Sulphuric acid, corrodes, blackens, dysphagia, salivation, retching, vomiting, colics, collapse. Lesions. Test, barium nitrate. Nitric acid, corrodes, stains yellow, or brown. Test, reddish fumes with copper and sulphuric acid. Muriatic acid, corrodes, whitens. Test, chlorine odor, white curdy precipitate with silver nitrate. Oxalic acid, colic, emesis of black bloody matter, gastric mucosa red or black, blood bright red, lowered respiration, innervation, temperature. Acetic acid, congestion, softening of gastric mucosa, may stop heart. Treatment: weak bases, magnesia, lime or their carbonates, soap, lime water, demulcents.
Sulphuric Acid. This acts on stomach and intestine as on the mouth abstracting water and blackening the tissues. It produces dysphagia, salivation, retching, vomiting in carnivora and omnivora, colics, and collapse. Sometimes the urine becomes albuminous or bloody. The post mortem blackness of the contents and walls of stomach and intestine and their intense acidity are characteristic. Nitrate of baryta will precipitate the insoluble sulphate.
Nitric Acid. In concentrated state this acts in the main like the sulphuric acid, but stains the lips yellow, and the mucosæ white changing to citron yellow or brown and does not precipitate baryta. It gives reddish fumes with copper and strong sulphuric acid.
Muriatic Acid. This is less caustic than nitric or sulphuric acid, and may be recognized by its white cauterized patches on the mucosa of the mouth, stomach and intestines, its chlorine odor, and the curdy precipitate which it throws down with silver nitrate. It does not corrode the skin. In the stomach this acid is normally present in the free state.
Oxalic Acid. Lethal dose, dog 15 grs., cat 2 grs. When swallowed this causes colics, emesis in vomiting animals, the rejected matters being black and perhaps bloody. After death the gastric contents and walls and those of the bowels are congested and more or less blackened, and the blood of a bright red color. Heart is arythmic, respiration slow, paresis of limbs, spasms, temperature subnormal.
Acetic Acid. This causes congestion and softening of the gastric and intestinal mucosa, colics, emesis in vomiting animals. It may kill by suddenly arresting the heart’s action.
Treatment for the acids consists in alkaline or basic antidotes; magnesia, or its carbonate, lime, or its carbonate, soapsuds, carbonates and bicarbonates of potash and soda. Lime water is the one appropriate antidote to oxalic acid, precipitating the insoluble oxalate. Mucilaginous drinks may be added freely.
Poisonous with privation of water. Dose: horse, ox, pig, dog, hen. Symptoms: anorexia, thirst, emesis, colics, diarrhœa, dysuria, weakness, spasms, palsy, death in six hours to two days or more. Lesions: gastric congestion, ecchymosis, blood fluid, bright red, cerebral congestion. Treatment: emesis, water, demulcents, enemata, oils, cold to head. Brine: salt, ptomaines, toxins, from salt meat and fish. Strongest at three months old. Dose: horse, pig, dog. Symptoms: nervous, disorder, mainly spasmodic. Lesions: congestion of encephalon. Treatment: anodynes, stimulants, wine, camphor.
Common salt is especially irritant if given in concentrated solution and with subsequent deprivation of water. The poisonous dose for the horse is 2 to 3 lbs. (Gohier), for cattle 4 to 5 lbs. (Hertwig), for the pig 7 to 8 ozs. and for the dog 6 to 7 ozs. Chickens are poisoned by picking up broken pieces of salt instead of pebbles, or by salted food.
Symptoms. Anorexia, intense thirst, dullness, emesis in vomiting animals, colics, watery diarrhœa, frequent urination, muscular weakness, spasms, paralysis, weak pulse, red buccal mucosa, dilated pupils. Death may take place in six hours or it may be delayed two days or longer. In chickens giddiness and rotary movements are common.
Lesions. Congestion of the stomach and intestines with points of ecchymosis. The mucosa of the bladder is reddened. The blood is fluid and of a bright red. There is more or less congestion of the cerebellum and medulla and their meninges.
Treatment. Emetics (tepid water, tickling fauces) and the stomach pump. Abundance of water or of mucilaginous drinks. The same liquids by the rectum. Bland oils may be given as emollients and eliminating agents. Cold to the head is usually desirable.
This is partly due to the toxic effects of common salt but also to the ptomaines and toxins formed in old brine. It has been seen most frequently in hogs fed on salted kitchen waste and on the liquids from salt meats, (beef, pork, fish). Herring-brine is a common source of poisoning for hogs and dogs, also the brine from the salted meats of the butcher’s shops. Reynal found it to be especially poisonous when at least four or five months old. He gave as the fatal doses for horse 3½ pints, for pig ½ pint, for dog 6–7 ozs. The lethal dose however will vary with the concentration of the fluid and its age.
Symptoms. In addition to the direct irritation caused by the sodium chloride there are marked nervous symptoms, nervous irritability, spasms, rolling of the eyes, convulsive winking, dilated pupil, blindness, vertigo, staggering gait, epileptiform seizures, trismus, oposthotonos, pleurosthotonos, stupor.
Lesions. In addition to those of the stomach and intestines there is marked congestion of the encephalon, especially the medulla and cerebellum.
Treatment. In addition to that for common salt, anodynes and stimulants (wine, camphor) may be demanded.
Lethal dose. Symptoms: Colics, tympany, emesis, salivation, pupillary dilatation, diarrhœa, diuresis, hypothermia, stupor, palpitations, trembling, spasms, palsy. Lesions: Congested gastro-intestinal mucosæ, erosions, ecchymosis, congested kidney and bladder. Blood fluid, bright red. Treatment: Emesis, stomach pump, water and mucilaginous liquids, stimulants.
Nitrate of soda being used largely as a top dressing for grass and other crops is more liable to be taken in toxic doses than nitrate of potash. The former is also given in mistake for common salt. The toxic dose is high. Morton gave 2 pounds saltpeter to a horse with only a temporary purgative and diuretic effect. Huzard found that 3 doses of 16 ounces each, given at intervals of 8 days sufficed to kill a horse. Cattle are said to have died from taking 5 to 6 ounces.
Symptoms. There are colics, tympany, emesis in vomiting animals, salivation, dilated pupil, diarrhœa, diuresis, hypothermia, stupor, palpitations, weak pulse, trembling, convulsions, tetanic symptoms, paralysis.
Lesions. Congestion of a cherry red, brown or purple of the gastric mucosa and that of the small intestine, erosions and ecchymosis, congestion and ecchymosis of the kidney and of the mucosa of the bladder. Blood uncoagulated and of a bright red.
Treatment. Favor emesis or use stomach pump according to the species of animal. Give abundance of water or mucilaginous fluids by mouth and anus. Stimulants may be resorted to in case of sinking or collapse.
Acute poisoning. Sources. Lethal dose, horse, ox, sheep, dogs, pigs. Endermic. Symptoms: colic, weak pulse, rapid breathing, red eyes, dilated pupils, purging, weakness, trembling, stupor, convulsions, paralysis, green or yellow vomit, test of urine. Lesions: gastro-intestinal inflammation, ropy, bloody mucus, ecchymosis, extravasation, ulceration. Treatment: emesis, stomach pump, hydrated iron oxide, calcined magnesia.—Chronic poisoning. Excessive administration, arsenical fumes from smelting furnaces. Symptoms: indigestion, emaciation, hide-bound, depilation, red eyes, diarrhœa, agalactia, weakness, paraplegia, salivation. Lesions: as in acute, fatty liver, test of urine. Tests: on hot charcoal garlic odor, Marsh’s test by zinc and sulphuric acid. Treatment: avoidance of cause, antidotes demulcents, diet.
Arsenious acid given recklessly as medicine, rat poison, arsenite of soda made into a sheep dip and left within reach of animals, and arsenite of copper used for potato bugs, or other insect pests and carelessly left where animals can get it are the most common sources of acute arsenical poisoning. Horses die from 140 grains in solution, or 3½ drs. in the solid form, cattle from 3½ to 7 drs., sheep are killed by 2 drs., dogs may die from 2 grs., but larger doses usually cause vomiting and the animal is saved. Hogs may die from 15 grs. but they often save themselves by vomiting with much larger doses. The poisonous effects may be induced by putting arsenic on a raw sore.
Symptoms. Violent colic, quick, feeble, irregular pulse, hurried respiration, emesis in vomiting animals, ardent thirst, purging, tenesmus, lowered or unevenly distributed temperature, red eyes, dilated pupils, and nervous symptoms, weakness, trembling, stupor, convulsions and paralysis. The urine is albuminous and may be bloodstained. In case of Paris green, the green color of the vomit, and of arsenious acid, a yellow color may be looked for. Test urine for arsenic.
Lesions. Inflammation of the stomach and small intestine, with ropy, often bloody mucus. Ecchymosis, and extravasations appear in the stomach. Ulceration is not common in very acute cases, but in protracted cases, it is usually present in the stomach (abomasum in cattle). Petechiæ may be met with in different internal organs and in protracted cases, fatty degeneration of liver, heart, or kidney.
Treatment. In vomiting animals encourage emesis by tepid water, tickling the fauces, or giving ipecacuan. For non-vomiting animals the stomach pump may be tried. The available antidotes are hydrated oxide of iron, or a solution of calcined magnesia. To make the first, mix 100 parts sulphate of iron in solution with 250 parts magnesia in solution. This should be given liberally and often: horse or ox 1 qt., sheep or pig 2 ozs., dog 1 oz. A simple aqueous solution of calcined magnesia also forms with arsenic an insoluble combination.