DISEASES OF CATS 95 



Constipation and Diarrhoea. 



Constipation is much less frequent in the cat 

 than in other animals. On the contrary, there 

 is a tendency in the cat, especially in the house- 

 kept one, to a certain amount of looseness of 

 the bowels, which would be looked on in other 

 animals as suspicious. When this looseness 

 becomes excessive, and the discharges become 

 watery, or mixed with mucus, or even bloody, 

 it takes the name of diarrhoea. When the 

 diarrhoea becomes chronic, or is excessively se- 

 vere, it takes the name of dysentery. In this 

 case there is usually great straining, with very 

 little discharge at each evacuation, and some- 

 times protrusion of the mucous membrane at 

 the anus. Diarrhoea is frequently produced in 

 the cat by feeding it out of soiled pans in 

 which the milk or other food has been allowed 

 to ferment. It is produced by irregular feed- 

 ing overfeeding the animal at one time and 

 allowing it to starve at another. The use of 

 fat meat, of putrid meat, and of too much liver 

 or sour milk are also causes. 



