ACUTE INDIGESTION. 387 



relief is obtained, and improvement in the condition of the 

 animal is manifest, medicinal agents should not be pushed 

 too far. In cases where there is a tendency to enteritis, 

 and injections are being freely used, soap should be omitted 

 after the first one or two injections. The animal should be 

 comfortably clothed so as to preserve the surface tempera- 

 ture, and prevent cold sweats. If sweats break out, the 

 patient should be carefully guarded from draughts of cold 

 air. The legs may be well hand-rubbed and bandaged with 

 flannel. In cases of great distension, the animal must be 

 kept from throwing himself violently about, as rupture of 

 the stomach or bowels might occur in consequence of a very 

 violent movement on the part of the animal. When tym- 

 panites cannot be relieved in any other way, recourse must 

 be had to the operation of puncturing the colon — using the 

 trocar and canula for the purpose. It may safely be said 

 that hypodermic injections and the trocar and canula rob 

 this disease of half its terrors. Opii tr. is very good to 

 allay pain, given by the mouth if the stomach is empty; but 

 when the stomach and bowels are full of gas, medicines 

 given by the mouth are not absorbed very readily or very 

 certainly. Chloral hydrate is recommended, and is un- 

 doubtedly of great benefit in many cases. A purgative 

 should never be omitted, as it is probable that purgatives 

 relieve spasm and pain before developing any of their 

 physiological actions. Nux vomica may, in some cases, be 

 combined with the purgative, accelerating as well as ren- 

 dering its action more certain. Animals, when suff^ering 

 from acute indigestion, are frequently supposed by certahi 

 people to be poisoned. In cases where it becomes necessary 

 to pass the trocar and canula, the operation should not be 

 too long deferred, but should be performed while the 

 animal has plenty of strength and vitality left. They are 

 usually passed on the right side of the animal, but may be 



