276 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



nature when suddenly placed on hard, dry food. Again, coarse, innutri- 

 tious food, such as is furnished by poor hill pastures, consisting of snub 

 and the coarser kinds of vegetation, after regular, perhaps liberal diet in 

 the stable, is often the determining cause of the disease. The habitual 

 use of drugs may also lay a foundation for chronic gastritis. 



Symptoms are for the most part those of indigestion. Failure on the 

 part of the stomach to perform its share in the process of digestion results in 

 functional derangement of the bowels, which may declare itself in periodical 

 attacks of colic or more or less pronounced diarrhoea, wasting, and weakness. 

 The appetite is variable, and sometimes the animal refuses fond altogether. 



Treatment. — If the cause can be ascertained much may be done, but, 

 where it remains obscure, treatment can only be tentative and expectant. 

 Where dietetic errors can be distinctly traced, a complete change of food, 

 or the system of feeding, will often result in speedy amelioration and 

 ultimate restoration of the gastric function. A comparative rest to the 

 stomach may be afforded by giving a light and well-selected diet, including 

 milk, well-boiled gruel, and other things requiring little work from the 

 affected organ. This may be supplemented by antacids in the drinking- 

 water, and the administration of gastric sedatives, as bismuth, hydrocyanic 

 acid, and pepsine, as an aid to digestion. When sufficient progress has 

 been made towards convalescence, more solid foods, as crushed oats, scalded 

 bran, and linseed, may be given, with a few roots. 



CHEONIC DILATION OF THE STOMACH 



Dilation of the stomach may arise either from physical or physio- 

 logical causes. In the former case it results from the slow growth of 

 malignant and other formations in or around the pyloric opening by which 

 the food is prevented from escaping into the small intestines. In the 

 latter — the more common form of the affection — it appears more especially 

 in old animals who have led a life of indolence and high living, and are 

 then cast away to subsist on large quantities of coarse indigestible food. 

 Under these circumstances the mucous membrane becomes atrophied, pale 

 in colour, and more or less disorganized, while the muscular coat is thin 

 and greatly stretched, so that the organ is two or more times larger 

 than it should be. Chronic dilation of the stomach and of the intestines 

 also is sometimes seen in old broken-winded animals. 



Symptoms. — These partake of the character of indigestion, with more 

 or less rapid wasting. At first the appetite falls away, the skin becomes 

 staring and dirty, the belly increases in size, the bowels are irregular — 

 at one time constipated, at another relaxed, always distended with flatus. 



