ii4 Veterinary Medicine. 



gut, care being taken to turn the mucosa inward and to retain 

 the muscular and peritoneal layers in close contact with each 

 other. It will usually be convenient to cut first the two lower 

 stitches through the abdominal walls, and suture from below up- 

 ward. When finished the peritoneal surface of the gastric wound 

 may be again sponged with the mercuric chloride solution, to- 

 gether with the edges of the wound in the abdominal walls. 

 Finally the abdominal wound is sutured, the stitches including 

 the skin only or the muscular tissues as well. The smooth sur- 

 face of the paunch acts as an internal pad and support, and with 

 due care as to cleanliness, antisepsis and accuracy of stitching, it 

 is rare to find any drawback to continuous and perfect healing. 

 It is well to restrict the animal for three days to well boiled 

 gruels, and for ten days to soft mashes in very moderate amount 

 lest the wound in the paunch should be fatally burst open before 

 a solid union has been effected. 



RUMINITIS. INFLAMMATION OF THE RUMEN. 



Prevalence in different genera. Causes, as in tympany and impaction, 

 irritants, specific fevers Symptoms : impaired rumination, tympanies, im- 

 pactions, depraved appetite, fever, nervous disorders. Lesions : hypersemia, 

 petechiae, exudates, ulcers, desquamation, swollen or shrunken papillae. 

 Treatment : remove cause, mucilaginous food, or gruels, sodium sulphate, 

 or chloride, bismuth, bitters, mustard cataplasm, electricity. 



This is not a prevalent disease but affects animals at all periods 

 of life and is a cause of tardy and difficult digestion and rumina- 

 tion. It usually shows itself as a catarrhal inflammation and by 

 favoring fermentation in the food, and torpor of the muscular 

 walls of the organ contributes to tympany and impaction. It is 

 more common in the ox than in the sheep owing, perhaps, to the 

 more habitual overloading of the stomach and to the hurried, 

 careless manner of feeding. In the goat it is rare. 



Causes. Among the causes may be named tympany and over- 

 loading, so that all the dietary faults that lead to these may be set 

 down as causes of inflammation. Irritants taken with the food, 

 whether in the form of acrid plants (ranunculacese, euphorbiacese, 

 etc.), musty fodder, irritant products in spoiled fodder, aliments 



