636 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



abdomen, and invests more or less completely the whole of the 

 intestines and stomach, the liver, spleen, kidneys, and other 

 organs contained in the abdominal cavity. Though rather 

 frequently met with in the horse, it is fortunately very rare in 

 the ox, sheep, and pig. The disease generally comes on after 

 wounds of various kinds ; such, for instance, as that produced 

 by the passage of sharp foreign bodies from out the stomach to 

 the neighbouring structures, or that occasioned by the operation 

 of rumenotomy or other similar operations in which the 

 inflammation is produced as a result of the accidental contact 

 of foreign material with it. The animal suffers pain, is dull 



Peritonitis. 



In the above illustration a cow afflicted with Peritonitis is depicted. The 

 animal is seen to be looking round to the flank, as if to see whence proceeds the 

 cause of the pain endured ; yet the inquiry seems to be without satisfactory 

 result, and the poor creature appears dismayed and puzzled, and resigned to its 

 sufferings. 



and anxious, looks round occasionally at its flank, moans, 

 grinds the teeth, paws the ground with the fore-feet, shivers 

 repeatedly, especially in the region of the hind-legs and flanks. 

 The bowels become constipated, the pulse is hard, and the 

 extremities are cold, and become colder as the disease advances, 

 the chewing of the cud is suspended, the appetite is lost, the 

 bowels are acutely constipated; but this stage may be followed 

 by a profuse, watery, and perhaps even bloody diarrhoea, the 

 belly is swollen, tense, and tender, especially near the injured 

 part, the urine is scanty in amount and high-coloured, the pulse 

 is hard, frequent, and wiry, the breathing is quick, laboured, 

 and thoracic, the diaphragm (the wall which separates the cavity 

 of the chest from that of the abdomen) being fixed as much as 

 possible, on account of the pain which the least movement of it 

 causes by reason of its action upon the inflamed peritoneum. 



