may be kept in constant movement, the itchy white
parts being rubbed on any object within reach, and the limbs are
stretched, the front ones forward and the hind backward, with a tendency
to rub them with the nose or foot. The skin at first red, becomes later
swollen, covered with vesicles which pass into pustules, burst and
discharge. Meanwhile the subcutaneous connective tissue is infiltrated
and gravitates toward the lowest parts, causing extensive submaxillary
swellings and stocking of the limbs. In its worst forms it may go on to
necrosis and sloughing, but more commonly the affected part becomes raw,
excoriated, cracked and fissured. Sometimes the pituita or even the
buccal membrane becomes involved, with muco-purulent discharge. In other
cases the absorption of septic products causes inflammation and swelling
of the submaxillary or pharyngeal lymph glands. Under favorable
conditions, the secretions dry, the sores heal and the exudate is in
great part absorbed, but there usually remains some thickening of the
affected parts and a diminished vitality of the skin, which renders it
morbidly sensitive to sources of irritation.
Severe cases might be mistaken for petechial fever, but there is much
more pruritus, and there is an absence of the petechiæ, on the mucosæ,
and of a tendency to the extension of the disease far beyond the patches
of white.
_Treatment. Prevention._ This malady should be warded off by breeding or
selecting for warm, sunny climes, animals of a solid color, and
discarding all with white patches. Animals bred in a cooler climate
should not be suddenly transferred to a hot one. When the animal with
white face or feet is found in the hot sunny climate, it should be
devoted as far as possible to work in the shade (indoors or in mines),
or its white patches should be protected against the full unmitigated
rays of the sun, and the hot winds. Sun shades are useful or in their
absence leafy branches fastened to the bridle so as to protect the face.
It is further important to avoid the friction of harness on the
susceptible parts, or wetting of them when in the full glare of
sunshine. Another obvious precaution is to keep the white patches well
covered with lamp black.
When attacked the animal must be placed under cover and eruption treated
with cooling astringents, constant irrigation with cool water, or
lotions with acetate of lead, tannic acid, alum or sulphate of zinc.
When the skin is dry and rigid it may be treated with vaseline, alone or
with zinc oxide, lamp black or any one of the astringents above named.
Open sores may be treated like ordinary wounds, tense engorgements may
be drained by punctures followed by antiseptic dressings, and abscesses
may be opened and evacuated.
During the treatment the patient should be tied short to two sides of
the stall, and other measures taken to prevent him from rubbing or
otherwise injuring the affected parts.