302 ENTERITIS 



dreadful pain by pawing, striking at his belly, looking wildly at his flanks, 

 groaning, and rolling. The pulse will be quickened and small; the ears and 

 legs cold'; the belly tender, and sometimes hot; the breathing quickened ; the 

 bowels costive; and the animal becoming rapidly and fearfully weak. 



The reader will probably here recur to the sketch given in page 299 of the 

 distinction between spasmodic colic and inflammation of the bowels, or enteritis. 



The causes of this disease are, first of all and most frequently, sudden expo- 

 sure to cold. If a horse that has been highly fed, carefully groomed, and kept 

 in a warm stable, is heated with exercise, and has been during some hours 

 without food, and in this state of exhaustion is suffered to drink freely of 

 cold water, or is drenched with rain, or have his legs and belly washed with 

 cold water, an attack of inflammation of the bowels will often follow. An over- 

 fed horse, subjected to severe and long-continued exertion, if his lungs were 

 previously weak, will probably be attacked by inflammation of them ; but if 

 the lungs were sound, the bowels will on the following day be the seat of 

 disease. Stones in the intestines are an occasional cause of inflammation, and 

 colic neglected or wrongly treated will terminate in it. 



The horse paws and stamps as in colic, but without the intervals of ease that 

 occur in that disease. The pulse also is far quicker than in colic. The 

 breathing is more hurried, and the indication of suffering more evident. 

 " The next stage," in the graphic language of Mr. Percivall, " borders on deli- 

 rium. The eye acquires a wild, haggard, unnatural stare — the pupil dilates — 

 his heedless and dreadful throes render approach to him quite perilous. He is 

 an object not only of compassion but of apprehension, and seems fast hurrying 

 to his end ; when, all at once, in the midst of agonising torments, he stands 

 quiet, as though every pain had left him, and he were going to recover. His 

 breathing becomes tranquillised — his pulse sunk beyond all perception — his body 

 bedewed with a cold clammy sweat — he is in a tremour from head to foot, and 

 about the legs and ears has even a death-like feel. The mouth feels deadly 

 chill; the lips drop pendulous ; and the eye seems unconscious of objects. In 

 fine, death, not recovery, is at hand. Mortification has seized the inflamed 

 bowel — pain can no longer be felt in that which a few minutes ago was the 

 seat of exquisite suffering. He again becomes convulsed, and in a few more 

 struggles less violent than the former he expires *." 



The treatment of inflammation of the bowels, like that of the lungs, should 

 be prompt and energetic. The first and most powerful means of cure will be 

 bleeding. From six to eight or ten quarts of blood, in fact as much as the horse 

 can bear, should be abstracted as soon as possible ; and the bleeding repeated 

 to the extent of four or five quarts more, if the pain is not relieved and the pulse 

 has not become rounder and fuller. The speedy weakness that accompanies 

 this disease should not deter from bleeding largely. That weakness is the con- 

 sequence of violent inflammation of these parts ; and if that inflammation is 

 subdued by the loss of blood, the weakness will disappear. The bleeding should 

 be effected on the first appearance of the disease, for there is no malady that 

 more quickly runs its course. 



A strong solution of aloes should immediately follow the bleeding, but, con- 

 sidering the irritable state of the intestines at this period, guarded by opium. 

 This should be quickly followed by back-raking, and injections consisting 

 of warm water, or very thin gruel, in which Epsom salts or aloes have been 

 dissolved; and too much fluid can scarcely be thrown up. If the common 

 ox-bladder and pipe is used, it should be frequently replenished ; but with 

 Read's patent pump, already referred to, sufficient may be injected to penetrate 



• Percivall's Hippopalhology, vol. ii. p. 246. 



