This escapes almost exclusively by the nose in horses, because of the
length of the soft palate. It may come from the mouth of other animals,
especially when they cough. In the ox the discharge from the nose is
rarely seen because of his licking it out with his tongue. Rattles
(râles) in the larynx, trachea or bronchia, enable us to ascertain the
source of such discharges.
The nasal discharge in acute catarrh, laryngitis or bronchitis, is thin,
clear, and slightly viscid, becoming thick, whitish and flocculent as
the disease advances. It is yellowish, thick, flocculent and intermixed
with shreds of false membranes in diphtheria or in the croup of young
foals and calves. It is clear, slightly viscid and watery at the onset
of bronchitis. At the debut of pneumonia it is often reddish (rusty). It
is bright, red, frothy and bloody in hæmoptysis. It is scanty, clear,
watery, and containing minute white flocculi in pulmonary emphysema
(broken wind). It is white, thick, curdy, and devoid of viscidity in
chronic bronchitis or when a pulmonary abscess is being emptied. It is
grayish, thick and flocculent in advanced pneumonia in the horse.
Cows in the advanced stages of pulmonary tuberculosis expectorate a
yellowish, sticky matter containing minute hard masses often cretaceous.
Calves and lambs suffering from strongyli in the lungs expel these in
little pellets in the midst of a thick white material.
The expectoration is fetid, dark red and grumous in gangrene of the
lungs.
In pulmonary tuberculosis and glanders the expectoration usually
contains the respective bacilli.