INTESTINAL INDIGESTION AND OBSTRUCTION IN 



BIRDS. 



Causes : Age, debility, atony, matting of feathers, dry or indigestible 

 food, lack of water, diseased oviducts, sand or gravel, lack of pebbles or 

 power in gizzard. Lesions ; masses of egg, uric acid, or faeces in cloaca, im- 

 plicating colon and caeca. Symptoms : dullness, stupor, vertigo, staggering, 

 erect plumage, trailing wings and tail, bulging anus, covered with matted 

 feathers, impaction felt by finger. Treatment : extract mass, castor oil, 

 laudanum, chalk, bismuth, pepper, demulcents, phenol, exercise, silage, 

 green food, pebbles. 



Causes. These resemble those already noted for the dog. Old 

 age, debility, and atony of the bowel, the matting together of 

 feathers across the anus, dry feeding, indigestible food, scarcity 

 of water, and lack of exercise are especially to be noted. Mal- 

 formations or other changes lead to obstruction of the cloaca, 

 and of defecation. Sand and gravel passing from an atonic 

 gizzard accumulate in the small intestine or in the caeca distend- 

 ing them to great excess. Imperfect trituration in the gizzard, 

 from lack of pebbles, may prove a factor in stoneless prairies. 



Lesions. The most common seat of obstruction is at the cloaca, 

 and the impacted matter may be yellow partaking of the nature 

 of yolk of egg, or it may consist of feculent matters and uric acid 

 in various proportions, white, hard and foetid. As in the dog 

 this distension may be continued forward blocking the colon and 

 caeca as well. Lucet mentions a case in which the impacted mass 

 measured seven inches long, and eight in circumference at its 

 posterior and larger end. 



Symptoms. The bird is dull, sluggish, stupid, giddy or un- 

 steady on its limbs, with feathers erect, wings, tail and head 

 pendent and loses flesh rapidly. Often a felted mass of feathers 

 and fseces cover the anus. In its absence there appears the 

 rounded swelling or on manipulation the impacted cloaca or rec- 

 tum can be felt firm and resistant. 



Treatment. Soften and remove the external mass of faeces by 

 the aid of tepid water, clip off the feathers, which would tend to 

 restore it, then by the oiled finger and warm water injections break 

 up and extract the contents of cloaca and rectum. If impaction 



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