SURGICAL TREATMENT OF COLICS 59 



Overloading of the Stomach of Work Horses 



Acute indigestion, so-called, is so well known to all 

 practitioners that its symptoms need no special descrip- 

 tion here. It is so characteristic and its characteristics 

 are so well known that there is little chance of mistak- 

 ing it for any other disorder. Esophageal obstruction 

 (choke) in the very first stage and poisoning with aconite 

 are the only two conditions for which it might by any 

 chance be mistaken and these are very easily excluded 

 by a little study. 



Symptoms. — The eructations of gas, the activity of 

 the esophagus in the cervical region, the distended ab- 

 domen which may be slight or threatening, the colicky 

 pains of a fairly acute character, occurring in a horse 

 after a day's work, sometimes before and sometimes 

 after having eaten the evening meal is a clinical picture 

 that is at once recognized as an overloaded stomach. 



Here the volume of water and feed is too great for 

 the exhausted stomach to handle. Gases pass readily 

 from the stomach into the bowels and these, too, become 

 bloated. In the more formidable cases large quantities 

 of chyme are washed into the intestinal tract, until all 

 of the bowels as far back as the floating colon is teem- 

 ing with a fermenting process. 



Treatment. — Mild cases may take a favorable turn 

 without any treatment and will usually respond to the 

 administration of antiferments, of which salicylic acid, 

 recommended bv Quitman is probably the best, but when 

 the attack is of a severe type only radical measures un- 

 dertaken promptly will prevent a fatal termination. The 

 radical measures to which I refer are catherization of 



