Constipation from Intestinal Atony. 317 



unusual efiEort and straining, and even with groaning, and one or 

 more balls that may be exposed in the act are often drawn back 

 and retained by the inversion of the rectum and closure of the 

 sphincter. It is liable to be complicated by impaired appetite, 

 tympanies, slight recurrent colics, and dryness, scuriiness and un. 

 thriftiness of the skin. Not unfrequently the pressure of the im- 

 pacted colon (pelvic flexure) irritates the bladder causing stretch- 

 ing as if to urinate, and the passage of urine often in small quan- 

 tity. There may be the symptoms of any one of the different 

 nervous affections that lead to impaired peristaltic action, or of 

 the local diseases which tend to obstruction of the bowels. 



In dogs there are violent and painful efforts to defecate, which 

 may be fruitless, or may lead to the expulsion of small masses of dry , 

 earthy looking faeces, smoothly moulded on the surface, coated 

 with mucus, streaked it may be with blood and highly offensive 

 in odor. The anus may be puffy and swollen with muco-puru- 

 lent secretion from the anal glands, which .soils the hair of the 

 hips and tail. If the abdomen is flaccid, manipulation with both 

 hands on opposite sides usually detects a solid mass representing the 

 impacted rectum and colon, and extending from the pelvis forward, 

 often to the sternum. The same mass will be reached by the 

 oiled finger introduced into the rectum. Both methods of ex- 

 ploration are painful and may call forth cries from the patient. 

 The abdomen is usually distended, largely from the impacted 

 faeces, in which case it gives a flat sound on percussion, or from 

 gaseous emanation, in which case it is tense, resilient and re- 

 sonant. Colicy pains are liable to appear, and vomiting at first 

 of food only, then more or less yellow and bilious, and finally of 

 distinctly feculent matters. For a time appetite may be retained, 

 but this is gradually lo.st. There may .supervene diarrhoea, 

 which in favorable cases may lead to expulsion of the impacted 

 mass, but in others it fails to completely dislodge it. The patient is 

 dull andspiritless, inclined to lie curled up in dark corners, and 

 when raised walks slowly and stiffly, with the tail carried straight 

 or slightly to one side. The male urinates like a bitch without 

 lifting the leg. The nose is dry, the tongue furred, the teeth 

 usually covered with tartar, and the breath foetid. There is at 

 first no hyperthermia, but some rise of temperature attends on 

 the advance of the disease, and the auto-poisoning by absorbed 

 products of the putrefaction of retained faeces. 



