Overloaded (Impacted) Rumen. 113 



storing the normal functions of the paunch, and when all other 

 measures fail the only hope lies in rumenotomy. 



Rumenotomy. The warrant for this operation is found in the 

 entire lack of movement in the rumen, the absence of eructation, 

 the cessation of rumbling and motion of the bowels, and the 

 deepening of the stupor in which the patient is plunged. The 

 longer the delay and the deeper the stupor and prostration the less 

 the likelihood of a successful issue from the operation. The 

 animal is made to stand with its right side against a wall, and its 

 nose held by the fingers or bulldog forceps. If judged necessary 

 a rope may be passed from a ring in the wall in front of the 

 shoulder around the animal to another ring behind the thigh 

 and held tight. Or a strong bar with a fulcrum in front, may 

 be pressed against the left side of the body, and well down so as 

 to keep the right side fast against the wall. A line may be 

 shaved from the point of election for puncture in tympany down 

 for a distance of six inches. A sharp pointed knife is now 

 plunged through the walls of the abdomen and rumen in the 

 upper part of this line, and is slowly withdrawn, cutting down- 

 ward and outward until the opening is large enough to admit 

 the hand. The lips of the wound in the over-distended stomach 

 will now bulge out through to the wound in the abdominal walls, 

 and three stitches on each side may be taken through these 

 structures to prevent displacement as the stomach is emptied and 

 rendered more flaccid. A cloth wrung out of a mercuric chloride 

 solution may be ' laid in the lower part of the wound to guard 

 against any escape of liquid into the peritoneal cavity. The 

 contents may now be removed with the hand, until the organ 

 has been left but moderately full. Two or three stable bucketfuls 

 are usually taken, but it is by no means necessary nor . desirable 

 that the rumen be left empty, as a moderate amount of food is 

 requisite to ensure its functional activity. As a rule at least fifty 

 pqunds should be left. Before closing the wound and especially 

 in cases due to dry feeding, it is well in a tolerably large animal 

 to introduce the hand through the demi-canal to ascertain if im- 

 pactions exist in the third stomach and to break up these so far 

 as they can be reached. This done, the edges of the wound in 

 the stomach are to be carefully cleansed, washed with the mer- 

 curic chloride solution and sewed together with carbolated cat- 



