FOREIGN BODIES IN THE STOMACH. HAIR, WOOL, 

 BRISTLE, CLOVER AND COTTON BALLS. 



Hair balls, wool balls, bristle balls, cotton balls, clover-hair balls, oat-hair 

 balls, paper balls, phosphatic calculi, sand and gravel, nails, wires, needles, 

 pins, etc., cloth, leather, whalebone, playthings, etc. Symptoms: of 

 catarrh or colic, dullness, restlessness, arched back, in dog vomiting of 

 blood, fistula. Diagnosis. Treatment : emetic, feed potatoes, laparotomy. 



Hair Balls. These are common in the rumen of cattle and 

 have been found in the fourth stomach. They are especially 

 injurious to young animals by reason of their irritating the gastric 

 mucosa, but they also occasionally block the pylorus, producing 

 indigestion, gastric dilatation, gradually advancing emaciation 

 and even a fatal resuit. 



■Wool Balls. These are found in sheep and are especially 

 injurious in young lambs. 



Bristle Balls. These are found in swine as round, or ovoid 

 balls or long ellipses bent upon themselves. The sharp projecting 

 ends of the bristles render them very irritating, especiallj' to 

 young pigs. 



All of these are caused by licking themselves or their fellows, 

 and particularly during the period of moulting or as the result of 

 .some .skin affection. Lambs which are nursed by ewes with an 

 excess of wool on and around the mammae, and old sheep with a 

 disposition to eat wool are frequent victims. 



Cotton Balls. The.se have been found in lambs fed on cotton 

 seed cake. A certain amount of the cotton fiber is incorporated 

 in the cake, and this is rolled together and felted by the move- 

 ments of the stomach and agglutinated by mucus; 



Clover-hair Balls. The fine hairs from the clover leaf have 

 been found rolled into balls in the abomasum of lambs producing 

 all the evil effects of the other pilous mas.ses. 



Oat-hair Balls. The fine hairs which cover the .seed of the 

 oat are found matted together and cemented by mucus in 

 the stomach of horses fed on the dust of oatmeal mills. They 

 are especially common in Scotland, where oatmeal has beeii so 

 extensively used. 



187 



