INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 565 



Symptoms. There are, to commence with, the usual symptoms of inflammatory fever. The 

 disease is ushered in by rigors and general uneasiness, hot and dry mouth, hot breath, injected 

 conjunctiva, scanty high-coloured urine, and hard frequent pulse. These symptoms are followed 

 by those of pain colicky pains, one might almost call them, for the pitiful, agonising cries are 

 similar to those in a case of colic, although sharper and shorter. That the animal is in intense 

 agony, and that the seat of pain is internal, no one who sees him can for a moment doubt. His 

 face is expressive of the greatest anxiety ; if standing, it is with fore and hind legs drawn well 

 together, and back arched to relieve the tension of the abdominal muscles, while the tail is pressed 

 down between the thighs. He looks mournfully in one's face, then perhaps round to his side, as if 

 trying to indicate the very seat of his ailment. If lying, it is with belly on some cool spot, and 

 in some dark or out-of-the-way corner. 



The thirst is very urgent, the appetite of course entirely lost. The bowels are at first 

 constipated, but gradually, from the effusion of serum into the bowel from the inflamed surfaces, 

 the system is thrown open, and diarrhoea comes on, and this diarrhoea is generally the beginning 

 of the end ; the pulse gets thready, feeble, and sometimes imperceptible, breath gets cold and 

 fetid, the belly swells, the pupils dilate, and the dog gradually sinks exhausted, and dies. 



Manual examination reveals very great tenderness to the touch. This the author has always 

 found, yet some authorities assure us that pressure is grateful to the animal. 



Diagnosis. Enteritis is sometimes mistaken for rabies, but there is the extreme nervousness of 

 the latter disease to guide us. The attitude, too, is different in the two disorders ; there is a 

 difference in the bark, and, moreover, the absence of abdominal pain in rabies, and that peculiar 

 speaking glance round to the side. From colic it is easily distinguishable, from the more gradual 

 onset of enteritis, from the difference of the bark, and from there being pain on pressure in 

 enteritis, whereas pressure gives relief in colic. 



Treatment. Our treatment must be to endeavour to subdue the inflammation, ease the pain, 

 and at the same time give the bowels all the rest we can. The old treatment was to bleed till the 

 pulse faltered, and repeat the bleeding, and the old vets, had no occasion certainly to grumble if 

 their patients died. 



Let the dog be kept as quiet as possible. Let opium be given in large doses. The tincture is 

 the best, as it acts more quickly ; the dose from twenty drops to a drachm, repeated if necessary 

 every two or three hours. The bowels are not to be attempted to be opened by means of 

 purgatives. The idea of expecting good to accrue from forcing matter through an inflamed bowel, 

 and increasing its peristaltic motion, is very absurd indeed, and almost sinful, but as the lower part 

 of the gut is frequently blocked up with hardened fasces, we must get rid of that. Use simply 

 warm water, in which dissolve a little mild soap, and this throw up as far as possible, and as slowly 

 and gently as possible. 



Leeches may be employed in this disease : if they are they must be in quantity from ten for 

 a little animal, up to thirty for a Mastiff. The belly being shaved, they are applied to the most 

 tender spot. This only for strong dogs. Whether leeches are applied or not, hot fomentations 

 must not be omitted, and the warm bath will be found to do good in the case of small dogs ; with 

 the larger breeds it is inconvenient. 



If we have succeeded in subduing the inflammation, then after the lapse of a day or two, if 

 the bowels are not naturally opened, you may give a dose of castor-oil. The drink is to be 

 demulcent, and the return to solid food during convalescence very gradual. 



It may be as well to say a word or two here about the disease called peritonitis. 



Peritonitis, or inflammation of the serous sac which lines the abdominal cavity, is a disease to 



