ABDOMINAL WOUNDS OF ANIMALS' 



By J. V. LACROIX, D.V.S., Kansas City 



Under abdominal wounds of animals may be included 

 a wide range of conditions wherein divers factors are to 

 be reckoned with. In this brief treatise we shall con- 

 sider the subject in a general way only, mentioning spe- 

 cific instances in the way of case reports merely for 

 emphasis. 



Our domestic animals are all. because of the manner 

 in which they are kept, subject to injuries of the abdo- 

 men. In a general way the horse and mule are more 

 frequently affected than are the other animals. The 

 fact that horses, used as they are in aU kinds of service, 

 exposed to various injuries in the way of runaway acci- 

 dents, kicking one another when shod with calked shoes ; 

 together with the anatomical construction of the abdom- 

 inal wall, accounts for their being frequently injured. 

 The abdominal waU of the horse is more tense than is 

 that of other animals, and being ver^' agile and quite 

 likely to struggle whenever any ^-ulnerable object con- 

 tacts the abdomen, they are often seriously injured. The 

 ox, under the same conditions, would suffer little or no 

 harm. 



Cattle receive abdominal wounds rather infrequently. 

 They are subjected to contusions probably more fre- 

 quently than to any other mode of injure-. Having thick 

 skin and a rather loose and pliable abdominal wall, punc- 

 tures and lacerations are of comparative inf requency. 



^Read at the 50th annual meeting^ of the American Veterinary 

 Medical Association. 



155 



