GENERAL THERAPEUTICS OF THE DISEASES OF THE 

 ORGANS OF DIGESTION 



I. General Therapeutics of the Diseases of the Stomach 



Pathology. — The diseases of the organs of digestion in our 

 domestic animals are more varied and therefore more difficult to 

 treat than those of man, especially the diseases of the stomach. 

 While gastric ulcers and carcinoma of the stomach are generally 

 rare in animals and the nervous dyspepsia so frequent in man prob- 

 ably does not occur at all, the therapeutics of stomach diseases in 

 veterinary medicine is very complicated because the anatomical 

 arrangement of the stomach is different in the several species of 

 animals. The ruminants, especially, with their peculiar gastric 

 apparatus, are in a separate class from the animals with a single 

 stomach. Among the latter there exists again a considerable dif- 

 ference between the gastric digestion of the herbivora (horse), car- 

 nivora (dog, cat), and omnivora (swine). Other peculiarities are 

 observed in the gastric apparatus of fowl. 



The most important and the most frequent diseases of the 

 stomach in animals are those occurring in connection with feeding 

 (absolute and relative overfeeding, impaction of the rumen, acute 

 tympanites, spoiled feed) . The therapeutics is therefore first of all 

 prophylactic (diet). In most cases the anatomical changes are 

 confined to the mucous membrane (acute and chronic gastric 

 catarrh, gastritis). However, in cattle all three layers of the 

 stomach wall are very frequently affected (traumatic gastritis) , In 

 some animal species, parasitic diseases of the stomach are of impor- 

 tance (stomach-worm disease). Poisons also are not infrequently 

 the cause of stomach diseases (irritants and irritant narcotic poi- 

 sons). The stomach is also very often affected secondarily in 

 general infectious and constitutional diseases. 



Physiology. — The physiological processes concerned in gastric 

 digestion are partly mechanical and partly chemical. Therefore. 



25 



