INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 161 



Enteritis may come on suldenly, and may at once exhibit the 

 most violent and intense character ; or it may be preceded by 

 milder symptoms, which may exist either for several hours or for 

 several days. When it is shiw in coming on, the first symptoms 

 are diilness, want of appetite, and uneasiness ; the pulse some- 

 what quickened, and the horse occasionally pawing his litter. 

 When relief is not obtained in this stage of the disease, the symp- 

 toms become aggravated, and the pain greater ; the horse lying 

 down, stretching himself out, and struggling violently. The 

 pulse, at first usually distinct, although quick, becomes quicker 

 and weaker, and almost imperceptible. The bowels are con- 

 stipated, and the dung coated with mucus. The legs and ears 

 are cold, the mouth hot, the membrane of the eyelids highly 

 injected, and the breathing greatly accelerated. This stage of 

 the disease rarely lasts long : unless relief be obtained, death 

 generally closes the scene in the course of six to eighteen hours. 

 AVhen such is the case, the symptoms become more distressing, 

 the horse lying down, and rarely rising, but struggling almost 

 in a frantic state, though with diminished strength ; at length 

 cold sweats break out, and the mouth feels cold, and death soon 

 follows. In some instances I have known the animal continue 

 liis struo-tTles till within a few minutes of his death, and in others 

 the violence of the symptoms has disappeared for some hours 

 before the fatal termination. In these latter cases the attendants 

 usually imagine the horse to be considerably better, and expect 

 his recovery ; but the practitioner finds that the pulse is imper- 

 ceptible, the extremities obstinately cold, and anticipates what 

 lie surely finds, dissolution in the course of a few hours. 



The symptoms of enteritis somewhat resemble those of colic, 

 and indeed the disease is termed by farriers the red colic. 



It is, however, of great importance to distinguish the two dis- 

 eases, as the treatment for colic would be highly injurious in 

 a case of enteritis. It has been stated that a horse will not roll 

 on his back in inflammation of the bowels ; but this is erroneous. 

 The chief distinctions are these, — in enteritis the pain is con- 

 stant, though not at all times equally severe ; whilst in colic the 

 pain, though more violent than in enteritis during the paroxysms, 

 yet disappears, or nearly so, between them. There is, too, an 

 important difference in the pulse, which in enteritis is constantly 

 quick ; whilst in colic it is but little increased, except during a 

 paroxysm, after which it subsides. 



The causes of enteritis are (in addition to natural weakness of 

 the part affected, which induces one horse to receive the disease 

 more readily than another, though exposed to the same exciting 

 cause), over-exertion, exposure to cold, particularly standing 

 in water, or passing through streams in a state of perspiration, 

 and standing still afterwards. To which may be added drinking 



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