DISEASES Of THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. l6l 



plants ; spoiled potatoes, turnips, apples, etc. ; stagnant, putrid 

 water ; undigested matters in the bowels from imperfect mas- 

 tication or digestion; impaction of some part of the bowels j 

 worms, etc. It may occur from irritants secreted from the 

 blood, as in the case of purgative agents accidentally taken in 

 with food or water, and the morbid elements of certain fevers 

 (Rinderpest, Texan-fever, hog-cholera, lung- fever). Lastly, a 

 reflex irritation from the skin as in exposure to chilling rains, 

 night-dews, or damp stalls, or to hot, damp buildings, seasons, 

 or localities. Horses are especially liable to superpurgation if 

 worked or supplied with ice-cold water during the operation of 

 a dose of physic. 



Symptoms. — These may be slight, as in the frequent pulpy 

 evacuations of animals fed exclusively on roots, or severe, as in 

 the excessive and almost constant discharge of a dark-coloured 

 liquid mixed with mucus. Slight diarrhoea does not affect the 

 appetite, nor interfere with improvement in condition, but in 

 the severer forms there is loud rumbling in the abdomen, loss 

 of appetite and condition, rapid, small, weak pulse, hurried 

 breathing, pallid mucous membranes, and weakness even to 

 unsteady gait. Distension ot the belly, with pawing and other 

 signs of abdominal pain, may appear in bad cases. In horses 

 it is often followed by inflammation of the feet. 



Treatment. — Unload the bowels by linseed, olive, or castor- 

 oil according to the patient, adding laudanum, and follow up 

 by mucilaginous (linseed, gum Arabic, slippery elm) or starchy 

 draughts, or even injections with or without laudanum as may 

 seem required. In prolonged and obstinate cases astringents 

 (kino, catechu, oak bark, tannic acid, nitrate of silver), with 

 tonics (gentian, cinchona, salicine, nux vomica), and carmina- 

 tives (camphorated spirit, ginger, peppers, caraway, fennel, etc.), 

 may have to be employed. But in no case should astringents 

 or opiates be used until the irritant has been carried off by a 

 laxative, and usually a change of diet is needful to prevent a 



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