By-and-bye the animal loses his appetite more and more; rumination is shorter and less frequent; he holds his head down, his ears sink and fall; he grinds his teeth. Then as to the cows: their milk, which was already diminished, suddenly dries up altogether, and that lowness of spirits which had been visible for some days before, passes into stupor. If at this time you touch their horns, their extremities, their hide in any part, you find that all these different parts are sometimes warm, sometimes cold. From this day forward you will witness, one by one, a succession of disorders in the animal's health: partial shiverings at the attachment of the fore and hind limbs, loud panting breathing, with slight cough, the urine scanty and thick, the droppings hard and constipated, and finally, general excessive warmth. If you press the back the pressure will be painful, and all the signs of intense fever will be manifest.
Already these indications have divulged the nature of the malady you have to deal with; but others more significant succeed them which remove every doubt. The breathing becomes more hurried and oppressed, more puffy; from the eyes, nostrils, and mouth there issues a discharge which, thin and irritant at first, soon becomes thick and purulent, and of a fetid smell. Diarrhoea takes the place of constipation; the sexual organs of the cow are red and inflamed, and furrowed with livid streaks. The cattle grow leaner and leaner, some of them dying at this period. If they still hold out, the diarrhoea becomes more frequent, more fetid, and sometimes bloody; gases are developed under the skin, along the spine, where they form wide flat tumours, which crackle when pressed upon with the fingers. Finally, the mucus which runs from the head becomes still thicker and more fetid; a glutinous foam stops up the mouth; the eyes, filled with humour, sink in the orbit; the bodily warmth decreases, the animal sways his head from right to left, becomes insensible, cold; his head lolls on one side, and he dies, panting, from exhaustion and asphyxia, the tenth or twelfth day after the disease has been confirmed.
The carcass exhibits a repulsive appearance; the hide is dry, excoriated, and cracked; it sticks to the bones, which show the form of a skeleton, and the putrid decomposition, which had already set in before death, seizes rapidly on all the tissues.