Foreign Bodies in the Intestines of Ruminants. 329 



The symptoms are usually those of intestinal indigestion or cal- 

 culi. In some cases, however, they are peculiar, thus there may 

 be a constant passage of sand, there may be indications of peri- 

 tonitis, or there may form a phlegmonous swelling of the ab- 

 •dominal walls in the abscess of which the foreign body is found. 



Lesions. Pechoux found 56 lbs. of a brownish earth in the 

 caecum and colon. Congestion, and ulceration of the intestines 

 are common, with occasionally abscess. All the lesions that at- 

 tend on or follow obstruction may be met with. Boullon saw a 

 remarkable case of the ingestion of needles in which these bodies 

 were found in the small intestine, liver, pancreas, diaphragm, 

 kidney and lung. 



Treatment varies with the character of the bodies ingested, 

 sand and gravel may be pa.ssed on by a laxative diet and even by 

 the use of mild laxatives. Bernard gave 10 quarts of water and 

 4 oz. Glauber salts every hour for eight days, and the same 

 amount bj^ enema. For the larger solid bodies which obstruct 

 the intestines the treatment is the same as for calculus. For 

 sharp pointed bodies causing abscess and fistulae, we must follow 

 the indications, ever aiming at the discovery of the whereabouts 

 ■of the oflfending object and its removal. 



FOREIGN BODIES IN THE INTESTINES OF 

 RUMINANTS. 



Foreign bodies are usually arrested in the rumen of cattle and 

 unless sharp, pointed or rough so as to cause mechanical trouble 

 or caustic so as to act chemically, rarely do mucli harm. The 

 most extraordinary objects that have found their wa}' into the 

 intestine are snakes. Gherardi claims that he found in the in- 

 testines a snake of 25 inches long ; Jager found one of 21 inches 

 in length, in an advanced state of decomposition, in the rectum 

 of a calf. It is supposed that both had been taken in with the 

 food. In each case there was obstruction of the intestine with 

 severe colicy symptoms. 



