Catarrh, chronic, summer aggravation, thickened, roughened, mucosa,
discharge, twigs in nose. Question of parasitism. Treatment, remove
causes, antiseptic astringents.
A remarkable form of chronic catarrh with summer aggravation exists in
some of the hilly districts of New York but has not received such study
as to enable us to state its true nature.
One or two in a large herd will have a loud snuffling breathing, which
may subside so as to be entirely overlooked in winter, but reappears
when put to pasture in the spring and continues in a marked form
throughout the warm weather and until after the animal is returned to
winter quarters. There appears to be little or no fever nor
constitutional disturbance except what comes from the obstructed
breathing, and the yield of milk may be unchanged. The symptoms would
indicate a purely local disease. Yet so few are attacked out of a herd
that it cannot be actively contagious.
On close examination the nasal chambers are found to be narrowed, there
is manifest thickening of the mucosa, and its surface feels rough and
uneven, with miliary elevations. There is of course more or less glairy
discharge. If the examination is made about midsummer, the finger
introduced into the nose will usually detect the ends of twigs that have
been introduced into the cavity and broken off. When withdrawn these may
prove individually from four to eight inches long, and some force may be
required to extract them. In winter these are often absent, having been
apparently dropped one by one. The absence of these sources of
irritation sufficiently accounts for the manifest improvement during the
colder months. In spite however of the winter remissions the disease
tends to a steady advance year by year. While nothing definite is known
of its pathology, the occurrence of this disease in given localities,
its manifestly local nature, and its persistence when once established
would suggest enquiry as to the possible existence of parasitism,
bacteridian or otherwise.
Until further discovery treatment can only be of a general nature.
Removal of the foreign bodies from the nose, pasturage where there is no
brush to replace them, soiling when clean pastures cannot be found, and
the use of astringent and antiseptic agents by insufflation or injection
would be indicated.