523 GENERAL THERAPEUTIC MEASURES 



is unnecessary, and has led to serious consequences by shutting off the 

 circulation in the end of the teat. 



The results of the Kunsel treatment are wonderful. Kunsel reported 

 a series of twenty-two cases of milk fever, without a death, following the 

 use of his method. Similar results have been secured in this country. 

 The rationale of the treatment has yet to be elucidated. Various 

 hypotheses have been advanced, such as the effect of the oxygen on a 

 hypothetical anerobic bacillus in the udder; the action of the oxygen on 

 the blood and general metabolism in destroying toxic products in the 

 economy ; the action of air-compression in the udder in overcoming con- 

 gestion in this part, and thus preventing anemia of the central nervous 

 system;. and a possible stimulation of the secretory function of the mam- 

 mary gland with elimination of toxins. The hypothesis most in vogue 

 is that of a cerebral anemia following rapid emptying of the udder of 

 milk and resulting udder congestion. The fact that injection of milk 

 into the mammary gland has produced a condition simulating milk fever 

 appears to augur a local cause of the disease. ' 



The latest and most rational theory is that of Healy and Kastle who 

 find the first colostrum of cows with parturient paresis to be extraordi- 

 narily toxic when injected into other animals, whereas colostrum from 

 normal cows is inert. They believe the disease to be caused by a toxin 

 elaborated in the udder through faulty metabolism and that inflation 

 cures parturient paresis by preventing the absorption of this toxin. 



Lavage. 



Lavage is a term applied to washing out the stomach with the stom- 

 ach tube. This process, while an every-day occurrence in human medi- 

 cine, was too long neglected in veterinary practice. Fortunateh', 

 new interest was awakened in this useful procedure by Phillips, of St. 

 Louis, who perfected a tube and demonstrated the practicability of its 

 use in 1903. The use of the stomach tube in the treatment of indigestion 

 in horses was quickljr popularized by Knisely of Topeka, Kansas. Stom- 

 ach lavage is now a routine procedure with most veterinarians. The 

 stomach tube is also largely used for the administration of oil and other 

 drenches to horses. 



The passage of the tube is chiefly of value in acute indigestion of 

 the horse, with gastric flatulence and distention, where jjain and danger 

 of rupture of the organ are averted by permitting escape of gas, and by 

 further washing out the stomach in such conditions and in gastritis and 

 engorgement, toxic, fermenting ingesta are immediately removed and the 

 evil results, as tympanites and local inflammation of the stomach and of 

 the intestines, are prevented. In choking, as by oats, the passage of the 

 tube may afford relief, while in poisoning the washing out of the stomach 

 is the one essential treatment. Gastric indigestion and flatulence are 

 shown by colic, distention in the region of the stomach, difficulty in tho- 

 racic breathing and eructations of gas by the mouth, or attempts at retch- 

 ing and vomiting. 



To pass the tube, the horse may be backed into a stall. The opera- 



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