€70 INTESTINAL OBSTRUCTION. 



opium, and smearing it with an ointment of powdered opium 

 iind tannic acid ; after which, by careful manipulation, re- 

 placing it. In order to prevent a recurrence of the pro- 

 trusion, some recommend and employ a needle or metallic 

 suture passed through the anus, or the application of a 

 properly adjusted truss or bandage. The former may suc- 

 ceed and be admissible in small animals ; and the latter, 

 •either alone or combined, may be useful in adults, or where 

 they have been subject to being under restraint. With the 

 animals, however, which we are most frequently called upon 

 to treat, unbroken colts or fillies, either of these methods is 

 objectionable. Here we have found that the placing of them 

 upon a soft or rather laxative diet, as steamed bran, with a 

 few oats, to which has been added treacle or linseed- oil, 

 together with a careful watching of them for some days, an 

 occasional enema, and application of the ointment of opium 

 xmd tannic acid, and replacing of the everted bowel whenever 

 it occurs, is generally sufficient to secure a permanent restora- 

 tion of parts. 



When the protruded portion is much swollen from infiltra- 

 tion, and thus rendered difficult to return, we may expedite 

 the process by free scarification previous to or during the 

 fomentation. Should gangrene have commenced in the 

 everted portion ere we have seen the case, through strangula- 

 tion by the sphincter, or should it afterwards occur by the 

 repeated protrusions, the removal of the diseased portion will 

 be necessitated. This, although it may be accomplished at 

 once, is, unless the disturbance caused by the eversion be 

 great, better delayed for some time, when, through the gradual 

 death of the structures, hremorrhage is avoided, and perfect 

 adhesion of the rectum to the anal opening is ensured. 



While watching the removal of the strangulated parts, we 

 may facilitate their removal either by freely passing a piece of 

 strong caustic, as chloride of zinc or nitrate of silver, at 

 regular intervals around the line of demarcation, or by the 

 emplo3rment of a few interrupted ligatures around the anus, 

 so strangulating circumscribed portions of the texture between 

 the living and the dead, the sphacelated portion in a short 

 time being thrown off. 



