58 THE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



tension is marked, rectal exploration will sometimes 

 reveal coils of distended intestines occupying the pelvis, 

 and the operator's arm is met with painful straining 

 efforts on the part of the patient. At times the rectum 

 is found to contain a few hard lumps. 



Distension of the abdomen, however, is not a constant 

 symptom. It is sometimes almost entirely absent, in 

 which case what tympany there is will be seen on the 

 left side and fairly well forward. My experience leads 

 me to the conviction that those cases in which the bowels 

 are free from tympany are the ones that yield most readily 

 to treatment. 



When the case has occurred without previous feeding 

 on green food, careful inquiries will elicit the fact that 

 the passage of faeces has been fairly regular throughout 

 the day, and that the pains only came on soon after 

 partaking of a particular feed. The most striking and 

 most diagnostic symptom is the frequent eructation of 

 gas, and here one word of caution is necessary. I have 

 called it ' eructation,' possibly giving my reader to under- 

 stand that large volumes of gas are escaping by the 

 oesophagus. I need hardly say that such is not the case, 

 for, if that were happening, the animal would soon gain 

 natural reHef. In the great majority of instances the 

 spasmodic contraction of the cervical muscles, the retch- 

 ing noise emitted by the patient, and the gurgling noises 

 in the oesophagus serve to relieve the patient no further 

 than the expulsion of quite a small quantity of gas, and, 

 at times, a thin trickhng of ingesta from the nostrils. 



Should relief not soon be obtained, the symptoms 

 become worse still, and quickly post on to the end. The 

 breathing becomes more and more distressed ; the 

 abdomen fills further and further with gas, and the 

 small quantity of fluid ejected from the nostrils increases 



