FOREIGN BODIES IN THE INTEvSTlNES OF 

 CARNIVORA. 



Small bodies, especially playthings, feathers, hair, bristles, bones of prey. 

 L,esions : congestion, inflammation, hemorrhage, nlceration, perforation, 

 invagination. Symptoms : colic, vomiting, tucked np belly, straining, pal- 

 pitation, rabiform symptoms, cough, convulsions. Course : emaciation, 

 prostration, death in five days or two weeks according to seat of obstruction. 

 Treatment : Oleaginous injections, laparotomy. 



Causes. The dog is especially liable to this form of troiil)le, 

 ill consequence of his habit of carrying objects in his month and 

 of playing with different objects especiall}' the playthings of 

 children. Marl)les, pebbles, spinning-tops, corks, coins, ntits. 

 peach stones, pieces of rubber, cloth or leather, bits of wood, 

 sponge, needles, pins, potato, bone, cord, hair, bristles, feathers, 

 wire, and a number of other objects. Some of them like 

 feathers, hair, and bones are swallowed with food, and when 

 that has been digested, they are either vomited or failing in this, 

 are pa.ssed on into the intestine. Lately the author made a po.st 

 mortem of a house dog with over 24 inches of the jejunum vir- 

 tually blocked with fragments gnawed from a caouchouc ball 

 and pieces of twine. 



Cats also swallow a variety of objects. Benjamin and Meg- 

 nin record three cases of intestinal obstruction by the crystal 

 drops of shades. 



Lesions. When the lumen of the intestine is blocked with a 

 round solid body like a marble or peach stone there occur active 

 congestion, inflannnation, blood stasis and hemorrhage, with in 

 man}' cases necrosis, ulceration and perforation. Similar lesion.s 

 occur from cord. In a recent case of impaction with gnawed 

 fragments of caouchouc and cord, the 24 inches of the bowel im- 

 plicated were the seat of extended patches of necrosis and of deep, 

 and even perforating ulcers on the lesser curvature of the intes- 

 tine, evidently caused by the tension of the stretched cord on the 

 .shorter attached border of the gut. Cadeac says the lesions from 

 cord are always at the point of attachment of the mesentery, 

 whereas those coming from round or cubical solid bodies are 

 mainly on the greater curvature. Mathis found at the pylorus a 

 330 



