CHOKIXG. 161 



ryngeal clioking. The impossibility of returning the mass 

 into the mouth, in consequence of the length of the soft 

 palate (see Fig. 65, page 122), leads to urgent symptoms of 

 oppressed breathing, and if any fluid is poured into the 

 animal's mouth, it is thrown back through the nose, if 

 pressed beyond the soft palate. By careful manipulation, 

 either through the mouth or pressing on either side of the 

 throat, the mass may be detected in the pharynx. 



In cases in which the obstruction is in the cervical portion 

 of the oesophagus, there is an obvious swelling in the course 

 of the latter on the left side of the neck ; the general symp- 

 toms are more or less intense, and the animal, with anxious 

 countenance, sunken head, tremor, and partial sweats over 

 the body, manifests, not long after the first symptoms appear, 

 great exhaustion. 



The presence of an obstacle in the portion of the gullet 

 situated within the chest, is indicated by the absence of the 

 most urgent symptoms of suffocation, but the addition in all 

 animals of violent retching, whenever the oesophagus is filled 

 by fluid. The distensions of the gullet by liquids swallowed, 

 and the regurgitations to clear the canal, indicate, with the 

 symptoms above-mentioned, and which are common to all 

 cases of choking, this dangerous form of accident. 



When the oesophagus is entirely filled, urgent symptoms 

 sometimes appear tardily. Loss of appetite, sunken head, blood- 

 shot eyes, costiveness, discharge of saliva and mucus from the 

 mouth, with the evident swelling in the left side, indicate the 

 impaction. I have known this form of choking overlooked 

 for a week by a veterinary surgeon, and when I was in the 

 act of emptying the passage, the animal sank exhausted. 



With regard to ruminants, I must especially call attention 

 to the urgent symptoms due to hove, and which often 

 require to be relieved before any attempt to remove the ob- 



M 



