Frequency. Causes, wet, cold pens, exposure, withholding liquids.
Symptoms, prostration, dullness, cough, fever, swollen throat and
neck, dyspnœa, dark mucosa, sloughing of epithelium and epidermis,
general petechiæ, fœtid breath, great prostration. Lesions, gangrenous
patches on pharynx and fauces, ulcers, infiltrations. Treatment,
hygienic, dietetic, emetic, laxative, poultice, bandages, locally,
astringent, antiseptic, caustic, tonic.
Sore throat is common in some localities when pigs live in herds.
_Causes._ Chiefly faulty hygiene. Exposed, cold and wet piggeries, cold
blasts for which the pig has an extraordinary aversion, and the
deprivation of liquids in warm, dry seasons are frequent causes.
_Symptoms._ These have been described by M. Pradal, who divides the
disease into three stages, evidently dealing with an infectious malady.
The _first stage_ is marked by loss of appetite, dullness, slow,
listless movements, a tendency to hide under the litter; low, hoarse
grunt and cough, the last aggravated by moving the animal; pain in
swallowing; red, sunken eye, and constipation. If there is no
improvement on the second or third day it merges into the _second
stage_. This is characterized by a still hoarser grunt, painful, hard
hacking cough, difficult breathing, especially in the sunshine, and a
rapidly increasing swelling of the throat, soon extending to both ears
and as far down as the breast bone. This engorgement feels soft and
pasty though firm, tender lumps may be felt, indicating the approaching
formation of abscess. It is so abundant that suffocation may ensue in
the course of forty-eight hours. If the progress of the swelling is not
arrested it soon passes into the _third_ or _gangrenous stage_. The
breathing is more hurried; the mouth open, the protruded tongue of a
bluish black color, the cough followed by a continuous rattle, the head
unsteady, swallowing impossible, and the swelling extends to the side of
the face and beneath the chest. The swollen surface is cold and livid;
the bristles easily detached; it is bedewed by a serosity which exudes
from it, and portions of the dead skin tend to detach themselves. The
mouth and throat participate in the gangrene, the breath, saliva and
nasal discharge is fetid, and the epidermis peels off. The snout, ears
and skin generally assume a bluish black hue, the prostration is
extreme, the creature lying constantly on its side; the pain ceases and
in one or two days death ensues, preceded by a state of comparative
calmness.
On opening the throat after death the mucous membrane is engorged and
thickened, bears various hues of black, blue, livid and green, and
breaks down into a pulpy mass under slight pressure. The surrounding
(pharyngeal) muscles even are implicated in this change. In the earlier
stages there is only engorgement with blood of the tonsils and the
mucous membrane of the pharynx and larynx; serous infiltration of the
surrounding parts, and often the presence of inspissated mucus
resembling false membranes or of ulcers on the surface.
_Treatment._ In the earlier stages, hygienic measures alone may suffice
to check. A warm, dry, comfortable piggery, emollient and astringent
drinks, such as sheep’s head broth, oatmeal and other gruels acidulated
with vinegar or buttermilk, an emetic (six grains of tartar emetic); a
dose of physic (four croton beans powdered and given in the food, or
from two to three ounces of castor oil), and if the patient will permit
it a flannel bandage or piece of sheepskin round the throat. If the
symptoms are more threatening it is recommended to bleed from the ears
and tail; to apply a linseed meal poultice round the throat to hasten
the formation of abscess, or in the absence of such indications to
employ a mustard poultice made with spirits of turpentine, or rugs wrung
out of boiling water, to the same part. Local astringent and caustic
applications to the throat are the most promising, applied by means of a
whalebone prob as recommended for other animals, the mouth being held
open by a noose round the upper jaw. Sodium sulphite, silver nitrate,
potassium permanganate, hydrochloric acid diluted, and tincture of
iodine, may be employed.
When the gangrenous stage has been reached all treatment is useless.