48 SPECIAL CATTLE THERAPY 



IMPACTION OF THE RUMEN IN COWS 



In this article wc will consider (1) some of the 

 more prominent or diagnostic symptoms, and (2) the 

 medical treatment of impaction of the rumen. 



We will ignore the surgical treatment in this 

 treatise. 



Unless the young graduate has served his appren- 

 ticeship in a locality where this condition occurs fre- 

 quently, and unless his preceptor has given him the 

 opportunity to become familiar with its symptoms and 

 handling, he will find it a more or less troublesome 

 condition in more ways than one. In diagnosis it 

 offers difficulties because, the symptoms are by no 

 means true to type in every case. They vary accord- 

 ing to the completeness or severity of the stasis. 



In treatment this condition presents difficulties also. 

 Usually the beginner resorts to measures which are too 

 heroic ; he attempts to do too much. Instead of aiming 

 to give just the correct degree of assistance, he usually 

 overdoes his part. 



In beginning the consideration of the more impor- 

 tant symptoms I would mention the "grunt." When- 

 ever impaction of the rumen is severe enough to at- 

 tract attention, the cow grunts. I can not find a better 

 word for this than grunt, although in the very grave 

 cases this grunt becomes almost a moan. The grunt 

 is synchronous with the respirations and is not quite 

 constant in the milder cases. I mean by this that it 

 appears intermittently; you hear it once or twice and 

 then a few respiratory acts are gone through without 

 the accompanying grunt. In the grave cases the grunt 

 comes with every breath and is loud enough to be 

 heard quite a distance. I repeat, if the case before 



