ASCITES IN SOIvIPEDS. 



Causes : follows peritonitis, obstruction of portal vein, tumors, hepatic 

 diseases, pressure on posterior cava, dilated right heart, heaves, ovarian 

 disease, nephritis or kidney degeneration, hydrosemia. Spmptoms : slow 

 advance, pot-bellied, with fluctuation, hollow above, dropsy in limbs, 

 sheath and under belly, percussion sound flat below, weakness, debility, na 

 fever. Diagnosis : Absence of fever, and of fibrine, cells and granules in 

 effusion. Lesions : those of primary disease, amount and composition of 

 effusion. Treatment : treat primary disease glandular swelling or actinomy- 

 cosis, iodide of potassium, remove diseased ovary or tumor, draw off fluid, 

 compress abdomen, saline laxatives, diuretics, iodides, pilocarpin, elec- 

 tricity, bitters. 



Causes. Ascites may be a remnant of a pre-existing chronic 

 peritonitis, or it may occur from any obstruction of the portal 

 vein, such as compression by organized false membranes, throm- 

 bus, in the vessel, or pressure by lympadenoma in the portal fissure, 

 melanosis, sarcoma and other tumors. It results from cirrhosis 

 and other diseases of the liver which retard its circulation, from 

 pressure on the posterior vena cava, from insufificiency of the right 

 auriculo-ventricular valves, from dilatation of the right heart, and 

 from heaves or other ob.struction in the pulmonic circulation. 

 Other causes are cystic or other disease of the ovary, diseases of 

 the kidney and hydroaemia, the latter two tending to general 

 oedema as well as a.scites. 



Symptoms. The disease comes on slowly and insidioush' and 

 at first it usually passes unnoticed. When more fully developed 

 the abdomen is distended but somewhat pendent (pot-bellied), 

 fluctuating below, with falling in beneath the lumbar transverse 

 processes. Eater the whole abdomen may be full, rounded, 

 smooth and tense, and the hind limbs oedematous to above the 

 fetlocks or hocks. There may be oedema of the sheath or lower 

 wall of the abdomen. Fluctuation can still be felt as a shock 

 when an assistant makes sudden concussion with the fist on the 

 opposite side from that on which the hand is pressed. This may 

 be felt even moredistinctly by the hand introduced into the rectum. 

 Percussion gives a flat sound below and more or less resonant 

 above. The pulse is small, weak, and accelerated, heart-beats irri- 

 400 



