ENTERITIS. 337 



more or less to the end. The body and limbs are cold ; 

 the respirations are short and hurried, and the breath is cold ; 

 the head is held low ; the ears are drooping ; the mouth cold 

 and frothy. If the animal be made to shift his position he 

 staggers from side to side ; the joints suddenly relax ; the mus- 

 cles become loose and jactinating ; and at last the poor beast 

 falls heavily, struggles convulsively for a few moments, and dies. 



Pathognomonic Symptoms. — Pain of an unceasing cha- 

 racter^ referrihle to tlie iowels, and wliich causes the animal to 

 manifest more or less unceasing violence during tlie existence of 

 the disease. The muscular walls of the ahdomen are contracted, 

 and the ahdomen is tender upon pressure. 



Caitses. — The causes of Enteritis are numerous. A few of 

 the principal I shall enumerate — working the horse beyond his 

 natural powers during a cold wet day, and afterwards allowing 

 the animal, while thus exhausted, to stand in a cold draught ; 

 suddenly changing the diet, especially from a poor to a rich one ; 

 the dislodgement from their old matrix of foreign bodies which 

 may exist within the intestines, such as dust balls, or large 

 calculous concretions ; strangulated hernia, either at the scrotum, 

 the navel, or any other part of the abdomen ; colic producing 

 introsusception, inversion, or involution of the bowels ; the 

 presence of a large number of worms within the intestines ; and 

 I may add, the repeated administration of large doses of opium, 

 either to cure Broken "Wind or Chronic Cough, or as an experi- 

 ment to test its effects.* 



Treatment. — I enter now upon the consideration of the 

 most important part of the business, viz. — the treatment of 



* I have treated three cases of Enteritis arising from this cause, one of which 

 the reader will find detailed in the Veterinarian for 1849, page 309. 



T 



