270 EUPTUEED STOMACH. 



without danger.* It is not only wrong, but cruel, to persist 

 in an animal standing, walking, or trotting, which is often 

 done with the free use of the whip. 



Great patience is required in treating severe cases of colic, 

 and four or five hours may be spent before the symptoms ap- 

 pear to abate. With veterinarians, it should be a standing 

 rule that, as the animal cannot be declared safe until its ab- 

 dominal muscles relax, and evacuation both of faeces and 

 urine is obtained, so should it not be left until such symp- 

 toms of relief are noticed. 



Washing a little tepid water into the animal's mouth, or 

 giving it a little nitre or spirits of nitric ether in water, can 

 do no harm, and often palliates the intense thirst which the 

 animal often experiences. Above all things, opiates and other 

 stimulants or narcotics must be avoided. If cases of colic 

 are neglected or improperly treated, the results which we are 

 now about to consider are observed. 



RUPTUEED STOMACH. 



I have alluded repeatedly to this lesion as occurring in the 

 horse, from the obstacles to the act of vomiting which exist in 

 this animal. The rupture involves the muscular coat first, 

 and the mucous membrane which protrudes through the 

 latter gives way also, and either the contents drop into the 

 omental sac, or, from the close manner in which the abdominal 

 organs are packed, by an effort of the abdominal muscles, 

 rejection by the mouth occurs. 



Symptoms. A horse that has, by accident, got at a corn 

 bin or sack of oats, eats to repletion, and is observed after- 

 wards to breathe heavily, stagger, look round at his flanks, 



* I have lost a horse by ruptured diaphragm, from not having a loose 

 box to turn him into. The animal fixed its limbs against the stall 

 post, and, in a struggle to extricate itself, injured itself fatally. 



