360 Bloating of the Intestines. 



lias occurred gastric and abdominal contents are found free in 

 the abdominal cavity. The condition of the margins of the tear 

 show whether the latter occurred during life or postmortem. In 

 the former case the margins show bloody sugillation and pos- 

 sibly also swelling, and the muscularis may be retracted behind 

 the mucosa. The thoracic organs show a high degree of passive 

 congestion. 



(The formation of gas, produced postinortein in not perfectly fresh cadavers of 

 horses also causes a general dilatation of the intestines, signs of suffocation are 

 however absent.) 



Symptoms. In horses sjTiiptoms of primary bloating usual- 

 ly appears shortly after the ingestion of food and are similar 

 to those of acute dilatation of the stomach (see page 299). As 

 a rule the clinical picture is initiated by violent, frequently re- 

 curring attacks of colic. Since genuine colicky pains, due to 

 convulsive contraction of the intestinal muscularis are not inten- 

 sified by pressure, the patients throw themselves recklessly on 

 the floor and roll about in a manner attracting attention; later 

 on they sit down on their haunches (dog position). 



Simultaneously with the spuptoms of colic, the abdominal 

 circumference increases rapidly, the space between the costal 

 arches becomes greater, the abdominal wall protrudes in barrel 

 shape ; most marked is the increase of the abdomen in the flanks, 

 particularly on the right side. Animals who even normally 

 possess a tense and less yielding abdominal wall, will not show 

 a very well marked enlargement of the abdomen, in spite of 

 severe disease. 



The percussion sounds are deep and resonant, more or less 

 all over the entire abdomen, but particularly in the flanks; the 

 sound becomes, however, somewhat higher and weaker in grave 

 cases on account of the great tension of the intestines and of 

 the abdominal wall. Sometimes the sound is metallic and not 

 only over the cecum, where a similar sound is heard under 

 normal conditions, but also over the other portions of the intes- 

 tines. 



The intestinal sounds are sometimes continuous at the be- 

 ginning of the affection; in the further course of grave cases 

 they become less frequent and may cease entirely ; they are often 

 liigii in pitch and metallic. 



Rectal examination shows a high degree of dilatation of all 

 accessible intestines with the exception of the rectum. Their 

 walls feel tense and elastic. Bloating of the colon displaces its 

 pelvic flexure deep down into the pelvis or towards the right 

 side and in the latter case the tense longitudinal bands of the 

 left lower portion run from the right towards the left and some- 

 times in a spiral arrangement. The left lower portion is now 

 much dilated and reaches up to the left kidney; it is either be- 

 side or below it and the much thinner, but likewise bloated left 

 upper portion of the colon is displaced by the raised lower 



