Acute Gastric Indigestion in Solipeds. 155 



If the stomach should become ruptured there is often vomiting, 

 the ingesta escaping b}' the nose, without any relief of the general 

 symptoms, but with an increasingly haggard expression of 

 countenance, sunken eye, and accelerated, weak, and finally im- 

 perceptible pulse. Cold sweats, which may have been already 

 present, become more marked and the prostration becomes more 

 extreme and the abdominal tenderness more marked. There are 

 mu.scular tremblings of the shoulders and thighs, dilatation of the 

 pupils, rapid breathing and stupor which presages death. 



Recovery may be hoped for if rumbling in the bowels com- 

 mences anew, if defecations continue and become .soft and liquid, 

 if urine is pa.s.sed abundantly and if the general symptoms 

 are improved. Complete relief may be had in five or six hours, 

 and even in protracted cases in two days. 



Lesions. The body is swollen, tense and resonant ; the rectum 

 usually projects somewhat and is dark red ; the intestines, small 

 and large, are tympanitic ; tlie stomach is double or triple its usual 

 .size, tense and resistant, and with its contents may weigh as 

 as much as 40 pounds. When cut open its contents are seen to 

 be disposed in the order in which they were eaten, in stratified 

 layers, tlie motions of the stomach liave not operated to mix 

 them. There is no sign of digestion, unless it be in a thin sur- 

 face layer or film which may be white, pulpy and chymified. The 

 cuticular mucosa is usually unchanged further than its attenua- 

 tion by .stretching, the alveolated mucosa also attenuated is con- 

 ge.sted, opaque or slightly inflamed. The great curvature may 

 be the seat of a rupture the edges of which are slightly swollen, 

 congested and covered with small blood clots. The escaping 

 ingesta usually remains enclosed in the omentum, whicli thus 

 looks like a larger .stomach with extremely thin guaze-like walls. 

 If this is ruptured then the food floats in masses among the con- 

 volutions of the intestines. The peritoneum is red, hemorrhagic 

 and covered with more or less exudation. 



Another occasional lesion is rupture of the diaphragm. The 

 liver and spleen are usually small and comparatively bloodless, 

 owing to the compression. 



Diagnosis. This is largely based on the speedy supervention 

 of the attack on a feed, the animal liaving been apparently well 

 before, on the onset by slight colics, rapidly passing into great 



