68 THE VETERINARY DOCTOR. 
INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS.—ENTERITIS. 
Inflammation of the muscular coat of the intestines is caused by expos- 
ure to cold and wet; excessive exercise, with sudden chill; drinking cold 
water when heated; over-feeding; want of work; bad treatment or neglect 
of colic; strong purgatives; continued constipation; rupture in the intestines, 
Symptoms.—These are similar to those of colic, from which they 
should be studiously distinguished. (See the table of symptoms under 
Colic.) The pain is continuous, not paroxysmal; pulse hard and small, 
ranging from 60 to 100, and in extreme cases imperceptible or thready; 
mouth hot, and usually dry; nostrils expanded, red and hot; bowels very 
much bound; urine stopped; abdomen tender and tucked up; extremities 
cold; copious sweats, becoming cold and sour-smelling in latter stages; 
breathing quick and short; the horse paws; lies down and rises often; 
strikes his belly; looks at his flanks as if in great pain; as the pain increases, 
the horse drops, rolls, and lies on his back; these symptoms, after some 
hours, may be followed by a subsidence of pain, the body being still covered 
with a cold, clammy sweat; the eye becomes lusterless; the lips hang; the 
mouth is very cold; tremor 
occurs in the muscies, par- 
ticularly in the extremities. 
These symptoms indicate 
an inflammation of the outer 
GENERAL SIGN OF ABDOMIN\L PReEssSURE tO Derecr ENTERITIS, 
IkRITATION, 
muscular coat. An inflamed inner coat will be marked, in addition to most 
of the above, by warm ears and extremities; discharge of liquid, frothy 
dung, sometimes bloody; feebler and quicker pulse; the taking of breath is 
short, and its expulsion checked and then completed with a groan. In 
extreme cases the horse totters, knocks his head on various objects, falls, 
and with a few struggles dies. 
TrEATMENT.—Treatment should be given as soon as possible, and 
since the disease is most likely dependent upon some derangement of the 
mucous surface and the cellular tissue under it, it should not be entirely 
Digitized by Microsoft® 
