286 Acute Catarrh of tlie Stomach. 



Irregularity in feeding has likewise a detrimental effect, 

 not only because the annuals feed too greedily after starvation, 

 but also because a stomach used to periodical function will 

 easily become disturbed in the secretion of the gastric juice, 

 if food is not forthcoming regularly. For this reason livery 

 stable horses, which cannot always be fed regularly, sutfer 

 frequently from the disease. 



Disturbances in mastication may indirectly cause gastric 

 catarrh; this occurs in tenderness of the gums during the 

 change of the teeth, in anomalies of the teeth, such as are seen 

 frequently in horses, in wolf-teeth, in the different types of 

 stomatitis with a profuse secretion of a subsequently decom- 

 posing saliva. All these factors may be detrimental to the 

 gastric mucosa. Disturbances of rumination exert a harmful 

 influence upon the function of the abomasum in ruminants. 



Overloading of the stomach with large quantities of food 

 which is otherwise unobjectionable occurs preferably in 

 carnivora and hogs, because these animals are often too greedy 

 in the ingestion of food. But horses likewise suffer from this 

 disease if, after rather poor dry feed, they immediately receive 

 larger amounts of palatable fresh feed, or if they can pasture 

 at random in luxuriant clover or alfalfa fields, or if horses 

 which have gotten loose in their barn can get into the feed 

 supplies and can there eat as much as they want. In such cases 

 the feed mash ferments and the gastric mucosa is irritated by 

 butyric, lactic and acetic acid. In ruminants catarrh of the 

 abomasum occurs through the same irritation. Starving for long 

 periods likewise leads to catarrh. Andral and Gavaret have 

 found catarrhal changes upon postmortem examination of 

 starved dogs. 



Improper condition of the feed may also lead to catarrh 

 of the stomach, as, for instance, the ingestion of too cold or 

 too hot food, such as hot distillers' mash, frozen potatoes or 

 beets, frosted grass, ice cold water. Hot medicinal administra- 

 tions may have a similar effect. 



Spoiled feed is still more harmful, especially if given 

 exclusively or mixed with comparatively little good feed. 

 Spoiled feeds are mouldy, sloppy, marsh-hay, mouldy cereals, 

 moist decaying straw, intensely fermenting green feed, rotten 

 potatoes and beets, decomposed rancid milk, fermenting old 

 garbage, etc., and dirty foul stagnant water. 



A catarrh of the stomach which is more or less severe 

 may also be brought al)out if the feed contains acrid and 

 irritating plants or food stuffs which are strongly seasoned or 

 mixed with fragments of bone. Acrid and cauterizing drugs 

 have a similar effect if given in a large single dose or if ad- 

 ministered repeatedly in smaller doses, for instance, the drastic 

 laxatives, tartar emetic, calomel, arsenic, acids and alkalies, etc. 



Food of improper composition often leads to catarrh of 

 the stomach in cattle, for instance, overfeeding with distillers' 



