OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 119 



1. Feeding on bulky, innutritions food 



with too little water. 



2. Defective peristalsis, amounting in 



some cases to paralysis of the large 

 bowel. 



3. Deficient secretion of the succus en- 



tericus or excessive absorption of 

 the fluid portion of the food. 



4. Intestinal obstructions. 



Pathogenesis. — In regard to the first cause, bulky food will 

 not cause constipation if the horse gets plenty of water; defi- 

 ciency of water, however, will of itself cause constipation 

 whether the food is bulky or not. But suppose the horses are 

 wintering in the barnyard on straw, and have to go a long way to 

 get water. If the weather is cold, they wall not go so often, and 

 furthermore they will not drink much wdien they do go. This 

 causes constipation. Or it may be mid-summer when the grass 

 is dry and short. The animals have to go into the bottoms to 

 get the grass and the streams are dried up. They get bulky, in- 

 nutritious, dry hay and little or no water. These are two con- 

 ditions to cause constipation. 



In cases of constipation from the second cause, we shall find 

 that the horses are over-fed, perhaps kept for a long time on one 

 kind of feed. As a result the secretions are defective, the nerv- 

 ous system is tired, and this fatigue reacts causing paralysis of 

 the bowels. The third cause, a deficient secretion of the succus 

 entericus, is a peculiar condition, and may be due to inactivity of 

 the glands, or to excessive absorption of the fluids of the bowel. 

 The features peculiar to the fourth cause will be given under the 

 head of Intestinal Obstructions. 



Semeiology. — The symptoms of constipation depend upon the 

 cause. In case the first cause is operating to produce the disease, 

 there will be a general unthrifty condition. The horse will be 

 thin, more or less hide-bound, his coat will be long and staring 

 and the feces scanty and dry. If the constipation is caused by 

 the second factor, we shall get inactivity of the bowels due to 

 nervous depression, which, in many cases, means paralysis of the 

 colon. In the morning you may find an absence of fecal mat- 



