44 DISEASES OP CATTLE. 



severe exertion of ascending hills and mountains, drawing heavy 

 loads, or the straining which oxen undergo while fighting each other 

 may aiso give rise to peritoneal hernia. 



Symptoms. — The ox suddenly becomes very restless, stamps with his 

 feet, moves backward and forward, hurriedly lies down, rises, moves 

 his tail uneasily, and kicks at his belly with the foot of the affected 

 side. The pain evinced may diminish, but soon returns again. In the 

 early stage there are frequent passages of dung, but after the lapse of 

 eighteen to twenty-four hours this ceases, the bowel apparently being 

 emptied up to the point of strangulation, and the passages now con- 

 sist only of a little mucus mixed with blood. When injections are 

 given at this time the water passes out of the bowel without even 

 being colored. The animal lies down on the side where the hernia 

 exists and stretches out his hind feet in a backward direction. These 

 two particular symptoms serve to distinguish this affection from enter- 

 itis and invagination of the bowel. As time passes, the animal becomes 

 quieter, but this cessation of pain may indicate that gangrene of the 

 bowel has set in, and may, therefore, under certain circumstances, be 

 considered a precursor of death. Gangrene may take place in from 

 four to six days, when perforation of the bowel may occur and death 

 result in a short time. 



Treatment. — The ox should in the first place be examined by oiling 

 the hand and arm and passing it into the rectum ; the hand should be 

 passed along the margin of the pelvis, beginning at the sacrum and 

 continuing downward toward the inguinal ring, when a soft, painful 

 swelling will be felt, which may vary from the size of an apple to that 

 of the two fists. This swelling will be felt to be tightly compressed by 

 the spermatic cord. It very rarely happens that there is any similar 

 swelling on the left side, though it is best in such cases to make a 

 thorough examination. The bowel has sometimes been released from 

 its position by driving the ox down a hill, by causing him to jump 

 from a height of 2 feet to the ground, and the expedient of trotting 

 him has been resorted to with the hope that the jolting movement 

 might bring about a release of the bowel. If the simple expedients 

 mentioned have been tried and failed, then the hand being passed into 

 the rectum should be pressed gently on the swelling in an upward and 

 forward direction, so as to endeavor to push the imprisoned portion of 

 the bowel back into the abdomen. While this is being done the ox's 

 hind feet should stand on higher ground than the front, so as to favor 

 the slipping out of the bowel by its own weight, and at the same time 

 an assistant should squeeze the animal's loins, so as to cause it to bend 

 downward and so relax the band formed by the spermatic cord. If 

 the imprisoned portion of gut is freed, which may be ascertained by 

 the disappearance of the swelling, the usual sounds produced by the 

 bowels moving in the abdomen will be heard, and in a few hours the 

 feces and urine will be passed as usual. If the means mentioned fail 



