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Deg-Nala Disease of Buffaloes
The first evidence of the disease is general malaise, unaccompanied by
fever and attended by signs of vague abdominal pain, disinclination for move-
ment and a painful gait suggestive of laminitis. Anorexia is present though
the animals show a desire for food. An examination of the tongue reveals
a marked anterior swelling with considerable pain on manipulation. After a
variable period of time, areas of subcutaneous oedema develop, generally
confined to the extremities, i.e., feet, tail and ears or occasionally more wide-
spread in the posterior abdominal area and perineum. In one or two cases, the
entire head appeared diffusely swollen. Gradually, the swellings abate
rendering more definitive the exact location of the lesion which, on palpation,
appears less oedematous and more proliferative. At this stage, the initial
malaise disappears, the affected animal feeds normally and apart from a slight
lameness and swelling of the feet, the way to recovery appears well establish-
ed, and the majority of animals return uneventfully to normal health.
Certain animals (20-30 per cent) do not, however, present this happy
termination of an illness which is apparently in the majority of cases, of a
fleeting nature. Such cases remain decidedly ill. They rapidly lose condition,
and anaemia with marked eosinophilia is manifested. A secondary oedema is
seen localised in the proximity of the dewlap, while the oedema first noted
in the extremities increases in volume, the overlying skin being tense and
devoid of sensation. The oedematous fluid is gradually absorbed and replaced
by a proliferative tissue which, produced in excess, confers a marked thickening
upon the affected part. The overlying skin becomes dry and rough in texture,
necrotic in appearance and quite insensitive. There is no involvement of the
lymph vessels (lymphangitis) or of the superficial lymph glands of the affect-
ed parts. The proliferative induration of the subcutis and the dry wrinkled
skin accord an elephantiasis-like appearance to the affected limbs. The ears
and tail are obviously affected with dry gangrene and a sharp line of demarca-
tion between the dead and healthy tissues is seen. Sloughing shortly occurs
and in this way, the animal is bereft of tail and ears. Not infrequently a
similar fate befalls the anterior portion of the tongue. The affected areas of
the skin of the limbs fissure deeply and the necrotic skin peels away from the
underlying tissues, exposing a bleeding raw surface which normally under-
goes cicatrisation in spite of its liability to secondary infection. Lesions
around the hoof are more serious : a necrotic ungulitis is not unusual result-
ing in a shedding of the digits while occasionally the entire hoof may be lost.
In such cases as those described the prostration and cachexia appear
out of all proportion to the external manifestation of disease and one is forced
to the conclusion on clinical symptoms alone that, whatever the cause of the
external lesions, grave systemic disturbance is responsible for the progressive
cachexia and inanition resulting in death. Post mortem examination on
eleven animals, dead and destroyed in various stages of the disease, revealed
a consistency of lesions which throws some light on the method of production
of the external lesions and the profound cachexia which accompanies them.
On dissection of an affected limb the subcutis is indurated by new connective