HEALTH AND DISKASi; 



the animal's suffering, and the possible danger to attendants and other 

 horses in the same stable, should convince the owner of the necessity of 

 slaughter. 



INTESTINAL OBSTRUCTION 



For various reasons presently to be indicated, we do not include this 

 disorder under the title of constipation. Here the food, or whatever else 

 may be the offending body, is arrested in its course along the bowel, and 

 caused to block up the passage. 



Causes. — The causes which bring about intestinal obstruction can 

 invariably be referred either to some abnormal state of the bowel itself, 



or to the nature and condition 

 of its contents. As to the 

 former, it is found to follow 

 upon both physiological and 

 structural changes. The first is 

 exemplified in that state termed 

 debility of the bowels. Here 

 the muscular portion of the 

 organ fails to carry on its move- 

 ments with normal activity, and 

 allows the food to accumulate 

 and obstruct the canal. Such 

 cases are most frequently met 

 with in colts which have been 

 ill-fed and badly nourished from 

 the time of weaning, and in old horses long and luxuriously fed on hard 

 food. It is sometimes spoken of as 'p^'esis of the bowels, and the de- 

 scription is not altogether inappropriate to the affection. The second 

 condition is seen to arise in the form of a thickening of the gut, either as 

 the result of inflammatory action or from the growth in or upon it of 

 one or another of the various forms of tumour, or the passage may be 

 obstructed by the gut being twisted, intussuscepted, or displaced. 



AVhere obstruction results from matter contained in the bowels, it is 

 attributable to the indigestion of coarse food imperfectly masticated, or 

 to some foreign substance taken in with it. An equally common cause 

 is the formation of calculi and concretions, fig. 105, or, as they are com- 

 monly termed, " stones ". These are especially found in horses engaged 

 in town work and living exclusively on dry food. 



Symptoms. — The symptoms observed in this disorder are by no 

 means uniform or diagnostic. They may vary from intermittent colicky 



Fig. 105.— Portion of Intestine impacted with Concret 

 A, Concretion; B, divided intestine thrown hack; 

 c, mesentery. 



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