Miller’s horses. Bran and middlings as fodder. Torpid bowels,
impaction, indigestion, colic, early fatigue and perspiration,
stiffness, lameness, epiphyseal swelling, facial bones swell and
soften symmetrically, teeth drop, dyspnœa. Ash of bran. Treatment.
A curious form of rickets has been observed, especially in miller’s
horses as a result of an excessive consumption of bran or middlings. It
is characterized by torpor of the bowels, impaction, indigestions,
slight colics, early fatigue and profuse perspiration under slight
exertion followed by stiffness, lameness, enlargement of the bones in
the region of the epiphyseal cartilage (near knee or hock), or of the
bones of the face. The superior and inferior maxillary bones are
symmetrically enlarged, the teeth are shed, mastication becomes
difficult and there may be some dyspnœa and snuffling. This resembles
the “snuffles” in pigs on an exclusive diet of Indian corn or potato and
Friedberger and Fröhner seek to explain both, by the lack of lime and
phosphorus in the food. But wheat bran has 5.1 per cent. of ash, and
middlings 2.3 per cent. as compared with wheat flour 1.7 per cent. or
oats 2.7 per cent. Putz on the contrary attributes the disease to the
excess of phosphorus in the bran acting as the free phosphorus in
lucifer match factories in causing necrosis of the jaw. But the
phosphorus in bran occurs as phosphate of lime which has no such action
on the bone and one must infer that the phosphoric acid is set free by
some acid developed perhaps in the intestinal fermentations. This is,
however, as yet unproved.
The _treatment_ of this affection consists in the suspension of the bran
and the expulsion of offensive accumulations and products from the
bowels, followed by a course of tonics and the general treatment for
rickets.
OSTEO-MALACIA (MALAXOS SOFT): CACHEXIA OSSIFRAGA; FRAGILITAS OSSIUM:
“THE CRIPPLE:” “THE STIFFNESS.”
Definition. Disease of the mature. Decalcifying in cancelli and Canals
of Havers. Dairy cows. Heavy milkers. Perverted appetite. Limed soils,
sandy or limestone. Low, damp, soils rich in organic matter.
Cultivation. Watery food. Plethoric. Debilitated. Cold. Change of
locality improves. Microbes. Toxins. Lesions: vary with stage,
congestion of marrow, excess of cells and fat, osteoclasts, exudates,
friability of bone, distortions and fractures in pelvis and elsewhere.
Symptoms: low condition, projecting bones, rough coat, perverted
appetite, stiffness, decubitus, swaying limbs, inappetence, drying of
milk, fever, bed sores, sloughs, sepsis, pus infection, fractures.
Duration, 2 to 3 months and upward. Enzootic. Prognosis, varies with
enzootic, and stage; best in recent cases, occurring, sporadically.
Treatment: according to cause, rich, generous diet, grain, salt
bitters, cod liver oil, apomorphia, wholesome pasturage, intensive
culture change water, dry up milk, dry stables, pure air, sunshine.
Slaughter. Local derivatives.
_Definition._ A softening and fragility of the bones of adult animals,
in connection with solution and removal of the earthy salts.
This is essentially a disease of mature animals and is thus easily
distinguished from rachitis, in which the lesions are due to a faulty
development of young, growing bone. In osteo-malacia, too, the
decalcifying proceeds most actively in the walls of the Haversian canals
and cancelli, while in rachitis it progresses especially under the
periosteum and in and around the epiphyseal cartilage.
The disease is found most commonly in dairy cows, but softening of the
bones of mature animals has also been seen in horses and other animals.
Dieckerhoff, who quotes cases in mature horses, adduces similar
instances in colts under a year old, occurring enzootically, and without
the specific lesions of rachitis. Seven out of sixteen broke their
femurs in October, 1886, all kept on the same place, in good box stalls,
and well cared for. Landois found in bones an abnormal amount of fat,
ossein, water and lime salts. Grawitz found no material change in the
cancellated tissue. In one district in Jutland, Stockfleth found an
extraordinary number of broken legs as the result of castration of
colts, which had not shown the thickening or distortions of rachitis.
_Causes._ The disease is particularly common in cows which yield a calf
every year, and especially in heavy milkers, in which respect it agrees
with the osteo-malacia of woman. The heavy demands upon the system for
the nourishment of the fœtus and the supply of milk, undoubtedly lay the
system open to attack, if they do not directly cause the disease. An
early and usually a persistent feature of the malady is a _depraved
appetite_, the causes of which may be read up in Vol. II. The statements
there made, require some qualification, inasmuch as osteo-malacia is at
times found on limestone soils with hard, calcareous water, and on rich,
alluvial valley soils abounding in both clay and lime (Sarginson,
Leclainche), as well as on barren sands and granite soils deficient in
both lime and phosphorus. It may even appear on virgin or mucky soils
after liming, which had been free from the trouble up to that time
(Thorburn). The decomposition of the abundance of organic matter,
hastened by the quicklime, has evidently been a contributing cause.
The excess of organic matter in the soil seems to be a considerable
factor. Both Thorburn and Sarginson mention the “mossy” soils and
waters, and in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and Westmoreland, England, where
they practised, black muck and peats abound. This is corroborated by the
prevalence of the disorder in the damp lowlands of Belgium and Jutland,
in the Swiss valleys, on the damp lands of New Jersey and the Carolina
seaboard, and generally on damp pastures with rank, watery herbage.
When land has been better cultivated and enriched by manure, the disease
has in many cases disappeared. This has been observed in England
(Sarginson), Wurtenberg, Switzerland, etc. (Leclainche).
Succulent, watery food (potatoes, turnips), have been quoted as causes,
as also rank, watery grasses, deficient in nutritious solids, but such
food has invariably come from habitual osteo-malacia soils. On the rich,
cultivated soils of the Lothians, Scotland, cattle are fed in large
numbers on turnips alone, and osteo-malacia and pica are alike unknown.
It is often noticed that the fodder grown on particular (osteo-malacia)
soils will cause the disease when fed elsewhere, so that the inference
is that some agent derived from these soils, and which is destroyed or
rendered harmless by cultivation, is carried in the food. It cannot be a
mere defect of nutritive matter, as this could be counter-balanced by
the simple expedient of consuming a larger ration. Leclainche has seen
the disease in its worst form in herds which received a rich and varied
ration, while it spared adjacent herds that were kept on rather short
rations. Even young plethoric animals suffered badly, though having all
they would eat of natural fodders (hay) from districts where the disease
was unknown, and in addition grain, linseed cake, cooked legumes and
bread. In two neighboring stables, where the stock were kept in
identical conditions, receiving the same food, in equal quantity, one
was decimated by the malady, while the other was spared (Leclainche).
The affection often prevails on the higher lands, which, beside having
the poorer soils, are specially exposed to cold storms and frosts, so
that chill enters as an accessory condition. In Westmoreland, England,
the river Eden divides the affected from the sound lands; the victims
are found on the west bank which receives the cold, east winds, and not
at all on the east bank where the warm, soft, west winds prevail.
Thorburn noticed that the majority of cases start in spring, when the
animals, debilitated by the winter’s seclusion, are exposed to severe
vicissitudes of temperature and driving storms, to the strain of
parturition, a fresh, heavy milk yield, and moulting.
The presence of a contagion has been suggested, but if this exists it
must be habitually introduced in the food or water rather than
transmitted from victim to victim. The healthy will often stand beside
the diseased for an indefinite length of time without injury, and in
certain recent cases a change to an uncontaminated farm, or an abundant
ration drawn from such sound soil, will secure immediate improvement and
recovery in a few weeks. In view of such prompt recoveries it would be
quite as reasonable to suspect some ptomaine or toxin taken in with the
food. The question of a microbe or a microbian poison is as yet a mere
hypothesis.
Cows become more susceptible with advancing age, and Dengler alone
claims to have seen the disease in calves. This is unfavorable to the
idea of immunity, and rather favors that of debility or cachexia.
_Lesions._ These are confined to the bones. Decalcification in the
Haversian canals and cancelli, reduces the bony tissue to a thin soft
plate. Yet the condition is not constant. Grawitz found no special
dilatation of the canals or cancelli in colts. Nessler and others found
decrease of the lime salts, Bibra and Grouven detected no marked change,
and Hoffmann and Begemann found an actual excess of phosphates.
Doubtless the specimens selected and the stage of the disease, whether
in active progress or during convalescence, may somewhat explain
discrepancies. The fat cells increase in the cancelli, with more or less
hyperæmia, and even blood staining as the disease advances, the bone
cells become less branching, and there may be gelatinoid exudates. The
resistance of the bone is diminished, it may be indented with the
finger, or scraped off with the nail, or cut with a knife. It breaks
under a slight strain, and is easily crushed under the weight of the
animal so that fractures and distortions of all kinds are met with. In
breeding cows the earliest and most marked lesions are in the pelvic
bones, but fractures of the bones of the limbs are common.
_Symptoms._ Poor condition or even emaciation, with very visible
projection of the bones is common. The coat is rough, the skin tense,
inelastic and hide bound, appetite variable, sometimes impaired, and
nearly always perverted so that the patient will lick the manger
continually or pick up and chew all sorts of objects, bones, leather,
articles of clothing, pieces of wood or iron, stones, etc. The amount of
food consumed may, however, be up to the normal. The most marked feature
is the difficulty and stiffness of locomotion. The patient lies most of
the time, rises languidly and with difficulty and moves the limbs as if
each were a rigid post without joints. The hocks will knock together,
and the restricted movements of the joint are often attended by
cracking. Yet appetite, temperature and yield of milk may remain normal.
Later appetite and milk secretion fail, temperature rises a degree or
two, the animal refuses to rise, remaining down twelve to twenty-four
hours at a time, and rising first on the hind parts, and remaining on
the knees for a length of time, moaning and indisposed to exert herself
further. Many cases at this stage begin to improve and may get well in
five or six weeks. Some will remain down for several weeks and finally
get up and recover. With constant decubitus however, the animal falls
off greatly, becoming emaciated and weak, the appetite may fail
altogether, and the patient is worn out by the persistent fever, nervous
exhaustion and poisoning from the numerous bad sores. Abscesses, sloughs
and fistulæ are common over the bony prominences.
It is in these last conditions above all that fractures and distortions
of the pelvic bones and less frequently of the bones of the legs occur.
They occur earlier as well in connection with falls, blows, crowding by
their fellows and sudden active movements of various kinds.
The disease may advance for two or three months, and in case of pelvic
fractures and distortions, there may be permanent lameness, and
dangerous obstruction to parturition, even though the bones should
acquire their normal hardness through the deposition of lime salts.
It has been noted that the disease is usually confined to well defined
areas, and that even in these it has its periods of abatement and
recrudescence so that given years are osteo-malacia years. In the
department of l’Aube, France, Leclainche, particularly noted the
enzootics of 1865–6, 1870, 1875–6, and 1883–4.
_Prognosis._ The gravity of the affection varies greatly under different
conditions. Some outbreaks are mild while others are very severe, and
the prognosis must vary with this gravity. Again at the decline of an
enzootic the disease is more benign and less ruinous. A case in its very
earliest stage is much more hopeful, than one that is far advanced, with
bones extensively softened or even broken, digestion and assimilation
badly impaired, and infecting sores and sloughs on different parts of
the body. Isolated cases are usually much milder than when the affection
has gathered strength enough to determine an enzootic.
_Treatment._ This will vary with the predominance of the causes,
essential or accessory. In some cases the suspension of the injurious
food and a rich alimentation on well grown fodders from sound lands will
meet every need. Green clover, alfalfa, and other leguminous products,
ground oats, beans, peas, linseed cake, rape cake, cotton seed and
vetches may be especially named. Even animal food may be availed of, and
cases are recorded in which cows have themselves hunted for snails and
frogs and devoured them greedily. The free access to common salt, and a
liberal supply of bone meal are helpful. Iron and bitter tonics,
(gentian, quinine, salicine, nux, copperas, tincture of iron) and cod
liver oil, in pint doses daily, have been found advantageous. Apomorphia
has been found especially valuable in correcting the preverted appetite,
and stimulating digestion.
Where it is feasible to move the affected herd from the unwholesome
pasturage or locality to one in which the aliment is rich and the
disease unknown, success usually follows the change.
On poor, uncultivated lands where the disease appears yearly, or at
short intervals, intensive culture with heavy manuring, and the heavy
feeding of the herd on grain products, linseed cake, etc., will often
banish the trouble.
Care should be taken to change the water as well as the food.
Finally every drain upon the system should be lessened or stopped. The
milk may be dried up and the animal should not be bred. Sweet, dry
buildings, pure air, sunshine and grooming are important auxiliaries.
In severe outbreaks, in high conditioned animals, the owner often
consults his interest, in sending the victims to the butcher as soon as
the affection shows itself and before time has been allowed for the
inevitable emaciation and loss.
Some, on osteo-malacia lands, have profited by changing the entire herd
every two years, as they become rapidly worn out under successive
attacks.
As local derivatives, oil of turpentine, hot vinegar, tincture of iodine
and biniodide of mercury have been employed. Open sores are treated with
antiseptic lotions, creolin, lysol, carbolic acid, iodine lotions,
iodoform, etc.