132 THEORY AND PRACTICE. 



Watch the case closely; stay with it for a time. Colic doses 

 are usually repeated in half hours but sometimes they must be 

 repeated every 15 minutes. For violent colic away from home, 

 at a funeral for instance, tie a small piece of tobacco to the bit, 

 and the horse will swallow enough of it to give him relief. 



FLATULENT COLIC. 



Flatulent colic is similar in many respects to spasmodic colic, 

 but instead of the cramp we have tympanitis. This, whether of 

 the bowels or the stomach, is always due tO' the fermentation of 

 food. In case of impaction of the colon, when there is paralysis 

 of the bowel, there is sometimes a little flatulence, but it is never 

 a distressing symptom. In that case the flatulence as it occurs 

 passes off naturally. 



In flatulent colic the tympanitis distends the bowels and 

 presses strongly forward against the diaphragm. This disturbs 

 the breathing, making the horse breathe faster and more shallow, 

 producing rapid nervous prostration or asphyxia. Rupture of 

 the bowels occasionally takes place, the symptoms are self- 

 evident. The body is distended, the flanks tympanic or drum- 

 like, and the rectum sometimes everted more or less. 



Pathogenesis. — There is indigestion. The undigested food fer- 

 ments ; the flatulence starting in one portion of the bowel pro- 

 duces a fold on itself so that the gas as it forms, cannot escape 

 and the more gas that forms the greater is the pressure upon the 

 fold. Then it presses forward upon the diaphragm and causes 

 asphyxia, or nervous prostration. Naturally as a result of this, 

 the mucous membrane becomes greatly cyanotic ; breathing is 

 more rapid and shallow ; the ears droop ; the head hangs and in 

 the course of 2-4 hours the horse in many cases is ready to 

 topple over. 



Treatment. — In a very bad case, when the doctor arrives, he 

 has not time to wait for medicine to act ; you cannot relieve the 

 case with the hose and the disturbance being in the bowels, it 

 takes the medicine a long time to reach that place. In the mean- 

 time the animal is likely to die. Consequently you must tap the 

 distended bowel with a trocar. This is considered by some a 



