ACUTE PERITONITIS IN SOLIPEDS. 



Susceptibility to pyogenic bacteria, infection simple or complex. Trau- 

 matic injuries; accidental, omphalitis, operations, strangulation, wounds 

 in rectum or vagina, coition, hernia, castration of mare, or horse, infected 

 from second to sixth day, later granulation protects, ruptured stomach, per- 

 forating ulcer, perforation of parturient womb, ruptured abscess, microbes 

 in circulation, debility. Symptoms : trauma with spreading swelling, cede- 

 ma, tenderness, stiffness, arched back, tucked up abdomen, fever, prostra- 

 tion, colics, careful decubitus and rising, tense tender belly, ridge along 

 flank, breathing short, inspirations catching, straddles, steps short, costive 

 or later diarrhoea, enuresis, abdomen fluctuates, death in one to eight days. 

 With ruptured stomach or intestine prostration extreme, collapse, vomiting. 

 Resolution. Ascites. Diagnosis : trauma, gastric or intestinal lesion, fol- 

 lowed by specific symptoms. Lesions : trauma, rupture and escape of in- 

 gesta, congestion, ecchymoses, false membranes, adhesions, liquid effusion, 

 bloody, pink, or straw colored, albuminous, fibrinous, granules, cells, salts, 

 bacteria, pus, fcetor, bowels tympanitic, later fibrous bands, strangulations, 

 degenerations. Prevention : fatal in solipeds, avoid abdominal congestions, 

 inflammations, traumas, infections, accumulation of serum, blood, etc., 

 also debility, ill health, chill. Treatment : old methods, by anodynes and 

 checking peristalsis. Modern method : antiseptics, iodoform, carbolic acid, 

 mercuric chloride, irrigation with boiled water, drainage ; internally, saline 

 laxatives, eliminates from bowels, blood, peritoneum, favoring, phagocyto- 

 sis, and innervation, antiseptics, sodium salicylate, chloral hydrate, morphia, 

 enemata, hot fomentations, or ice, in suppuration drainage and washing with 

 normal salt solution at body temperature, derivatives, laparotomy, puncture 

 in tympany. 



Causes. Solipeds are especially subject to peritonitis in its 

 acute and dangerous forms largely because this class of animals 

 is preeminently obnoxions to the attacks of pyogenic bacteria. 

 The disease may however be dependent on a great variety of 

 different organisms, and these may cause different forms through 

 invasion by one specific microbe or by a complex invasion. It is 

 convenient to note the different channels of invasion. 



a. Traumatic Injuries. Wounds are not uncommon from 

 pricks with forks, pickets, broken rails, prongs of stump fences, 

 poles or shafts of wagons, nails, barbed wire, horns of cattle, 

 tusks of boar, and other sharp or pointed objects, which carry 

 infecting germs, or in any case make an entrance for those found 

 in the dust of the stable, on the horses skin, comb, brush, rubber 



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