DISTENSION OF THE STOMACH FROM GAS. 303 



HOOVE, BLOWN, OR DISTENSION OP THE STOMACH FROM GAS. 



If a beast, taken from poor or less nutritive food, is put upon 

 clover, or turnips, or rich-fog, it eats so greedily and so much, that 

 the rumen ceases to act. These green vegetable substances are 

 naturally subject to fermentation, during which much gas is extricated, 

 but when inclosed in the stomach and exposed to the combined 

 influence of heat and moisture, the commencement of the fermentation 

 is hastened, and its eflfect increased. 



The " Hoove" or " Blown" is distension of the rumen, by gas 

 extricated from substances undergoing the process of fermentation 

 A^ithin it. In a healthy discharge of the fimctions of the stomach, 

 the food simply undergoes a process of maceration or softening ; but 

 if the food be retained in the stomach longer than the usual period, it, 

 or perhaps only a portion of the juices which it contains, begins to 

 ferment ; or, as in animals with simple stomachs, even this prepara- 

 tory one may so sympathize with cert;iin states of the constitution, 

 as either to secrete an acid principle, or to favor the development of 

 it in the food. It is from this cause that some degree of hoove 

 accompanies most fevers, and it is the consequence of general irrita- 

 tion produced by obstruction of the oesophagus; it sometimes accom- 

 panies difficult parturition, and to such an extent, that it is necessary 

 to puncture the rumen before the calf can descend sufficiently low 

 into the pelvis to be extracted. 



Its most frequent cause, however, is the turning of a beast from 

 poor, or less nutritious food, into plentiful and luxuriant pasture, 

 when he frequently eats so greedily, and so much, that the stomach 

 is overloaded, and is unable to circulate the food through it cavities, 

 and from the combined action of heat and moisture, its contents speedily 

 ferment, and gas is extricated. The following are the symptoms : — 



The animal gradually becomes oppressed and distressed. It ceases 

 to eat ; it does not ruminate ; it scarcely moves ; but it stands with 

 its head extended, breathing heavily, and moaning. The whole belly 

 is blown up ; this is particularly evident at the flanks, and most of all 

 at the left flank, under which the posterior division of the rumen hes. 

 The rumen in cattle is scantily supplied with either blood-vessels or 

 nerves, and therefore the brain is seldom much aff"ected in an early 

 stage of hoove. Swelling, unwillingness to move, and laborious 

 breathing, are the first and distinguishing symptoms. In proportion 

 as the stomach becomes distended by the extricated gas, the case 

 becomes more desperate, not only from the pressure on the other 

 contents of the abdomen, thus impeding the circulation of the blood, 

 and also on the diaphragm, against which the rumen abuts, and thus 

 impeding respiration, and also the danger of rupture of the paunch, 

 bat the construction of the oesophagean canal renders it manifest that 

 the rumen will be more obstinately closed in proportion as it is dis- 



