A chemical element, atomic number 16, atomic weight 32.064, symbol S. Elemental sulfur is fed to animals to reduce their volume of feed intake, for example in a feedlot using self-feeders. It is also fed as an oldfashioned worm prophylaxis and coccidiostat.
Overfeeding of elemental sulfur causes enteritis characterized by black, evil smelling diarrhea. See also hydrogen sulfide poisoning.
- s. dioxide — a poisonous gas liberated by some industrial enterprises, e.g. copper smelting, from silage to which sodium metabisulfite has been added as a preservative and in oldfashioned treatments for mange. The gas causes irritation of the upper respiratory tract and pneumonia in severe cases. Commonly used as a meat preservative where it selectively destroys thiamin and has been incriminated as a cause of thiamin deficiency, particularly in dogs and cats.
- s. granule — small, soft to mineralized bodies in the pus of lesions of actinomycosis. Called also drusen.
- lime-s. — see lime-sulfur.
- s. myopathy — skeletal and myocardial degeneration caused by the feeding of toxic levels of sulfur.
- s. nutritional deficiency — ruminants may need supplemental inorganic sulfur if the bulk of their nitrogen is not in the form of protein but as urea or ammonium phosphate. A deficiency in these circumstances causes anorexia, weight loss, poor digestion and fall in milk yield.
- precipitated s. — a scabicide, antiparasitic, antifungal and keratolytic. Called also milk of sulfur.
- s. stinker — a can of preserved meat contaminated by Clostridium nigrificans causing the formation of hydrogen sulfide, and black or purple staining of the inside of the can.
- s. sublimatum, sublimed s. — a parasiticide and scabicide. Called also flowers of sulfur.
- technetium coated s. colloid — used in scintigraphy of the liver and reticuloendothelial systems. Called also 99mTc sulfur colloid.
