log 



dieting the animal on soft food, such as bran mashes, &c. When 

 neglected, it mortifies, becomes black, and has to be cut off, which 

 is rather a formidable operation. 



271. Paralysis of the Rectum is occasionally met with, when 

 the rectum becomes impacted with faecal matters, which the animal 

 has no power to expel ; and this may be due to an injury to the spine 

 or to degeneration of the muscular and nervous tissue of the walls of the 

 bowel, or to fracture of the pelvic or tail bones. When first noticed, the 

 external parts around the opening into the bowel under the tail is 

 observed to be very much distended with the fasces and pressed out 

 behind, may be to the size of a man's head ; yet, the patient, as a rule, 

 feeds well, and shows little or no inconvenience. When this is seen, 

 the faecal matter has to be removed by hand, about every four or five 

 hours ; as the case advances, the bladder and penis become implicated, 

 and the urine is seen dribbling on to the ground. The penis finally 

 becomes pendulous, powerless, and swollen, when it has to be 

 supported by a bandage round the body, for which an old lace or net 

 curtain answers best. Treatment is, however, rarely successful, but 

 drachm doses each of sulphate of iron and nux vomica can be given 

 once a day, in a mash ; a blister applied to the loins ; and an infusion 

 of oak bark injected into the bowel, once or twice daily, may also be 

 tried, but, generally speaking, the animal has to be destroyed. 



THE DOG. 



272. The arrangement of the alimentary canal of the dog is rather 

 peculiar. The stomach is pear-shaped, slightly curved, and very 

 simple ; the bowels are short, and nearly all of the same size, while the 

 caecum is almost rudimentary. From the guzzling propensity of the 

 majority of dogs, the crushing and bolting of partially chewed bones, 

 and the cramming of the stomach with raw, putrid, filthy flesh, it is 

 strange that the dog does not suffer more from derangements of the 

 stomach and bowels. The great point in the dog's favour is that he can 

 readily eject matters from an overloaded stomach. Although numerous 

 writers have, from time to time, written at some length on the various 



