588 TREATMENT OE INVAGINATION OE THE BOWEL. 



seldom rises. On examination per rectum, the invaginated spot 

 may sometimes be felt as a cord-like, painful swelling. Slight colicky 

 symptoms, straining to pass faeces, and discharge of small quantities 

 of mucus or blood continually recur. Merten says the animals show 

 a desire to lie on the back. 



Dogs show no sign of colic. They move about restlessly and 

 usually lie down flat on the belly. Appetite completely disappears, 

 but water is often taken greedily. Water, food, and medicine are, 

 however, usually vomited at once. The vomit is bile-stained. No 

 faeces are passed, though there may be straining. Local examination 

 (palpation) of the abdomen reveals the invagination as a sausage- 

 shaped, painful swelling. 



Diagnosis is often difficult ; in oxen and dogs it may be necessary 

 to perform an exploratory laparotomy under antiseptic precautions. 



Treatment. Medical treatment is worthless, and purgatives 

 cannot, of course, reduce the invagination. 



Siebert attempted reduction by generating carbonic acid gas in the 

 body. After giving aloes with sulphate of soda in linseed tea, he injected 

 25 ounces of bicarbonate of soda suspended in water into the rectum, 

 which had previously been emptied as far as possible, with the hand and 

 clysters. Diluted hydrochloric acid was then passed in, and the anus 

 closed with the hand. In a short time the right, and later the left, side 

 became greatly distended, and the animal strained so much that it was 

 difficult to keep the anus closed. After a time the hand was removed, 

 a large quantity of carbonic acid gas and faeces escaped, and the animal 

 recovered. Siebert states having thus cured a cow of invagination of 

 five days' standing ; but his treatment is scarcely recommended by the 

 fact that he afterwards found the cast-off portion of bowel in the dung. 

 If invagination had really existed, recovery Avas due less to the treatment 

 than to the vis medicatrix natures. The method may, however, be. tried 

 when operation is out of the question and other means are ineffectual. 



Surgical treatment consists in opening the peritoneal cavity 

 from the right side with antiseptic precautions, and reducing the 

 invagination or resecting the affected piece of bowel. The animal 

 is placed with the left side against a partition and is secured with 

 cords and planks. The hand is introduced into the abdomen, the 

 diseased spot discovered, drawn forward, and an attempt first made 

 to reduce the invagination, but this may fail because the opposed 

 surfaces of serosa have become firmly adherent. Degive's experience 

 shows, however, that when the union is not intimate there need be 

 no hesitation in effecting reduction. The abdominal wound should 

 then be closed with the usual precautions. 



Reduction failing, resection becomes the only alternative, and 

 has been performed by Meyer with success in oxen. In his " Manuel 



