Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 187, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1911 — DISEASE OF DOGS AND.CATS [ARTICLE]

DISEASE OF DOGS AND.CATS

Mysterious Epidemic In London Classed as Contagious Gastro-En-teritis, Killing Dogs. London.—lt would appear that an epidemic of a little known disease is sweeping through London, dealing death to hundreds of cats and dogs. The ailment, which is comparatively new to England, having made Its first appearance in Bristol a few years ago, is known to veterinary surgeons as Stuttgart or contagious gastro-enieri-tls. At present the epidemic is most marked in the southern suburbs, but several vaduable cats whose homes are in the west end have died of the disease. In its earlier stages the symptoms of the disease closely resemble those

of strychnine poisoning, and, according to several veterinary surgeons interviewed by a representative of the Washington Star, this similarity has been mainly responsible for the numerous reports received by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that poisoners are at work destroying household pets. A similar outcry was raised six weeks ago In the Cullompton district of Devonshire, where cats were dying in great numbers, but analysis failed to find any traces of poison in the stricken animals. Coincident with the Cullompton epidemic a similar scourge was reported from Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire, Practically nothing is known of the bacteriology of the disease, but everything points to its being of microbe origin. The probability is that several distinct germs are present, some akin to the bacilli which cause acute intestinal complains in human beings and others resembling the putrefactive or septic germs found in acute gangrenous conditions.