NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 405 
rations while the horse is resting for a day or two or working too soon 
after feeding may serve as a cause. New oats, corn, or hay, damaged 
food, or food difficult of digestion, such as barley or beans, may incite 
engorgement colic. This disease may result from having fed the horse 
twice by error or from its having escaped and taken an unrestricted meal 
from the grain bin. Ground feeds that pack together making a sort of 
dough may cause engorgement colic if they are not mixed with cut hay. 
Greedy eaters are predisposed to this disease. 
Symptoms. — The horse shows the general signs of abdominal pain, 
which may be long continued or of short duration. Retching or vomit- 
ing movements are made; these are shown by labored breathing, upturned 
upper lip, contraction of the flank, active motion at the throat, and 
drawing in of the nose toward the breast, causing hign arching of the 
neck. The horse may assume a sitting position on his haunches, like a 
dog. At times the pain is very great and the horse makes the most vio- 
lent movements, as though mad. At other times there is profound mental 
depression, the horse standing in a sleepy, dazed way, with the head 
down, the eyes closed, and leaning his head against the manger or wall. 
There is, during the struggles, profuse perspiration. Following retching, 
gas may escape from the mouth, and this may be followed by a sour froth 
and some stomach contents. The horse can not vomit except when the 
stomach is violently stretched, and, if the accumulation of food or gas is 
great enough to stretch the stomach so that vomiting is possible, it may 
be great enough to rupture this organ. So it happens not infrequently 
that a horse will die from ruptured stomach after vomiting. But after 
the stomach ruptures vomiting is impossible. The death rate in this 
form of colic is high. 
Treatment. — The bowels should be stimulated to contraction by the 
use of clysters of large quantities of water and of glycerin. Veterinarians 
use hypodermic injections of eserin or arecolin or intravenous injections 
of barium chloride, but these have to be employed with great caution. 
It is not profitable to give remedies by the stomach, for they can not be 
absorbed. But small dose of morphine (5 grains) or of the fluid extract 
of Indian hemp (2 drams) may be placed in the mouth and are absorbed 
in part, at least, without passing to the stomach. These drugs lessen 
pain and thus help to overcome the violent movements that are danger- 
ous, because they may be the means of causing rupture of the dia- 
phragm or stomach. If facilities are available, relief may be afforded by 
passing an esophageal tube through which some of the gaseous and 
liquid contents of the stomach may escape. 
Rupture of the Stomach.— This mostly occurs as a result of engorged 
or tympanitic stomach (engorgement colic) and from the horse violently 
throwing himself when so affected. It may result from disease of the 
coats of the stomach, gastritis, stones, or calculi, tumors, or anything 
that closes the opening of the stomach into the intestines, and very 
violent pulling or jumping immediately after the animal has eaten 
heartily of bulky food. These or similar causes may lead to this acci- 
dent. The symptoms of rupture of the stomach are not constant or al- 
ways reliable. Always make inquiry as to what and how much the horse 
