FOOD AND FEEDING 491 



chopped beef, and the mixture is ready for immediate use. The pepton- 

 izing powders of Fairchild Brothers & Foster are most convenient in pre- 

 paring digested food. Each powder consists of five grains of pancreatic 

 extract and fifteen grains of sodium bicarbonate. 



A useful nutrient enema for a large dog may be made of two eggs 

 and six ounces of milk. Four to six eggs may be added to a quart of milk 

 for use as an enema for a horse. The mixture is then to be peptonized 

 and introduced into the rectum at the temperature of the body. Milk 

 pancreatinized for 24 hours, with the addition of glucose to the extent of 

 5%, is said to be most efficient as a nutritive enema (Short & Bywaters). 

 In using the peptonizing powders, one is placed in a quart glass jar to- 

 gether with a teacupful of cold water. Then a pint of the mixture to be 

 peptonized is poured into the jar, and the latter placed in a vessel con- 

 taining water as hot as the hand will easily bear. The jar is kept in the 

 hot water for twenty minutes and put on ice. When the mixture is used 

 it should be heated t0( 100° F. If predigested food is to be given by the 

 mouth, it is well not to keep the glass jar immersed in hot water more 

 than five minutes, as otherwise the taste will be bitter and disagreeable. 

 A small dose of laudanum is always useful to prevent the expulsion of 

 enemata. Brandy may be added in the proportion of one ounce to the 

 pint of milk after peptonizing. The addition of salt to egg-albumin 

 greatly facilitates absorption. Panapeptone and brandy, each one ounce, 

 in six ounces of normal salt solution form a good substitute for the pep- 

 tonized milk enema. Gruels of all kinds, and broths, may be peptonized, 

 as well as milk. The digestive powers of the IsCrge intestines are but 

 slight. Sugar is absorbed unaltered; undigested proteids (with certain 

 exceptions) and fat are not absorbed. Peptones, soluble proteids, as 

 milk, meat juice, egg albumen, and emulsified fat are absorbed. 



Antiperistalsis, shown by X-ray, may carry bland enemata of milk 

 and eggs up into the bowels as far as the cecum, or large enemata may 

 even reach the small intestines — if given slowly — without being injected 

 high up (Cannon). 



In tetanus, paralysis of muscles of deglutition, fracture of the jaw 

 in horses, persistent vomiting and convulsions in dogs, and in all animals 

 refusing food, rectal, feeding is indicated. It is possible to feed animals 

 through a stomach tube (or catheter), and, in hospital cases, this method 

 may be preferable. 



Counler-Irritants. 



A counter-irritant is an irritant which acts counter, or against an 

 existing irritation, result of irritation, or pain. In applying a "twitch" 

 to a horse, we are inflicting an irritation to relieve some other source of 

 irritation elsewhere. It is taken for granted that the damage and pain 

 caused by the artificial irritant are not so severe as those already exist- 

 ing. The amount of injury produced by an irritant depends upon the 

 nature of the material, its strength, the duration of its action, the mode 

 of application, and the part to which it is applied. We may consider the 

 effects occasioned by a mild and increasing action following the continued 

 use of a single agent, or representing the action of materials of different 



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