94 COLICS AND THEIR TREATMENT 



appetite for hay and water I gave the case little atten- 

 tion. 



On July 3d the dull pain continued although the mare 

 ate some bran and hay and drank a pail of water. 



I made a rectal exploration to determine the cause of 

 the pain and found the impacted intestine apparently un- 

 changed since July 1st and was sorely puzzled. I re- 

 peated the treatment given on the first evening. On the 

 next day, July 4th, the mare again purged and the stools 

 contained a few whole oats, but the impaction was not 

 perceptibly changed. 



From the first until the seventeenth of July I tried, 

 except laparotomy, every means within my knowledge 

 to remove that impaction, all to no avail. 



I used eserine, arecoline, barium chloride, aloes, aloin, 

 magnesium sulphate, sodium chloride, linseed oil, etc., 

 augmented by large quantities of water by the stomach 

 tube and by rectal injection, both hot and cold. In the 

 application of the rectal injections I sometimes attached 

 the tube to the city water and continued it for hours; 

 this, I think, gave better results than anything else used, 

 sometimes bringing away quite a quantity of whole oats, 

 none of which had been ingested since the beginning of 

 the attack. 



During these seventeen days I continued stimulation 

 in the form of strychnine and powdered nux vomica, 

 twice I pushed the latter to the limit, once until the 

 mare was unable to gain her^ feet for a period of four 



hours. 



On the evening of July 17th the mare seemed to be in 

 about the same condition as she had been since July 1st, 



