FOREIGN BODIES IN THE INTESTINES OF 

 CARNIVORA. 



Small bodies, especially playthings, feathers, hair, bristles, bones of prey. 

 Lesions : congestion, inflammation, hemorrhage, ulceration, perforation, in- 

 vagination. Symptoms : colic, vomiting, tucked up belly, straining, pal- 

 pitation, rabiform symptoms, cough, convulsions. Course : emaciation, 

 prostration ; death in five days or two weeks according to seat of obstruc- 

 tion. Treatment : Oleaginous injections, laparotomy. 



Causes. The dog is especially liable to this form of trouble, in 

 consequence of his habit of carrying objects in his mouth and of 

 playing with different objects, especially the playthings of chil- 

 dren. Marbles, pebbles, spinning-tops, corks, coins, nuts, peach 

 stones, pieces of rubber, cloth of leather, bits of wood, sponge, 

 needles, pins, potato, bone, cord, hair, bristles, feathers, wire, 

 and a number of other objects. Some of them, like feathers, 

 hair, and bones are swallowed with food, and when that has been 

 digested, they are either vomited, or failing in this, are passed 

 on into the intestine. Eately the author made a post mortem of 

 a house dog with over 24 inches of the jejunum virtually blocked 

 with fragments knawed from a caouchouc ball and pieces of 

 twine. 



Cats also swallow a variety of objects. Benjamin and Meg- 

 nin record three cases of intestinal obstruction by the crystal 

 drops of shades. 



Lesions. When the lumen of the intestine is blocked with a 

 round solid body like a marble or peach stone there occur active 

 congestion, inflammation, blood stasis and hemorrhage, with, in 

 many cases, necrosis, ulceration and perforation. Similar lesions 

 occur from cord. In a recent case of impaction with gnawed 

 fragments of caouchouc and cord, the 24 inches of the bowel im- 

 plicated were the seat of extended patches of necrosis and of deep, 

 and even perforating ulcers on the lesser curvature of the intes- 

 tine, evidently caused by the tension of the stretched cord on the 

 shorter attached border of the gut. Cadeac says the lesions from 

 cord are always at the point of attachment of the mesentery, 

 whereas those coming from round or cubical solid bodies are 

 mainly on the greater curvature. Mathis found at the pylorus a 

 338 



