INTESTINAL OBSTRUCTION. 129 
permit of the application of a treatment which promises success, but still it is 
well for the owners of dogs to know the best measures to employ. 
For the removal of foreign bodies from the stomach, physicians are now 
recommending the eating of potatoes only, in large quantities, cooked in dif- 
ferent ways, to stimulate the appetite. Cases are on record in which articles 
of jewellery, brass weights, nails, pins, etc., were successfully ejected after a few 
days of this potato diet. Even sets of false teeth, long needles, and pencils have 
journeyed through the intestinal canal of man and yet done no harm, It is 
reasonable to infer from this that some such treatment should be applied to the 
dog that has shown such a perverted appetite. He would scarcely be content 
with a potato diet, and yet he might if finely chopped meat were added. A 
surer treatment, however, would be to administer flour paste as soon as possible 
after the foreign body had entered the stomach. Simply flour and cold water 
is all that is necessary ; and the mixture requires to be as thick as possible and 
yet flow out of the dish in which it is prepared. About two cupfuls of this 
should be poured down the dog’s throat. The water will soon pass out of the 
stomach and leave the flour to coat over and incase the offending substance. 
Water should be entirely denied for at least twelve hours, and during the 
next day or two be given only sparingly. After that a potato diet, rendered 
appetizing by meat, should be persisted in; and a cupful of flaxseed tea— made 
quite thick — be administered every two or three hours. 
On the third day a dose of castor-oil may be given ; but it should be merely 
sufficient to produce a laxative, not a cathartic, effect. 
In the case related, the dog instinctively applied the best possible treatment, 
and essentially the same as that herein advised. The grass acted as would the 
flour-paste or potato. Doubtless owing to its shape, the coin could not pass cer- 
tain points in the stomach or intestine, but when enveloped in grass, and practi- 
cally converted into a ball, it made its way easily. 
Elsewhere, under the head “Abdominal Surgery,” the wisdom of surgical 
interference in cases believed to be of intestinal stoppage has been considered; 
and herein it is merely necessary to call attention to the fact that in all attacks, 
of whatsoever nature, in which the abdomen is greatly distended by gas, as in 
stoppage, and intense pain is caused thereby, the gas should be expelled, and 
prompt relief afforded by plunging a fine trocar and cannula through the abdom- 
inal walls, over and into the distended bowel. Or in the absence of such fine 
instrument, the surgeon can generally use successfully the needle of his hypo- 
dermic syringe, if the same be a long one, and the abdominal walls are not too 
thick. And were that or other suitable instrument not obtainable and the case 
very desperate, the writer would not hesitate to use the fine blade of his pen- 
knife. 
