ENTERITIS. 401 



washy animals, are more subject to diseases of the digestive 

 organs than more robust animals, and such may be con- 

 sidered as predisposed to enteritis. The disease may be 

 caused by superpurgation, and also may occur as a result of 

 either spasmodic or flatulent colic, although it is claimed by 

 some writers that enteritis never follows those diseases. 

 Croton oil was at one time a prolific cause of the disease. 

 An over-accumulation of fisces in the intestinal canal fre- 

 quently sets up irritation, which gradually increases and 

 terminates in enteritis. Foreign substances, as sticks, 

 sand, calculi, etc., passing through or becoming lodged 

 in the intestinal canal, are very likely to cause an attack. 

 Irritant poisons, drastic purgatives, the presence of any 

 irritant in the intestinal canal, drinking stagnant or putrid 

 water, diarrhoea, especially when of the inflammatory type, 

 exposure to cold or being allowed to stand in draughts of 

 cold air after sweating freely, or when considerably weak- 

 ened or fatigued by exercise, a drink of cold water when 

 the animal is in a heated condition, all operate in the i3ro- 

 iluction of enteritis. A mixture of bran with cold water is 

 also a frequent cause of the disease. Intussusception, vol- 

 vulus, etc., may also be considered as causes of enteritis. It 

 is rarely, indeed, that a horse lasts longer than twenty-four 

 hours from the appearance of the first symptom until death 

 takes place, and often a case will terminate in gangrene of 

 the bowels and death in four or five hours. Occasionally 

 the patient may live for four or five days; such a case is 

 always mild, and may occasionally be cured. 



Symptoms. — In the early stages of enteritis the symptoms 

 are very similar to those of colic and other painful bowel 

 afl'ections. In such cases as are not suddenly developed, 

 slight but increasing dulness may be observed for a day 

 or two preceding the attack. The animal then begins to 

 show more or less uneasiness, and generally the first symp- 



26 



