256 Acute Bloating of Ruuiinants. 



and potatoes) al.so ^•enninatcd malt, waste of sugar beets, draft", 

 are liable to cause acute bloating if the animals have ingested 

 large amounts of such substances without much dry food. 



In sucking or weaned calves the disease sometimes occurs 

 after the ingestion of unusually large amounts of milk ; when the 

 latter has coagulated rapidly, it is not very accessible to the 

 gastric juice and undergoes abnormal fermentation. 



While all these food stuffs may cause acute bloating, they 

 vary considerably as to their dangerous nature. According to 

 general opinion, clover, particularly red clover, is most danger- 

 ous; but even the same food material varies. The more luxu- 

 riant and the more juicy the food, the more easily it causes acute 

 bloating. The greatest prevalence of acute bloating occurs in 

 deeply-situated valleys with rich soil, and in j^ears when the 

 spring has been cold, and when the plants, which had been back- 

 ward for some time, grow the more luxuriantly when warm 

 weather sets in. The same circumstances cause bloating after 

 pasturing on fresh stubble fields where weeds have been exposed 

 to the sun a short time only and where dropped-of¥ grains have 

 germinated. The dangerous nature of feed plants becomes in- 

 creased when they are strongly moist with dew or frosted or 

 frozen or wet with rain. Bloating, therefore, is generally more 

 common during pasturing in the early morning, during cool, 

 moist weather, in spring and in fall. The danger is further in- 

 creased by watering immediately after pasturing or after feed- 

 ing. A withered green feed or green feed heated in conse- 

 quence of storing it in large masses also causes bloating more 

 easily than freshly-cut feed. This explains the frequent occur- 

 rence of bloating on holidays during stable feeding. Potatoes, 

 beets and bulbous plants are more dangerous after decay has 

 begun than when they are fed fresh. It is also claimed that 

 bloating is easily brought about Avhen animals swallow a lot of 

 air while pasturing against the wind. 



Predisposition to acute bloating varies as to the individual 

 susceptibility. Greedy feeding predisposes to the affection, 

 hence we see it frequently in starved animals and in animals 

 permanently or generally stabled, when they are driven to a 

 dangerous pasture. The variable efficiency of the muscularis 

 of the rumen also plays a role. Physical delnlity, convalescence 

 from various diseases during permanent stable feeding cause 

 the movements of the rumen to be less energetic than under 

 more favoral)le circumstances; the same occurs from violent 

 motion or physical effort directly after the ingestion of food. 

 Adhesions of the rumen may completely interfere with the 

 movements of the organ. 



(Cadeac holds that both dilatation of the rumen and acute .bloating are 

 conditions secondary to atony of the nuiseularis of the rumen.) /,"Uij - 



Bloating occurs as an affection secondary to the ingestion 

 of certain poisonous plants (spotted hemlock, water hemlock. 



