262 Acute P.loatin.ir of Huiniiuuits. 



Moderate doses of salts or medicines stimulating the re- 

 moval of the contents of tlie rmnen are indicated. In secondary- 

 bloating, particularly if due to obliteration of the esophagus, 

 puncture of the rumen cannot be avoided, in case the esophageal 

 obstruction cannot be removed speedily. 



Prophylaxis. Primary acute bloating is always due to 

 careless pasturing or improper feeding and can be prevented 

 \^^th care and attention. It is necessary to educate shepherds 

 and attendants by proper instruction. Since leguminosa^ are 

 most dangerous, it is proper not to pasture ruminants on such 

 pastures, and tlie restraint should include barley stubble lields. 

 Animals should be permitted to run on such fields only after 

 they have received some dry feed or have fed on less luxuriant 

 pastures, so that they will not take up too much of such juicy 

 vegetable feed. They should never be left long in dangerous 

 pastures and should l)e moved about during pasturing. The 

 same precautions should be observed in feeding on very luxu- 

 riant pastures and particularly on dewy mornings or after rains. 



Freshly-cut green feed is to be given in smaller rations and 

 mixed with larger amounts of dry feed the younger and the 

 more juicy such plants are. The same precautionary measures 

 must be observed when feeding easily fermentable mate- 

 rial (bulbous plants, floury feed, germinated malt, etc.). One 

 should always avoid feeding material which is already ferment- 

 ing or heated ; if in this condition it should be cooled, dried and 

 mixed abundantly with dry feed. The care-takers of animals 

 should be made familiar with the simplest methods of expelling 

 gas from the rumen. Friedl)erger & Frohner recommend that 

 farms and communities with large herds should always have 

 trochars in stock. 



Literature. Bouley, Diet., 1879, X, 156.— Eber, Z. f. Tm., 1906, X, 321.— 

 Iinmiiiyer, W. f. Tk., 1906, 221.— Leyendeeker, B. Mt., 1890, 16.3.— Luiigwitz, A. f. 

 Tk., 1892, XVIII, 70.— Noack, S. B.,'l896, 141.— Schlampp, Ther. Technik, 1907, II, 

 264.— Wohner, W. f. Tk., 190.5, 825. 



(c) Chronic Bloating of Ruminants. Tympanitis chronica 

 ruminantium. 



Chronic bloating of ruminants is only a group of symptoms 

 which may be present in a variety of diseases of the fore- 

 stomachs, the al)omasum, the esophagus and the intestines. 



(If chronic bloating is considered in a special chapter in spite of 

 its purely secondary nature, this may be justified by the fact that 

 llie nature of the primary disease cannot always be ascertained in 

 the living animal and the affection may recjuire surgical interference.) 



Etiology. Chronic tympanitis is observed in diseases in 

 which the removal of gases from the rumen, either by belch- 



