240 BOVINE PATHOLOGY. 



escape througli the wound, and keep it open ; secondly, 

 when healing occurs, stricture is very liable to ensue. 

 The indications for treatment are : feed the animal only on 

 soft food — liquids are preferable ; after feeding remove all 

 foreign matter escaping through the wound ; dress with oil 

 or glycerine of carbolic acid. It is a good plan to support 

 mainly on gruel administered through the hollow probang. 

 The use of the latter acts as a preventive against stricture. 

 When rupture has followed choking, and the wound is sub- 

 cutaneous, the alimentary material which escapes tends to 

 accumulate in the areolar tissue. It must be cut down 

 upon and removed, then the edges of the oesophageal 

 wound brought together with wire sutures or carbolised 

 catgut, and the case treated as above mentioned. Some- 

 times only partial rupture occurs when the force applied 

 to the probang is in the proper direction, but too great. 

 Complete transverse rupture of the mucous membrane then 

 takes place, and the probang passes onward with a jerk, 

 which to the experienced practitioner is diagnostic. The 

 symptoms of choking, in such a case, generally persist 

 after the canal has been cleared, and it ultimately becomes 

 necessary to destroy the patient. 



Under the heading ^'Degeneration of the Mucous mem- 

 brane of the (Esophagus '^ in the ' Edinburgh Veterinary 

 Review,^ vol. iv, p. 235, is given a case of those warty 

 growths, benign epithelial tumours which are not unfre- 

 quently found growing from the oesophageal mucous mem- 

 brane. These are sometimes enormous, and give rise to 

 choking since they materially diminish the calibre of the 

 tube. Their presence can only be surmised in cases of 

 intermittent choking. They constitute one of many 

 causes. The frequent passage of the probang and other 

 treatment of ordinary stricture may suffice to secure fitness 

 for the butcher. 



Choking is a condition which commonly depends upon 

 impaction or blocking up of the oesophagus by some foreign 

 body. Symptoms of choking, however, arise from other 

 causes, as injuries of the oesophagus from sharp bodies 

 swallowed, also disease of the pneumogastric nerve. 



