100 KENNEL DISEASES. 
CHAPTER II. 
cOLIc. 
Tue term colic as commomy used, includes all painful affections of the 
stomach and intestines which are not attended by inflammation. Occurring in 
man, it may be flatulent, bilious, spasmodic, rheumatic, neuralgic, or in conse- 
quence of absorption of lead or copper. There are abdominal pains due to 
other causes that are usually termed colic; for instance, that attending the pas- 
sage of gall-stones and gravel-stones. The intense pain in obstruction of the 
bowels and strangulated hernia is also given the same name. But colic in its 
literal sense is purely nervous and functional in nature; and in the majority of 
cases it is a spasm or series of spasms in the muscular coat of the intestines, 
and less often of the stomach. 
While various causes may give rise to this affection in man, by far the most 
common is disturbance of the stomach and intestines brought on by over-eating 
or indulgence in indigestible food. This, being retained, undergoes decompo- 
sition. As a result poisonous gases are generated; which over-distend the 
intestines, also probably the stomach, and produce the spasms in the walls pre- 
viously alluded to. Or the same may be excited by the gases if not of volume 
sufficient to over-distend, provided they are of especially irritating character. 
Again, irritant fluids generally abound where there is decomposition within the 
food canal, and these alone may produce spasmodic rigidity in the intestinal walls, 
although gases are almost always present to assist in creating this painful effect. 
This variety is termed flatulent or wind colic, and it is the most common form 
which occurs in dogs. But their digestive organs are very strong and active, 
and these animals have marvellous ability to resist and speedily dispose of poi- 
sons and irritants which are the product of putrefaction, consequently it is safe 
to assume that with them gaseous distention is seldom alone caused by indiges- 
tible food and its decomposition, but is far oftener due to worms or some obstruc- 
tion to the natural passage downward of the contents of the stomach or bowels. 
And the fact that their appetite is frequently perverted, as shown by their swal- 
lowing bits of wood, stones, straw, etc., renders it easy to support this theory. 
Intestinal obstruction may occur in the absence of a foreign body. In some 
instances for a time there is loss of power in the muscular fibre of a small part 
of the intestine, while the parts above and below it still retain their normal 
action. The affected part collapses, and the tube is as tightly shut as it would 
be were it pinched by the thumb and finger. 
