DISEASES or DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 169 



recommends quinine with the purgative, and nux vomica may be of 

 benefit ; and if these fail, you may perform rumenotomy ; and we 

 are apt to let a case run too far before we perform this; it would be 

 more successful if performed at an earlier stage. Rumenotomy is 

 cutting into the rumen and removing its contents, and is best per- 

 formed when the animal is standing ; and if the animal has been affected 

 for some time, you can cut to a considerable extent without the animal 

 seeming to care. So secure the animal against the wall, cut through the 

 skin and muscles in the same place you would puncture. (Some recom- 

 mend plunging the knife through all at once). Make an incision about 

 five inches long, exposing the rumen ; then make an incision in the 

 rumen and insert a handkerchief, or attach the walls by means of a 

 suture, to prevent the food from passing into the abdominal cavity, and 

 then remove the contents carefully. Some recommend leaving some 

 food in, but I generally clean it out pretty well, then bring the walls of 

 the rumen together. A metallic suture is the best, perhaps, and bring 

 the edges so it will slough into the stomach, then bring the other parts 

 together and give a slight purgative, and stimulants, if the animal is 

 weak. In a case where you give one or two good doses of purgative 

 medicine, then depend upon stimulants ; injections are also of benefit. 



Ejection or Vomition can take place more readily in cattle than in 

 horses, but does not frequently occur because they are not easily nauseated. 

 It may arise from various causes, as irritation of the reticulum, aboma- 

 sum or true digestive stomach, but is generally due to some foreign body 

 therein, and a great many things may be found in the stomach, taken 

 in by a depraved appetite, as old shoes, clothes, bones, etc., and possibly 

 it may occur from some organic disease, as a tumour. It is best treated 

 by a slight laxative, as there is a possibility of the foreign body being 

 removed. Give six or eight ounces of Epsom salts with a pint of linseed 

 oil, and support the animal upon liquids for a few days, gruel, linseed 

 tea, etc., and if the irritation still continues you may give a small dose 

 of opium to allay the irritation ; but there is nothing, perhaps, that will 

 allay the irritation as quickly as hydrocyanic acid, fifteen, twenty, or 

 thirty drops two or three times a day. If these do not afford relief and 

 you think there is something in the rumen, it may be advisable to open 

 and explore the rumen with the hand, but you must exercise judgment in 

 such cases. Foreign bodies often get into the rumen, pass out and 

 through the diaphragm, and passing into the substance of the heart, pro- 

 duce what is known as traumatic pericarditis. 



Hair Balls occur in all animals, but oftenest in cattle. They are 

 likely to accumulate and remain in the reticulum. They occur from ani- 

 mals licking one another. They attain considerable size, and set up 

 irritation ; in some cases they may pass out or break up ; they give rise 

 to indigestion, loss of rumination and ejection. The rumen may contain 

 one hundred and fifty or more pounds of food. Almost all sorts of 

 foreign bodies have been removed from the stomach of the ox. Youatt 

 relates a case where a lady's neckkerchief formed the nucleus for a 

 calculus. A case is also related where a coat was found in the stomach 

 of a slaughtered ox : and a snake three feet eleven inches in length was 

 taken from the oesophagjis bf an ox, after puncturing had been performed 

 without any permanent benefit. 



Impaction of the Manyplies, at one time called fardel bound, and 



also supposed to be of common occurrence, for if an animal suffers for a 



week or two it is often impacted to a great extent. I believe, with Prof. 



Williams, that it is often symptomatic of other diseases, but it does, 



8 



