184 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



the fact that in human surgery it has greatly diminished 

 since the introduction of anaesthetics, although it can not be 

 denied that occasionally the combined influence of shock 

 i.nd the ansesthetic may prove the undoing of the surgical pa- 

 tient. But these cases are exceptional in animal surgery; 

 the anaesthetic prevents shock instead of causing it. 



Shock is also produced in its most typical form by the 

 rupture- of the abdominal viscera, the invagination of a 

 bowel or the strangulation of a hernia. Often during the 

 course of an acute intestinal disease the patient will sud- 

 denly become quiet, the pain' will entirely cease, the respira- 

 tions will become fast, the pulse will become weak and even 

 imperceptible, and a profuse perspiration will break out 

 over the whole body, beginning at the head. The symp- 

 toms 'will continue Until death, and the post-mortem will 

 disclose a ruptured stomach or bowel, with dissemination 

 of the contents throughout the peritoneal cavity. This is 

 shock. 



Operations upon bones are more liable to result serious- 

 ly than other operations. The relative rarity of bone oper- 

 ations in animals is in a measure responsible for the relative 

 rarity- of shock in domestic animal surgery. Operations on 

 nerves, castrations, ovariotomy, and amputations of the tail 

 in horses are often followed by slight, but never by severe 

 shock. 



PATHOLOGY. — It is quite safe to assert that all cases 

 of shock in animals are caused by the engorgement of the 

 splanchnic blood vessels, which feature of the disease is al- 

 ways found at the post-mortem. The only exception is 

 found after bloody operations where the state depends 

 chiefly tipon the loss of blood instead of its flow to the vis- 

 cera. As already stated, other vascular organs may also 

 become the receptacles for blood in sufficient quantities to 

 produce anaemia of the periphery, the brain, etc. In the 



