128 Veterinary Medicine. 



flainmatioii of the viscus, and may run a rapidly fatal course. 

 The animal may be seen apart from the herd in the characteristic 

 recumbent position, with eyes red and glassy, e3^elids semi-closed, 

 and much drowsiness and stupor, but when raised he may still 

 feed in a sleepy, listless manner. The bowels may be loose or 

 confined, the pulse and breathing accelerated, the right hypochon- 

 drium firm and tender, and as in the other forms the crepitating 

 sound of fermentation is slight or absent over the region of the 

 manifolds. Soon nervous disorder appears, the eyes glare wildly, 

 the animal seeks relief in motion, it may be in a straight line, or 

 to one side, and being blind and unconscious of obstacles he may 

 fall into pits, or ditches, dash against trees, fences or buildings,^ 

 and if they offer sufficient resistance he will continue pusiiing, 

 breaking teeth or horns, and subject to violent muscular contrac- 

 tions, causing even the grubs to start from the back. Tlie nervous 

 disorder is often further shown in loud and terrified bellowing as 

 if chased by a dog or gored by one of its fellows. 



Course. Chronic cases may continue almost indefinitely the 

 victims showing merely poor health, impaired digestion, and 

 steady loss of condition. After death the omasum is sometimes 

 found to contain dried materials, such as the animal has not had 

 access to for from three to five months. 



In those which end in an early recovery there occurs a free and 

 abundant diarrhoea, the fseces containing .solid flattened mas.ses 

 with black baked or polished su'-face, the result of the detach- 

 ment of the impacted layers from between the folds of the third 

 stomach. The tympany of the rumen subsides, crepitation is- 

 renewed in the rumen and omasum, there is free rumbling in the 

 bowels, and tlie appetite gradually improves. The softening 

 and removal of the de.s.sicated contents are slow and it may be 

 weeks before there is a complete restoration to normal conditions. 



Diagnosis. The hurried pulse and breathing and the grunting 

 with expiration may be mistaken for pneumonia or pleurisy, but 

 the distinction can be made as in impacted rumen. There is at 

 first no fever, the tenderness is confined to the right side, the 

 percussion dullness of the chest is in the po.sterior part and dis- 

 tinctly referrible to the loaded abdominal viscera, it is attended 

 by no pulmonary crepitation, indeed crepitation in rumen and 

 omasum is lessened or abolished, there is no pleural effusion, but 



