DISEASES AND ACCIDENTS OF THE ALIMENTAUY CANAL,. 



419 



How to know it. — The churacteristio symptom is the bloatino: withgaa^ 

 and there is always a great amount of pain. The horse rolls, kicks, 

 paws, tries to lie on his back, gets up and down, sweats tremendously, 

 has a haggard look in his face, gulps Avind and food from the stomach in 

 small quantities through his nose ; and the food thus discharged is usually 

 green and very sour. The nostrils are distended, breathing rapid and 

 breath cold from the shallow breathing ; the pulse is quickened at the 

 start, but gradually grows harder and smaller as the fatal termination 

 approaches ; the belly becomes so distended that the flanks are above the 

 points of the hips ; and in some cases, when lying down, the legs are so 

 spread from the distension of the belly that the animal is unable to get up. 

 If it lasts very long, the nervous system becomes exhausted ; the 



FLATULANT COLIC-FIRST STAGE. 



FLATULENT COLIC, RUPTURED 

 OR LAST STAGE. 



muscles around the chest, shoulders and neck cramp and draw down so as 

 to almost pull the horse to the ground, and he will sometimes scream 

 out like a child from the pain. The cars and extremities get deathly 

 cold. 



If rupture takes place, he will sit on his haunches like a dog, turn up 

 his upper lip as though nauseated and tr}'^ to vomit ; but owing to the 

 peculiar formation of the stomach the horse cannot vomit. The pulse 

 gets weaker and smaller till he falls and dies from nervous exhaustion. 

 When he dies in earlier stages, it is from suffocation : the distension of 

 the stomach and bowels presses on the lungs so hard that it forces them 

 up into so small a compass that they cannot work, and suffocation is the 

 result. 



