Chapter XX: Part 20

This term, standing for what boils out, has long been applied to vesicular eruptions on the skin, but inasmuch as the inflammation rarely stops short with vesiculation, but usually in part at least goes on to more advanced lesions, it must be held to include in many cases erythema, papules, vesicles, pustules, crusts, desquamations and erosions. All of these may coexist or succeed each other in the same subject, so that considerable latitude must be allowed to the name to cover all parts and stages of the same attack. Dermatologists have defined eczema as a non-infectious inflammation of the skin with multiform manifestations, but recent observations would indicate that it may at times, at least, be contagious, and micrococci have been found in the serum of the vesicles, while the very occurrence of pus must virtually imply the existence of a bacterial infection. Doubtless different diseases pass under this name in the different genera and species, and even in the same variety of animals, yet until we learn to discriminate sharply the one from the other, it is convenient to consider the whole as a kindred clinical group, if not a pathological entity.

_Definition._ An acute or more frequently, a chronic inflammation of the skin and sometimes of the mucosæ, characterized by itching, erythema, papules, vesicles, serous or sero-purulent exudation with squama or crusts and loss of hair, and usually largely due to an internal cause. The exudative condition has suggested a catarrh of the skin.

_Causes._ These are the usual causes of skin disease, local and general, together with a special susceptibility, under which, what are ordinary irritants produce this characteristic disease. Many local irritants can produce eczema, but again it is often the case that these factors will operate on a given susceptible subject while on another they are without much effect. This susceptibility is called a “dartrous diathesis” by the French writers, while most English and American writers are willing rather to find the hidden cause or causes in the disorder of internal organs (digestive, hepatic, urinary, generative, hæmatic, trophic, infective, plethoric, atonic).

ACUTE ECZEMA IN SOLIPEDS. DORSAL ASPECT.

Head, neck, shoulder, back, under girths, breeching, crupper. Summer.
Moulting. Heavy coat. Thin skin. Youth. Symptoms: erect hair, papular
groups, hot, thick rigid skin, itching, abrasion, ulceration,
encrusting, pustules, white spot and hair. Treatment: laxative,
cooling diet, cleanliness, pure air, shade, rest, alkalies, locally
vaseline, astringents, dusting powder, anodynes, tar water, creolin,
etc.

This shows itself especially on the head, the sides of the neck, under the collar, or saddle, the circingle or crupper, the breeching or general surface. In these cases the profuse secretion of sweat, and the friction of the harness is a marked local factor in its production. It often shows a preference for the summer season, the period of shedding the coat, the heavy coated animal, the animal with white, thin or delicate skin. Youth also predisposes.

_Symptoms._ There is usually erection or roughness of the hair, and the formation at such points of minute papules like small peas collected in groups. The skin may feel hot, thickened, lacking in pliancy, not to be pinched up in folds, the panniculus is contracted and manipulation shows tenderness. Soon the papules flatten and desicate and more or less violent itching sets in. The patient rubs or scratches himself, causing deep red congestion of the surface or even abrasion, or ulceration. Apart from abrasion the skin becomes covered with crusts or even scales which agglutinate tufts of hairs and dry up and desquamate.

In other cases the eruption advances from the condition of papules to that of vesicles and even of pustules, though finally drying up with the same pruritus as in the papular form.

In either case the affected parts are more or less depilated, red if on unpigmented skin, grayish and scabby or scurfy if on the darker. At times, after recovery, the patch remains devoid of pigment and hairs growing from it are white.

_Treatment._ It is usually desirable to clear out the prima viæ by aloes or Glauber salts, to resort to a carefully regulated, non-heating diet, to clean the skin of all concretions from sweat or otherwise, to give pure air and shade and to protect the animal from active exertion, profuse sweating and friction by harness or otherwise. In the early stages benefit will often come from the use of alkalies, especially sodium bicarbonate. Locally an inunction with vaseline to soften crusts, and the subsequent removal of these with tepid water, may be followed by some soothing or astringent application, always bearing in mind that what is soothing to one skin is irritant to another. Dusting powders (starch, lycopodion, magnesium carbonate, oxide of zinc, calamine, bismuth) will often do good; soothing lotions or liniments (lead acetate with laudanum, lime water and olive oil; sodium bicarbonate in well boiled gruel of oatmeal or marsh mallow; zinc oxide or sulphate in water or glycerine or as ointment in vaseline, etc, etc). In chronic stages with much squama and pruritus tar water or ointment; a lotion of tar and alcohol; creolin lotion; chloral lotion; or other stimulant application may be used.

CHRONIC ECZEMA OF THE HEAD IN SOLIPEDS.[1]

Affects face, eyelids, cheeks. Symptoms: papules, vesicles, dry, rigid
skin, scurf, glistening, shedding hairs. Treatment: as in eczema;
antiseptics.

Footnote 1:

Acute eczema of the heels. See chapped heels and grease.

The cheeks and forehead are the most liable to suffer in this affection, yet the eyelids and the parts below the inner canthus may participate in connection with the escape of tears and the disease of the lachrymal sac or ducts. It has been seen in the young when strangles had merged into skin eruption, but also in the aged and independently of that affection.

_Symptoms._ Following strangles the papules or vesicular eruption may have passed leaving the skin thick, rigid, dry and scurfy. The pigment may be increased and the hairs are usually shed in connection with atrophy of their follicles and rubbing of the itching surface, so that the cuticle is smooth, glabrous and even glistening. In implication of the lachrymal apparatus, there is shedding of hairs beneath the eye or the wet matted condition of those that remain.

_Treatment._ In strangles use a lotion of silver nitrate or sodium hyposulphite to destroy the local infection. In other cases treat as for ordinary eczema.

CHRONIC MOIST ECZEMA (IMPETIGO) AT THE MANE AND TAIL.

Fleshy neck, thick mane and tail, lymphatic constitution, profuse
perspiration, lack of cleanliness, alkaline soaps, plethora, foul
stable, pus microbes. Symptoms: itching or tenderness, shedding hair,
thinning of mane and tail, skin thickened, ridges and folds,
tenderness, moisture, crusts raise hairs from follicles, fœtor, sores
and ulcers, matted hairs. Treatment: remove general and local causes,
cleanse, cool, pure stable, clip, reduce grain; cooling, laxative
food, soothing or stimulating applications, zinc oxide, talc, olive
oil and diachylon plaster, iodoform, silver nitrate, oil of cade, or
of white birch, sulphur iodide, Canada balsam and sulphur, green soap,
dusting powders, ointments.

This condition is especially common in horses with a profusion of long hairs in the mane and tail, and in the heavy draught animal with a thick, fleshy neck. In such the skin is very sensitive, and when profuse perspiration soaks the skin, or concretes and decomposes about the roots of the hairs, the local irritation necessary to the production of the eruption is present. A lack of careful grooming is therefore a common cause, yet soap left in washing the mane or tail may be no less injurious. Plethora has its influence in many cases, and the ammoniacal fumes from a wooden stable saturated with excretions are not to be ignored. Finally in cases accompanied by pustular eruption, the pus microbes must be recognized as factors.

_Symptoms._ There may be marked itching or extreme tenderness of the part affected or in the absence of both there may occur a gradual shedding of the long hairs, so that an increasing thinness of the mane and tail (rat tail) becomes apparent. The skin covering the affected parts is thickened, inflamed and thrown into ridges and folds, one rubbing against another. The surface feels moist or is covered by crusts formed by the condensation of the moist exudate, and embracing the hairs and drawing them out of their follicles. Beneath the concretions the skin is soaked in the tenacious fœtid liquid discharge. The hair follicles become atrophied in connection with the evulsion of the hairs, or under congestion the hairs stand rigidly erect, and bristly or curly. As the freer secretion abates, the exudate become more purely scally or encrusted, but the skin remains thickened and thrown into folds. Under the inveterate rubbing or gnawing the skin is often extensively abraded and large open sores are formed which are indolent and slow to heal. That matting together of the hairs which has been known as _plica Polonica_ is often the result of the disease of the hair follicles and the accumulation of scabs which takes place in this disease, rather than to a special infection like gregarina (coccidiosis).

_Treatment._ The first consideration must be to remove all general and local causes of eczema, insure perfect cleanliness and good grooming in any case in which these may been lacking, purify the air of the stable if that has been foul, procure a cool environment when that has been too hot, clip the patient if habitually soaked with perspiration by reason of a heavy coat, suspend or moderate the work if that has been too exacting, withhold a heating grain ration (corn, buckwheat, barley, wheat, peas, beans), and furnish cooling, laxative, easily digested food. In the cases before us the acute, irritable stage has usually passed, so that the more stimulating applications may be safely used, yet in many old standing cases a fresh eruption may have taken place, which would demand for a time the most soothing applications only. Apart from such cases the more stimulating dressings are applied at once.

The affected surface is exposed by clipping or shaving off the long hairs, thus at once removing a source of heat and irritation and allowing of the direct and thorough application of the dressing. Among the astringent and stimulant applications oxide of zinc ointment and benzoated oxide of zinc are among the simplest and least likely to irritate, but the stronger applications can usually be borne. The Lassar paste consists of two parts each of finely powdered talc and zinc oxide, four parts of vaseline and three per cent. of salicylic acid. Oxide of bismuth may substitute the zinc oxide. Three parts of olive oil and four of diachylon plaster melted together and stirred until cool, makes another mildly astringent and sedative application. Iodoform 1 dr. to an ounce of vaseline is an excellent agent. A mixture of iodoform and tannin is used as a dusting powder by Friedberger and Fröhner: or silver nitrate solution (6:100) may be used. Tar ointment (1:8) with a little subcarbonate of potassium added makes an excellent application. Oil of cade and oil of white birch may be used in the same way, the latter being the most desirable as a rule. Ammonia chloride of mercury as an ointment (1:10), often acts well and the black wash, formed by the decomposition of calomel with potash is often serviceable. Iodide of sulphur and vaseline (1:10) is often an excellent resort. An ointment of equal parts of Canada balsam and sulphur or iodide of sulphur in four parts of vaseline is often effective. Other valuable preparations are ointments (10%) of ichthyol, naphthol, chrysarobin or pyrogallol. Hebra’s _last resort_ of green soap is never to be forgotten, the affected skin being thickly smeared with the soap which is left to dry on, and is repeated and rubbed in, for several days in succession. It may seem at first to aggravate the disease by reason of the solution and removal of the covering of the vesicles or pustules and the exposure of a pink sensitive surface, but day by day this improves and the skin becomes smooth and more natural. After a few days of this treatment, it may, if necessary, be followed by astringent or stimulant dressings, or the varied medicaments may be incorporated with the soap so as to form one dressing to be applied from the first. When a healthy action has been once established, all that is required further may be cleanliness, with the use of bland dusting powders or ointments to establish the cure.

CHRONIC ECZEMA OF THE CARPUS AND TARSUS; MALANDERS: SALLENDERS.

Eruption in bends of carpus and tarsus and downward: Causes: lymphatic
temperament, constitutional predisposition, deranged internal organs,
excessive secretions, modified, congested skin, friction between
dermal folds. Symptoms: stiffness, heat, thickening and redness,
vesicles or oozing, crusts, erect hairs, shedding hair, squamæ,
cracks, abrasions, fissures, subcutaneous engorgement,
lymphangiectasis. Treatment: Cleanse, get pure air, regular exercise,
non-stimulating food, avoid cold water, mud, slush, caustic soap,
lime, sharp sand, foul organic matter. Massage. Light bandages. Bland
ointments. Dusting powders. Rest. Iodoform. Starch. Zinc oxide. Boric
acid. Magnesia. Bismuth. Lycopodion. Lead. Tannin. Pyoktannin.
Stimulating ointments. Green soap. Arsenic.

The bends of the carpus and tarsus in heavy, lymphatic, coarse skinned horses are especially subject to eczema followed by a dense scabby eruption, which in the old farrier’s nomenclature was known as malanders in the fore limb and sallenders in the hind. It is not always confined to the joints but may extend down the limb, especially on the back, where the hair is coarser and the skin thicker, as far as the fetlock or even to the hoof.

In the matter of _causation_ much depends on the general constitutional state which tends to eczema, and on the torpor or derangement of some of the internal organs the functions of which are interdependent with those of the skin. Something too must be attributed to the freer secretions of these parts in coarse bred horses, to the accumulation of such secretions and of extraneous irritants under the long hair, to the sluggishness of the circulation in the limbs which has to overcome the force of gravitation, and to friction between the thick folds of skin in flexion, and stretching in extension. Swelling of the lower limbs is at once a cause and an effect of the disease.

_Symptoms._ At the outset the animal may be seen to move rather stiffly, and the skin is found to be hot, thickened and if white reddened. Soon a close observation may detect the eruption of vesicles, or simply an oozing of a yellowish or bloody serum which concretes around the hairs forming an encrusted covering for the part, holding the hairs erect and bristly, and even lifting them out of their follicles. Cracks also appear in the depth of the fold, leading to a more abundant exudate, and the disease may extend around the whole surface of the limb.

In the more acute cases this may be followed by more or less depilation, dessication and recovery, but too often the condition becomes chronic, the thickened, encrusted or squamous skin continues to exude, crack and cover itself with crusts, under which the decomposing liquids macerate and irritate the exposed cuticle, and engorgment of the whole limb with hyperplasia of the connective tissue and lymphatic plexus and vessels is the result. This hyperplasia of the skin and connective tissue (elephantiasis) is also a common result of lymphangitis.

_Treatment._ As in other skin affections attention must first be given to removal of the causes. Ensure cleanliness, pure air, regular exercise, non-stimulating food, the avoidance of cold water, melting snow, soapy washes and all other sources of irritation. Deep mud, especially if charged with lime, sharp sand, decomposing organic matter or other irritant, is particularly offensive.

Hand-rubbing (massage) of the limbs and evenly applied light bandages are often of the greatest value in dispersing or obviating swelling.

The slighter attacks may be met at the outset by bland ointments or dusting powders and rest from all but necessary exercise. Dressing with iodoform may bring about a recovery in a few days. Starch and oxide of zinc, boric acid, magnesia carbonate, bismuth or lycopodion may give good service. Lotions of lead acetate, tannin, iron sulphate, alum, potassium permanganate or pyoktannin may be used as in other forms of eczema. In obstinate cases green soap followed by stimulating ointments or liniments, tar, oil of white birch, Canada balsam, turpentine and glycerine, oil of cade, etc., will often serve an excellent purpose. In these advanced cases an alterative such as arsenic may be employed.

ECZEMA OF ALIMENTARY ORIGIN IN CATTLE.
STARVATION MANGE. STALK DISEASE. MALT ECZEMA. POTATO ECZEMA.

In low condition: erythema, hæmorrhagic extravasations, or vesicles on
tail, lips, fore legs, udder. Trombidium holosericeum. Malt or potato
eczema: marc eczema on legs and body. Causes: feeding on marc only,
skins, green potatoes, fermenting. Attack in ratio with marc eaten.
Worst on new stock, and feeding cattle. Calves have diarrhœa, children
eruption. Bean trefoil and milk sickness act similarly. Solanin.
Unaffected by boiling. Season. Field. Chlorophyl. Narcosis absent. Is
brain adaptable? Other ingredients inoperative. Eczema ceases with
change of food: is not inoculable. Symptoms: fever, costiveness,
inappetence, red mucosæ, weeping, stringy salivation, debility,
emaciation, black diarrhœa. May lie with extended head, grinding
teeth, tympany, lethargy, coma. Pig and dog vomit. Abortion. Redness,
swelling, stiffness on pasterns: may extend to whole body: exudations:
thick crusts: erect or shed hairs: rigid thickened, folded, cracked
skin, buccal mucosa may suffer: abscess, sloughs. Mortality slight and
up to 20 per cent. Lesions: congestions of small intestine, brain and
muscle. Treatment: stop or lessen the marc adding grain: turn to
pasture: locally bathe, cold or tepid: lead lotions: dusting powders:
tannin: blue stone: creolin: cresol: tar or birch oil: carbolic acid.

The skin of cattle seems to suffer more than that of other animals in connection with the ingestion of poisons. In starved or very low conditioned animals, eruptions are met with which may be in the form of a simple erythema, a hæmorrhagic extravasation in spots, or an eruption on the end of the tail in the form of epidermic concretions or pustules (impetigo). Among the vineyards it is common to find an eruption with papules and vesicles on the lips, fore legs and udder of cows which were fed on the succulent young shoots and leaves of the grape vine. In cases of this disease, Railliet and Moreau have found a great number of the silky trombidium larvæ (harvest bug), and accordingly attribute the affection exclusively to their attacks. The growth of the vine on the warmest and sunniest exposures, the most favorable to the propagation of this acarus, gives much support to this conclusion.

=Malt or Potato Eczema.= On the continent of Europe where potatoes are largely used for distillation and the production of starch, herds of cattle are fed often almost exclusively on the refuse or marc, and in such herds an eczematous eruption of the legs and exceptionally of the body is a familiar occurrence.

_Causes._ The disease has been definitely traced to an exclusive dietary on potato marc, and still more so to the skins, to tubers rendered green by exposure to the sun, and to the distillery potato refuse which has undergone fermentation. Thus 80 litres of the pulp daily without dry food will determine a violent attack in the animal consuming it, while the animal consuming 40 litres has it much milder (Friedberger and Fröhner). It attacks animals living in the best conditions of cleanliness and pure air, and the essentially toxic quality of the cause may be deduced from the fact that newly bought animals, which are not yet habituated to it suffer the most, that fattening cattle are the common victims, while work oxen which perspire more freely and milch cows escape, yet calves fed upon their milk may suffer from diarrhœa and infants from a cutaneous eruption (Johné). The poison it is to be inferred is eliminated in the milk. Similar examples of the protecting of the milch animal by elimination of the poison through the milk are found in bean trefoil (cytisus) which poisons the milk while proving harmless to the goat which yields it, and the poison of milk sickness which is deadly to cattle which are not giving milk, and harmless to the milch cow, yet deadly to those that consume her milk.

The exact nature of the poison is as yet uncertain, and as solanin is the only toxic principle so far discovered in potato, this has been held tentatively to be the essential cause. The amount of solanin in young and germinated potatoes has been given by Cornevin as follows:

Germinated tubers Young tubers.
The entire tuber contains 0.21 0.16
The central fleshy part 0.16 0.12
The parings and pickings 0.24 0.18

The toxic strength of the marc is not impaired by boiling, cooking or other culinary treatment, and the same is true of solanin. The toxicity is greatest after the potato has been subjected to germination, or when it has become green by exposure to the sun, and in these conditions the solanin is increased. The toxicity of the marc is higher in certain years, and in the product of certain fields, than in others, and this is in keeping with the effect of environment in modifying the products of a plant. The increased production of chlorophyl under the action of sunlight is associated with a material increase of the amount of solanin. Until therefore another toxic product can be shown to be the essential cause of this affection the solanin must be charged with this result. This conclusion would be more inviolable if the animals attacked showed other symptoms of solanin poisoning such as narcotism, vertigo, stupor and paralysis, and the absence of these may perhaps be due to the gradual advance of the toxic action, and the progressive immunizing of the animal system. The brain may be able to accommodate itself more readily than the skin.

The other constituents of the potato or of the marc fail to produce the eruption under other conditions: the alcohol in brewers and distillers’ grains, the acetic, lactic and butyric acids in the refuse of starch, beet sugar and canning factories, the potash in turnips and other roots, the yeast ferment in brewers’ grains. The acarus of foot mange (symbiotis bovis) is rarely present in the affected animal though the eruption in the same situation would strongly suggest its presence and lead to a search for it. Moreover the eczema appears at once in a large number of animals, affecting a large area without evidence of slow and steady progression and disappears with equal rapidity in many cases when the diet is changed. Finally the eczema has not been successfully propagated by inoculation which conveys mange infallibly from animal to animal.

_Symptoms._ The disease is associated with slight fever, costiveness, impaired appetite, hyperæmia of the mucosæ, epiphora, viscous salivation, muscular weakness, and finally emaciation and black diarrhœa. The gravity of these symptoms varies, being greater when the animals have eaten the leaves and stems, the raw potatoes in their skins, the young shoots and parings, or green potatoes which have been sunned. The animals may lie most of their time stretching themselves out with head extended on the ground, they may grind the teeth, may have pulse small and rapid, tympany, lethargy, coma and even paraplegia but these severe symptoms are exceptional and almost altogether confined to the cattle of distilleries which receive an exclusive diet of potato marc. In the pig and dog vomiting has been noticed (Cornevin). Pregnant animals may abort.

The local symptoms begin with redness and swelling of the skin around the pasterns, especially of the hind limbs, stiffness and a disposition to lie most of the time; then small flattened vesicles appear, isolated or confluent, which bursting, form extended, raw patches the abundant exudations of which concrete into thick crusts. The hairs stand erect and are abnormally thick at their roots. The eruption may extend to the whole limb, the scrotum, mamma, tail and body at large, so that in severe cases it is practically universal. The skin becomes thick, rigid, hide bound, wrinkled and folded with intervening cracks. As a rule, however, the eruption is confined to the limbs, scrotum, mammæ and tail. In some extensive and persistent cases the buccal mucosa suffers, particularly on the pad on the upper jaw, which shows extensive and irregular ulcers with purulent centre and swollen, congested margin. Abscesses may develop in the skin and subcutem and sloughing of the integument is not unknown.

_Mortality_ is slight as a change of food is usually made and a recovery ensues in a few weeks. Yet Baranski noted 20 per cent. of deaths in Galicia, mostly in old, worn out animals which had been stabled for a length of time.

_Lesions._ On examination, _post mortem_, there are found hyperæmia and inflammation of the small intestine, some congestion of the cerebral meninges, and a red, bloody condition of the muscular system.

_Treatment._ The toxic provender must be stopped, or reduced to 20 or 30 litres of pulp daily, supplemented by sound wholesome dry fodder. Marker claims that 70 quarts daily of the potato marc may be given if combined with a fair ration of Indian corn. Turning out doors to pastures usually effects a speedy cure.

Local treatment is rarely demanded but when the irritation is great it may be soothed by bathing with cold or tepid water, lead lotion, glycerine and lead lotion, or by the application of ointments of lead, tar, oil of cade or birch, or carbolic acid. Dusting powders of zinc oxide, starch, lycopodium, boric and tannic acids may also be employed. Decoction of oak bark or solution of blue stone is often used, also creolin or cresol one part, to alcohol five parts.

It is rarely necessary to use other than the cooling and astringent lotions, yet the persistence of irritable sores, ulcers and crusts must be treated as in other chronic skin affections.

MOIST ECZEMA OF THE PASTERNS IN THE OX.

Causes: hot season, foul stables, streptococcus. Symptoms: sudden
attack, red, swollen, warm, tender pastern, vesicles, crusts, scabs,
lameness, foot rested on toe, cracks, fissures, interdigital foot rot,
shedding hoof, scaly chronic form. Treatment: clean stables and yards,
cleanse feet, lead lotion or zinc, phenol, iron or copper. Tar water,
tar, creolin, creosote, iodol.

This affection is comparable to the simpler forms of grease or digital eczema in horses.

_Causes._ It occurs especially in the hot midsummer season in cattle kept in filthy stables, where the feet and pasterns are kept filthy and the air charged with irritant ammoniacal fumes. A streptococcus is usually met with and may be found in pure cultures in resulting abscesses.

_Symptoms._ The attack is sudden, the skin around the pastern becoming red, warm, swollen and tender, with the formation of vesicles, isolated or confluent, which rupture and discharge a serous exudate that dries up into crusts and scabs. Lameness is a marked symptom and in bad cases the swelling and pain are such that the foot may be habitually raised from the ground and rested only on the toe. The swollen skin is thrown into folds which rub on each other, and breaks open into cracks from which exudes a serous fluid that macerates and irritates the skin, the heel pad and the interdigital space, so as to determine interdigital foot rot. This may lead to inflammation inside the hoof with shedding of the horny mass, or it may subside into a chronic form with an abundant squamous product.

_Treatment_ should be mainly prophylactic in the direction of cleanliness and abundant litter in the stables, and the avoidance of pools of liquid manure and of septic mud puddles in the yards and roads.

In the early stages of the affection the pasterns and interdigital spaces should be thoroughly cleansed and covered with a bandage with a weak solution of acetate of lead, or of sulphate of zinc, or carbolic acid, or sulphate of iron or copper. In the more advanced stages tar water or crude tar will serve a good purpose, or watery or alcoholic solutions of creolin, creosote, oil of tar, carbolic acid or iodol. When the horn has been separated from the quick, it is usually best to pare away all such, to bevel the edges so as to make them less rigid and more pliant and to dress with tar water and later to cover with undiluted tar and bandage.

MOIST ECZEMA OF THE TAIL, NECK, CHINE AND DEWLAP OF CATTLE.

Definition. Causes: in work oxen, winter, foul stables; dairy cows on
spoiled fodder or maize, wheat, buckwheat, cotton seed, etc.
Contagion. Symptoms: skin hot, thick, tender, exuding, matted hair,
vesicles, itching, excoriation, ulceration, bleeding, sloughing.
Treatment: Soothing. Cleanliness. Pure air. Tepid sponging. Dusting
powder. Clip or shave. Calomel with care. Phenol. Creolin. Silver or
copper salts. Tannic or boric acid.

This is an acute eczematous eruption of cattle beginning as a congestion and swelling of the skin and advancing to an exudation or secretion which bedews the surface with a sticky discharge, and concretes into scabs and crusts.

_Causes._ The disease has been mainly seen in work oxen during winter, when kept in close, foul stables and not properly groomed. It is also seen in dairy cows and may be attributed to the indigestion and gastric disorders which come from the ingestion of spoiled fodders, or from a too stimulating diet, such as Indian corn, wheat, buckwheat, barley, cotton seed, and the seeds of the leguminosæ. Lafosse looked upon it as contagious, but Cadeac denies both this and its alimentary origin.

_Symptoms._ The attack is severe, the skin becoming swollen, hot and tender, especially at the base of the tail, on the neck, chine and forehead. Soon the turgid, congested skin exudes a somewhat glutinous serous product, which mats the hairs into tufts and exposes the intervening red, excoriated skin, with here and there vesicles singly or in groups. Itching is usually intense and the animal licks, rubs and scratches the affected surface unmercifully. The resulting excoriations and sores add greatly to the severity of the troubles, including ulceration, bleeding and even sloughing.

_Treatment._ Prophylaxis should be the first consideration, and in the acute stages of the disease, its arrest by soothing applications. Cleanliness, pure air, and tepid sponging, to be followed by a dusting powder of boric or salicylic acid, or a lotion of acetate of lead or sulphate of zinc may serve a good purpose. If the case proves obstinate, the hair may be clipped or shaved to allow of the more direct and thorough application of the dressings. Cadeac especially recommends an ointment of calomel (1 ∶ 10) but this must not be applied over an extended surface, nor must it be recklessly repeated owing to the dangerous susceptibility of the bovine race to mercurialism.

Lotions and ointments of carbolic acid are of great value in moderating the intense pruritus, and a combination of this with lead acetate will often prove quite effective. Lotions, liniments or ointments of tar, oil of cade, creosote, or creolin. When ulcers are present they may be treated by solutions of silver nitrate (2 ∶ 100) or cupric sulphate (2 ∶ 100) or powdered iodoform. When the exudate is excessive, astringent dusting powders often serve a good purpose; tannic acid and boric acid, with starch or lycopodion.

CHRONIC ECZEMA IN CATTLE.

Summer disease. Depilation. Scaly. Itchy at first. Lesions of bones,
red zones representing successive attacks. Alterative tonics
indicated.

Megnin records the case of an ox which on three successive springs had a miliary vesicular eruption on the loins and upper walls of the abdomen, which persisted until the advent of cold weather in the fall. The vesicles were followed by an exudate which concreted in solid crusts, enveloping the roots of the hairs which were lifted from the follicles and failed to be renewed, so that the animal entered on the winter with an appearance of alopecia. The denuded surface was red, shining and covered with a dense covering of lamelliform epidermic scales. In the early stage of the eruption there was moderate pruritus, but when the scaly stage was reached it was neither tender nor itchy to any marked degree. Tar ointments had no effect in stimulating the growth of the hair, and the skin remained bald until the next attack. The second and third years the eruption extended farther, invading not only the trunk, but the legs, and passing through the same successive stages.

The animal was butchered and the shafts of the bones were found to be abnormally red, and showed three concentric rings of deeper brown, manifestly representing the three acute attacks and resembling the concentric rings formed in growing bones when the young animals are fed on madder.

The manifest disorder of nutrition in this chronic skin disease, is an argument for the _treatment_ by alterative tonics, such as arsenic, as well as for the employment of tonics and corroborants in general. In such cases the presumption is that local treatment would be useless or nearly so until the general disorder could be repaired.

ECZEMA IN SHEEP.

In anæmias squamous eruptions. In cold rainy weather moist eczema.
Salving. Thin wooled. Congestion, swelling, papules, vesicles, scabs,
depilation. Recovery with dry weather. Prevention: fold in rainy
weather, covers. Pruriginous eczema. Fagopyrism.

The skin of the sheep is so densely covered by wool and so lubricated with its own secretion, that it is little liable to non-parasitic dermatitis, or such as exist are to a large extent overlooked. In internal parasitisms (distomatosis, strongyliasis, etc.), the wool becomes flattened (“clapped”) and the skin the seat of a dry (squamous) eczema with scaly accumulations around the roots of the wool.

MOIST ECZEMA, the “_rain rot_” of the Germans is seen in low conditioned sheep which have been left out in the heavy cold rains, and is attributed to the direct entrance of the rain by the dorsal shed of the wool. In salving sheep it is a great point with the shepherds to avoid opening the way for such entrance, by shedding only at a short distance on each side of the spine, and never directly in the center. Thin wooled sheep are also specially liable to the disease. When the rain enters so as to soak the skin and deeper layers of the wool, it softens and macerates the skin, introduces microbes and favors decomposition and in various ways incites to dermatitis. The skin becomes red and swollen with an eruption of papules and vesicles, and an exudation which concretes in scabs around the wool, which under the constant accretions from below lifts the wool from its follicles, leaving bare scurfy, or vesicular patches. This appears in different parts of the body beginning in the region of the vertebræ (back, loins, croup), and extending on the shoulders, neck, sides of the chest and abdomen. The disease is rarely inveterate and generally subsides spontaneously on the return of the dry weather. Still it may cause considerable loss of wool and hence it may be desirable to fold the flocks during cold rainy seasons, or, if they must be run at pasture, to cover the back of each with a piece of sacking.

OTHER CUTANEOUS ERUPTIONS IN SHEEP.

A _dry_ and a _moist eczema_ have been noticed in the sheep, (_pruriginous eczema: impetiginous eczema_) and a moist eczema of the pastern comparable to grease in the horse. _Fagopyrism_ also occurs.

ECZEMA IN SWINE.

Secondary skin lesions, maculæ, vesicles, seborrhœa, crusts. Impetigo
of young: cold weather: exposure: filth: spoiled or improper food.
Symptoms: eyelids, etc., show itchy, red, swelling, pustules, scabs,
erosions, may affect nose or mouth. Duration 20 days. Hot weather
aggravates. Treatment: cleanse: soapy washes: emollient ointments,
astringent lotions, saline laxative, diuretics.

Disease of the skin is by no means uncommon in swine, but it occurs mostly as a manifestation of an acute general malady. Thus in the different specific diseases, caused by microbes, maculæ in the form of blood extravasations, punctiform or in extended patches are constant phenomena. In some cases this is complicated by a vesicular eruption, or by a seborrhœa and by a dense accumulation of black crust on the surface.

=Impetigo of Pigs.= Benion and Cadeac describe this as a sporadic affection of young pigs especially, which has been attributed to cold stormy weather, lack of shelter, filthy pens, spoiled food and insufficient nourishment.

_Symptoms._ The skin of the eyelids and other parts of the body presents itchy, red, hot and swollen patches, which gradually pass into a pustular eruption. The pustules no larger than a millet seed, burst in forty-eight hours, and discharge a yellowish or purulent liquid which concretes around the eyelashes or bristles, and glue the eyelids together. The crusts may increase so as to cover the affected part of the skin by a dense scabby covering which is firmly adherent and when detached leaves a bleeding surface. It may extend to the different mucosæ of the eye, nose or mouth. The disease runs a course of twenty days or less being retarded by the extremes of temperature. During the heats of summer the attendant pruritus is very great and annoying. During convalescence the scabs and crusts gradually detach themselves and drop off leaving the healthy skin covered at first by a somewhat delicate epidermis.

_Treatment_ is confined to cleanliness, soapy washes, emollient ointments and astringent lotions (lead acetate, sulphuric or hydrochloric acid) but no premature detachment of scabs is permissible. Saline laxatives and diuretics are often called for.

VESICULAR IRRUPTION IN PIGS. PITCHY AFFECTION. SEBORRHŒA.

This also affects the young and is characterized by the successive appearance of vesicles, pustules and scabs or crusts. Friedberger and Fröhner associate it with debility from youth, disease or neglect, from articular rheumatism, rachitism, hog cholera, etc., but also as a result of lying on manure, and the accumulation of sebaceous matter and filth of all kinds on the skin.

_Symptoms._ Among the symptoms of general disorder are dullness, inappetence, prostration and slight fever. There is red eruption with vesicles and even pustules on the early rupture of which the discharge concretes into a black pitchy layer. It may be at first most marked on the ventral aspect of the body, but usually extends to the whole integument.

_Treatment._ Where it is not dependent on some grave internal disorder, this commonly yields to soapy washes, generous food and a clean pen.

GRANULAR ERUPTION IN SWINE.

Zschokke describes a disease of this kind affecting the ears, back and croup, and caused by a micrococcus in the epidermis and papillary layer of the derma. It appears in the form of patches, often of the size of the palm, showing bluish gray papules which dry up without forming pustules. It runs a chronic course and produces little or no itching.

_Treatment_ would consist in absolute cleanliness, soapy or alkaline washes, and the free use of solutions of the hyposulphites, sulphites, or other antiseptics which are neither irritant nor poisonous.

URTICARIA is met with in swine as already noticed.

SCLERODERMA occurs in boars especially in the region of the shoulders and back.

ACUTE ECZEMA OF THE DOG.

Prevalence and forms. Red Mange. Causes: constitutional, hereditary,
races most susceptible, short-haired, delicate skins, 1st and 2d
years, flesh fed, overfed, spiced food, secondary to internal
disorders, heat, cold, dust, irritants. Symptoms: blush inside elbow,
thigh, belly, heat, tenderness, itchiness, scratching, vesicles,
abrasions, sores, skin thickens, wrinkles, moistens. Diagnosis: from
demodex, distemper, mange. Treatment: change diet, restrict in
quantity, from flesh, or stimulating food, one meal daily, laxative,
bitters; locally, cleanse skin, antipruritic non-poisonous dusting
powders or lotions, starch, magnesia, bismuth; with muzzle, phenol,
lead, thymol, thiol, later creolin, oil of cade, lysol, etc. Acute
general eczema. Causes as in red mange. Symptoms: Common on head,
ears, back, rump, eyelids, lips, scrotum, arms, digits, crusts and
depilation, large vesicles, bleeding digits. Treatment.

In none of our domestic animals is this condition so common as in the dog, and of all skin affections of this animal this is the most frequent. As in other animals it may show itself in all forms or grades from simple erythema, through the papular, vesicular, pustular and scurfy or scabby, and all of them may often be seen at the same time in one animal. Yet special names have been given to different forms and localizations and it seems convenient to retain some of these for every day use.

=Eczema Rubrum. Red Mange.= This form is familiar to dog fanciers as one of the acute types of this disease.

_Causes._ Among these are recognized a constitutional predisposition, so that the disease appears in successive generations in the same family, without apparent reason for charging the trouble on any particular feeding or management. While not confined to any race or group of races it has been noticed especially in greyhounds, setters, pointers, fox hounds, harriers, bulldogs, St. Germains and braque hounds. It is especially common in dogs in their first and second years, and those that are nervous and lively, with a delicate and naturally dry skin. Again, the dog fed largely on flesh, and above all the house dog fed thrice a day or oftener on highly spiced animal food from the table, or on cakes, rich in fat, is a frequent victim. There is besides that tendency to irritation of the skin which comes from hereditary peculiarities and idiosyncrasy, from diseases of the stomach, intestines, liver or kidneys, from faults in sanguification, nutrition and secretion, agencies that disturb the circulation in the skin, like excessive heat or cold, irritant dust, dessicated perspiration or sebum, overheating and subsequent plunging in cold water. These acting locally may serve to precipitate that which was otherwise imminent from a generally acting cause.

_Symptoms._ There is first erythema, usually on the inner side of the elbow, or thigh, with redness, heat and tenderness, which soon extend to the belly, breast and intermaxillary region, but it confines itself as a rule to the ventral aspect of the body where the hair is sparse and delicate, and the skin thin and sensitive. The symptoms are more marked in white haired dogs. The tender skin is more or less (usually intensely) itchy, causing violent scratching with the development of minute vesicles and even open sores. The skin may become moist, thickened and wrinkled, but is rarely encrusted to any degree. Spontaneous recovery may take place under a change of diet (restricted or vegetable), or an outdoor life in summer with liberal exercise, or the disease may last indefinitely so long as the etiological conditions are unchanged.

_Diagnosis._ The affection is easily distinguished from demodectic acariasis which attacks a different part of the body, namely, the head, the eyelids, the feet, and the back, whereas, this form of eczema confines itself to the ventral aspect of the trunk. From the eruption of distemper it is diagnosed by the absence of the hyperthermia and catarrhal symptoms of that disease, and by the very small size of the vesicles; those of distemper are broad, flattened and often have dark colored contents. From acariasis it is differentiated by its confinement to the ventral aspect, in place of attacking the head, ears, neck and back, by the less severe and incessant itching, and above all by the absence of the acarus, and the element of contagion.

_Treatment._ A change of diet is a prime consideration. It may be in the direction of simple restriction, but usually also in the avoidance of meats that are highly peppered or spiced. A change to vegetable food,—biscuit or mush and milk, is of great importance, but in some animals a little fresh plainly cooked steak or raw lean meat may be essential. In other cases a little beef juice or gravy well skimmed of fat may tempt the patient to eat mush. In the same way it may be necessary to temporize in the matter of meals. Some dogs can be safely put on one meal a day, while for others accustomed to frequent feeding it may be needful to give two and restrict the amount. For the overfed or dyspeptic animal a laxative, at the outset, serves to remove irritating and fermenting ingesta, and to place the stomach and liver, and indirectly, the skin in a better condition for recovery. Any persistent indigestion should be treated in the ordinary way.

Locally it may be requisite to first clean the surface by sponging with tepid water, to be followed by soothing and antipruritic agents, due care being taken to avoid such as when licked will poison the patient. Starch powder, magnesium carbonate, and bismuth oxide may be used without apprehension. The same is true of limewater and to some extent of zinc oxide. When we advance to others we must take the precaution to use a close wire muzzle, to prevent the ingestion of the agent. Carbolic acid lotion (1–2 ∶ 100) acts as a local anæsthetic, and often materially lessens both licking and scratching. Lead acetate or thymol or both (1 ∶ 100) have a similar action. Thiol 20, glycerine 50, water 50, often acts as well. When the acute symptoms have subsided the more stimulating agents may be employed: Creoline (2 ∶ 100); oil of cade 1, vaseline 5; Canada balsam 1, vaseline 5; zinc ointment, or lead acetate ointment.

OTHER ACUTE ECZEMAS IN DOGS.

Apart from eczema rubrum, the acute forms have been designated according to their seat and the nature of the attendant eruption.

=Acute General Eczema.= This may be often traced to various causes of irritation local or general: overfeeding, over-stimulating or spiced food, digestive, hepatic, or urinary disorders, irritant dust or inspissated secretions on the skin, hot seasons, over exertion, cold baths when heated, skin parasites and scratching.

_Symptoms._ The whole skin, or a portion thereof is the seat of pruritus, causing active scratching and on separating the hairs on the affected parts there is found redness, congestion, and swelling with the formation of papules or vesicles, abraded, or moist surfaces, and scales or crusts. These patches are common on the _back_, the _head_, _ears_, _rump_, (=Caudal eczema=), the _palpabræ_, the _lips_ (_eczema labialis_), the _interdigital space_ (=interdigital eczema=), the _scrotum_, or the _anus_.

Sometimes the formation of crusts and the loss of hairs is to be noted, sometimes the eruption of large vesicles which burst and discharge a honey like fluid (=impetiginous eczema=), sometimes blood escapes from the irritated surface and concretes in dark crusts. The vesication and moist exudation is especially common about the head, ears, eyelids, and rump, while bleeding is especially seen around the claws and in the interdigital spaces in connection with running on rough ground, snow or stubble. The impetiginous form often bears a strong resemblance to vesicles caused by a burn with hot water. The treatment of these different forms does not differ materially from that of eczema rubrum, being first dietetic and hygienic, then soothing, and finally stimulating.

CHRONIC ECZEMA IN THE DOG.

Follows acute. Same general causes. Symptoms: skin thickens with
papules, vesicles or pustules, scurf, crusts, depilation, surface
glossy, abraded, scratched, raw, rough, fœtid, itching, emaciation,
exhaustion. Chronic eczema of the back. Fat, old, gluttons. Symptoms:
circumscribed patches on back, loins, quarters, tail, intense itching,
skin thickened, cracked, raw, encrusted, black, folded, rigid, fœtid,
hair broken, erect, shedding. Very inveterate. Chronic eczema of elbow
and hock. Causes: friction on summits of prominent bones, filth,
infection, predisposition. Symptoms: red, thickened, bare, indurated,
calloused skin, cracks, sores, discharge. Inveterate. Chronic dry
eczema of head, ears, neck and limbs. Circumscribed area, slow
progress, thick, rigid, folded skin, hairless, dry, scaly, moderate
itching. Treatment: Fresh eruption like acute form. For old chronic
form, stimulating astringents, silver, mercury, copper, boric acid,
tannic acid, iodoform: for dry and scaly, ointments of oil of cade,
tar, green soap, zinc, cresol, lysol, chloro-naphtholeum, sulphur,
sulphur iodide, ichthyol, salicylic acid, chrysarobin, naphthalin,
naphthol, resorcin.

While acute eczema may recover permanently under hygienic measures alone, yet any case is subject to relapse and the new eruptions may succeed each other so persistently that the affection becomes essentially chronic. Like the acute, chronic eczema may be general or local and be named accordingly.

The same general _causes_ as produce acute eczema are operative in maintaining the disease indefinitely. Faults in diet, overfeeding, unhealthy kennels, foul air and surroundings, hot weather, licking and scratching are among the common causes.

_Symptoms._ Under the continued inflammation the skin becomes thick (on the back it may be double or treble its normal thickness), it has a general angry congested appearance, papules, vesicles and pustules coexist or succeed each other and as these dry up, scales and crusts accumulate. The hair drops off over extensive patches, leaving a somewhat shining skin. What hair remains is largely twisted or broken by rubbing and scratching. Hypertrophy of the papillary layer is not uncommon giving a rough uneven aspect and feeling to the skin. A common feature is an offensive odor from the affected skin, and which may betray the persistence of the disease when it has been supposed that all eruption has been overcome. While not prepared to follow Cadeac in making this a diagnostic symptom from other skin diseases, yet as an evidence that an eczema is not yet entirely healed it serves a very useful purpose. In oldstanding cases the continued irritation, the unintermitting itching, the absorption or circulation of morbid products, and the constant nervous excitement may lead to emaciation, exhaustion and death.

=Chronic Eczema of the Back in Dogs.= =Rodent Eczema= is a disease of fat, old, voracious dogs. It appears in circumscribed spots and patches on the back, loins, croup or tail and is marked by inveterate itching, congestion and thickening of the skin, cracking of its surface, bristling, breaking and shedding of the hair, exudation from the surface and its dessication in the form of crusts. These crusts may be black from contamination with dust or blood, and the affected surface is more or less fœtid. The skin may be puckered into irregular folds, thick and inelastic. Not infrequently the malady may remain dormant for some time, only to break out again and again with renewed energy. It is very obstinate and intractable.

=Chronic Eczema of the Elbow and Hock in Dogs.= This attacks the summit of the olecranon or calcis and is manifestly connected with compression and friction on these parts when lying down, and perhaps with foul and irritating matters on the ground. This need not be looked on as the sole cause but only as the occasion for the localization of a predisposition which was already present in the general system. The skin becomes red, thickened and indurated, the epidermis undergoing hypertrophy to form a callus, in which a few cracks and sores may form, giving rise to a discharge which encrusts the surface and adds to the thickness and induration. The affection is very inveterate.

=Chronic Dry Eczema of Head, Ears, Neck and Limbs in Dogs.= The dry eczema of the head, neck and limbs is characterized by its slow progress and its restriction in the majority of cases to one or more of these parts. The small affected patches, have some thickening and folding of the skin, which is usually dry, scaly and largely divested of hair. Itching is moderate only, and the hairs are shed less rapidly than in the encrusted forms.

_Treatment._ When there has been a fresh irruption it may be requisite to treat chronic eczema, for a time, after the manner of the acute, so as to avoid any tendency to aggravation of the already existing irritation. A careful regulation of the diet is as essential in the chronic forms as in the acute and in the inveterate types, especially those of a squamous character, alteratives like arsenic are often of value. In the acute stage or during a recrudescence the mild dusting powders (starch, zinc oxide, lycopodium, magnesia bicarbonate, bismuth oxide, thiol) may be applied, or bland unguents (zinc, benzoated zinc, lead, vaseline, glycerine, spermaceti and almond oil, paraffin, wax), or sedative lotions (lead, opiate, thymol, thiol, carbolic acid).

In the more advanced and moist forms astringents and stimulants may be adopted: silver nitrate (2 ∶ 100), applied with soft cotton, mercuric chloride (1 ∶ 1000), or black wash (calomel 1 : lime water 60) care being taken to use a close wire muzzle to prevent licking. Copper sulphate (1 ∶ 100) is at times useful, and boric acid, and tannin may be tried. Iodoform 1 part and tannic acid 5 has a good effect in many cases.