THE DISEASES OF CATS, AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



359 



five-minim doses of tincture of opium or bromide 

 of potassium, given by the mouth, may prove 

 successful. When resulting from tumours or 

 tuberculosis, humanity dictates that the lethal 

 chamber should be called into requisition and 

 the animal put out of its misery. Easily 

 assimilable and non - irritating food only 

 should be given for a few days. Aerated 

 soda-water forms the best drinking fluid. 



Gastritis, or inflammation of the stomach, 

 is sometimes called gastric fever, and when of 

 a mild type, gastric catarrh. Its causes are 

 variable. It may be due to altered or de- 

 composed food, distemper, microbes of various 

 kinds, large doses of emetics or aperients, 

 mineral poisons, chills, absorption of dressing 

 applied to the skin, or licking the same off. 

 It is also caused by worms, especially the broad- 

 necked tapeworm (Tcenia crassicollis), travelling 

 into the stomach and setting up irritation. 

 Again, diseases of the uterus, liver, kidneys, 

 and other organs give rise to gastritis. It 

 frequently rages as an epizootic, causing con- 

 siderable mortality in some catteries, especially 

 after cat shows. 



Symptoms. The disease is ushered in by 

 sudden vomiting of the food, followed by the 

 repeated rejection of ropy mucus, and then, 

 if the case is severe, this is succeeded by a thin, 

 clear, greenish yellow or bloody fluid ; saliva 

 flows from the mouth, the thirst is great, 

 especially for cold water, which is generally 

 expelled almost as soon as taken ; there is 

 a distressed appearance, restlessness, or a fre- 

 quent shifting of the posture. As a rule, the 

 animal prefers to lie on its belly full length, 

 with its limbs resting on cold objects. 



Pressure on the region of the stomach 

 causes moaning and sometimes vomiting. 

 After the lapse of some time, when a fatal 

 termination is advancing, the eyes appear 

 sunken, the pupils become dilated, the ex- 

 pression is sad, the animal becomes cold and 

 indifferent to his surroundings, the mouth 

 gives off an offensive odour, and the coat is 

 dull, open, and lustreless. The animal dies 

 either in a comatose state or from sudden 

 failure of the heart during a fit of vomiting. 

 Treatment. If recognised early, an emetic 

 is sometimes very useful in cutting short the 

 complaint. No food or ordinary water should 

 be allowed until twenty-four to forty-eight 

 hours have elapsed since the last vomiting ; 

 but a teaspoonful of Brand's essence of beef 

 jelly and two to four teaspoonfuls of aerated 



water should be given every four hours. 

 Bismuth subnitrate or carbonate in five-grain 

 doses may be shaken on the tongue an hour 

 before these two latter are administered. 



If this means of treatment should prove 

 ineffectual after twenty-four hours, one may 

 conclude that the disease is of a severe type, 

 and in this case one to five minims of the 

 liquid extract of opium in a little mucilage, or 

 chloretone, to 2\ grains, should be given 

 every three hours. Feeding by means of rectal 

 suppositories, or injection of an ounce of milk 

 containing a little common salt, may be 

 attempted. Finally, if this fail, washing out 

 the stomach with borax or boracic acid, or 

 chinosol and warm water, and a hypodermic 

 injection of bullock's or sheep's serum might 

 be tried. In gastric inflammation due to in- 

 fection the hypodermic injection of quinine 

 hydrochloride or trichloride of iodine will some- 

 times answer when everything else has failed. 

 Cocaine and orthoform have no advantage over 

 opiates, especially the denarcotised prepara- 

 tions, in soothing the stomach. Ice in small 

 pieces pushed down the throat sometimes 

 answers in assuaging the thirst when the soda- 

 water does not. In the chronic form, doses 

 of to | grain of calomel or mercury with 

 chalk given with bismuth three times a day 

 are beneficial in many instances. 



Enteritis, or inflammation of the in- 

 testines or bowels, frequently co-exists with 

 gastritis, and then the disease takes on the 

 term of gastro-enteritis. The causes, like those 

 of gastritis, are various. It may be. due to 

 infection, bad food, drugs, foreign bodies, chills, 

 distemper, intussusception or irritating enemas, 

 etc. There also seems to be a special con- 

 tagious type of this disease which frequently 

 causes great mortality in catteries, especially 

 with kittens. Generally the small intestine 

 forms the seat of the disease, which may in 

 rare cases, however, extend the whole length 

 of the bowel, which is sometimes lined with a 

 croupy or diphtheritic membrane. 



The symptoms are restlessness, great pain, 

 frequent crying or moaning, offensive and 

 profuse and frequent diarrhoea, the dejections 

 varying in colour and consistence and fre- 

 quently containing blood, and sometimes vomit- 

 ing, especially when the stomach is implicated ; 

 thirst is intense, food is refused, the animal is 

 cold, haggard, and depressed ; its fur is dull, 

 open, and lustreless, and becomes soiled, giving 

 off an abominable odour. When the abdomen 



