54 COLICS AND THEIR TREATMENT 



to the nature of causative condition and then all of these 

 years we should have been treating causes instead of 

 eternally seeking medicament to cure the effect. 



Colic in animals has usually been considered as a mild, 

 or overv^helming abdominal pain, as the case may be, and 

 too little attention has been paid to the underlying cause. 

 Our v^eakest point in the management of colics is our 

 inability to diagnose the cause of, and the seat of the 

 ailment, at a stage early enough to put direct, effectual 

 treatment into operation before it is too late. 



The conventional treatment of almost all colics is the 

 administration of a pain-relieving potion, and then, if 

 this is not foUov^ed by a cessation of the pain, an evacu- 

 ant is thought necessary. When these two fail the 

 patient dies. The painkillers are usually morphine, can- 

 nabis indica or chloral and the evacuant anything from 

 a hypodermic injection of violent eserine, arecoline or 

 pilocarpine to a large drench of linseed or castor oil. 



In addition to the foregoing, when there is bloating, 

 carminatives and antiferments are given and if the bloat 

 is threatening a trocar and canula are thrust into the 

 right flank. This, with a few variations in the selection 

 of drugs, constitutes, with most of us, the standard 

 treatment of colics today, and these treatments are so 

 strictly conventional that almost anyone of ordinary in- 

 telligence can master the entire system after a few days 

 of instruction. In fact, we all know of "handy" fellows 

 in veterinary hospitals and large stables who manage 

 colics quite up to the prevailing standards. 



This is not as it should be in this day of sane thera- 

 peutics. We should accept now the burden of studying 



