2o6 Veterinary Medicine. 



house life until accumulated and dried. The impaction tends to 

 extension forward, the new material adding continually to the 

 old, and the over-distended rectum becoming more and more 

 atonic in proportion to the increase of the distension. 



Causes. The most prominent factor is denial of nature's call 

 to defecate, on the part of house dogs trained to habits of cleanli- 

 ness. The accumulated mass distends and weakens the rectum, 

 enabling it to hold more without suffering, making the call of 

 nature less imperious, and diminishing the poweir of expulsion. 

 l,ack of exercise usually operates in the same animals, as it also 

 does in watch dogs, the movements of which are limited by the 

 length of their chains. 



Overfeeding contributes, in various ways, by increasing the 

 amount of feculent matter passed on into the rectum, by hasten- 

 ing the food through stomach and small intestine imperfectly 

 digested and therefore in a more irritating condition, and by con- 

 tributing to obesity and lack of tone. 



In mastiffs, hounds, bull-dogs, etc., which are naturally 

 gluttonous and swallow animal food in large ma.sses without tear- 

 ing apart, or mastication, portions pass into the intestine un- 

 digested and tend to disturb and block the terminal bowel. 



Dogs that are out of health, and which lack tone in general 

 have usually torpid bowels and suffer from delay and impaction 

 of contents. Hence all chronic and debilitating diseases are liable 

 to become aggravated by this troublesome complication. 



Old dogs with the teeth worn out and the general tone of the 

 stomach and intestines low are habitual sufferers. 



Paralysis of the posterior limbs is usually associated with 

 paresis of the rectum and accumulation, and various other atonic 

 nervous disorders act in the same way. 



The sympathy between the skin and alimentary tract shows 

 itself in common disorders; indigestions and catarrh becoming 

 complicated by skin eruptions acute and chronic, by indi- 

 gestions and impactions. To both conditions the nature of the 

 food of house dogs largely contributes, the habit of eating abund- 

 antly at each meal time of the master, the consumption of highly 

 spiced meats, of sweet cakes, pastry and puddings, and even the 

 exclusive diet of white bread or farinaceous and starchy aliment. 



In long haired dogs, the matting of the.se hairs together across 



