Seen on rich, damp lands. Symptoms: lameness, small areas of
congestion, erection of hairs, vesiculation, pustulation, gangrene as
deep as tendons, depilation, desquamation, fistulæ, slough of hoof,
early fever, impaired appetite, recovery in 14 to 21 days in most
cases. Staphylococcus and streptococcus. Prevention: segregation,
different attendants, avoidance of infecting land while damp, smear
limbs with antiseptics. Treatment: antiseptic bandages.
Under this name Sotsevich describes an infectious disease of the horse,
which prevails in the Don province, and especially on rich, low, damp
lands. Before the appearance of any local lesion, the horse goes very
lame on one limb. Afterward there appears, usually on the coronet or
pastern, an area on which the hairs stand erect, with elevation of the
epidermis and the formation of vesicles as large as barley corns, filled
with a yellowish white liquid and later with pus. Gangrene follows,
extending from the skin to the subcutaneous connective tissue,
aponeurosis and tendons, and forming large sores, one to two inches in
diameter and discharging an abundant yellow, fœtid pus. The adjacent
skin takes on a yellow tint and sheds its hair and epidermis. The
disease may extend into the interphalangean joints or under the hoof,
leading to offensive fistulæ or evulsion of the hoof. If it extends to
the higher parts of the limb it becomes less destructive.
At the onset there is some fever (101° F.), dulness and inappetence, but
these gradually subside, and in favorable cases complete recovery has
taken place in two or three weeks.
Bacteriological investigation has detected in the contents of the
vesicles, staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, and streptococcus pyogenes.
_Prevention_ is largely secured by a rigid separation of the diseased
from the healthy. Other obvious precautions would be to exclude those
dressing the sores from handling other horses until after thorough
disinfection of the hands, and to keep the sound animals, during wet
seasons, from the damp infecting soils, or when they must work on these,
to smear the lower parts of the limbs with antiseptic ointments (tar,
carbolic, iodine, mercuric, etc., etc.)
_Treatment_ with sublimate bandages proves very satisfactory, yet any
comparatively non-irritating antiseptic lotion may be used.