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Besides dietetic errors, there are many other causes of colic. This 
_ painful affection may be due to mechanical displacement of the bowels, or to 
the presence of parasites in the bowels, and sometimes also in the 
neighbouring parts. Young animals, especially when badly fed and 
attended to, are more liable to colic from this source than older horses. 
The onset of spasmodic colic is generally mére or less sudden. The 
horse shows signs of abdominal pain by looking round at his flanks, by 
restlessness, by striking at his belly with his hind feet, and in various other 
ways. He lies down and rolls about from side to side. After a while he 
rises and eats a little, and soon, perhaps, a paroxysm of pain again attacks 
him. 
In uncomplicated cases of colic, the pulse and respirations and 
temperature are rarely elevated, except during the paroxysms of pain. The 
pulse is then much accelerated, and the respiration usually becomes 
hurried. The attack may now subside, or may gradually become more and 
more severe, the paroxysms being more continuous, and the pain more 
intense. The restlessness and excitability increase, and partial stupor 
supervenes. The attack, if unrelieved, may end in death from continued 
pain or from exhaustion, with varying complications. In most cases of colic 
the bowels are constipated, and the excrement, if any, which is passed is 
usually hard and often coated. 
The flatulent form of colic due to distension of the intestine with gas, 
may be associated with spasm of the muscular coats, or it may occur 
independently of it: It is especially to be attributed to digestive disturbance 
depending on ingestion of food, which is prone to undergo fermentation, 
This affection usually comes on suddenly. The horse is noticed to be very 
restless, and the abdomen distends and’ becomes tense, and gives a hollow 
note if struck. The breathing is short, and the pulse is frequent and feeble. 
The extremities are cold, and there may be more or less delirium and 
dizziness. When the animal lies down, he does not throw himself 
suddenly on the ground, as in spasmodic colic, but allows himself to fall 
more slowly and carefully. If unrelieved, the continued distension may lead 
to further disturbance of the heart and lungs, and death may result from 
asphyxia. Sometimes rupture of the colon or other part of the bowel or of 
the diaphragm is the cause of death. 
In ordinary cases of colic, the prognosis is very favourable in both 
varieties, but it is not so good in severe cases of the flatulent kind. In all 
prolonged cases with great pain and restlessness, there is danger of 
displacement or entanglement of the intestine ; and when gaseous distension 
is very great, and the struggles are very violent, there is great risk of rupture 
of the large bowels or of the diaphragm. 
In inflammation of the bowels, of which we shall treat hereafter, the 
abdominal pain, unlike that of colic, is continuous, it is more agonising, and 
rarely has periods of intermission. The prognosis in this latter disease is 
very grave. 
In all cases of colic, except those in which diarrhoea is present, it is 
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