80 COLICS AND THEIR TREATMENT 



hopeless condition. I always interpret fever with colonic 

 impactions as an exceedingly grave symptom. 



Treatment. — When impaction of the colon is 

 found to exist, no time must be lost in waiting for the 

 action of slow-acting purgatives. On the other hand 

 powerful drugs that act as transient stimulants to the 

 muscularis are exceedingly harmful. A horse affected 

 with a formidable impaction of the colon that survives a 

 dose of eserine, survives in spite of the treatment and not 

 through it. Linseed oil and also aloes are, probably the 

 best drugs for this condition, but are useless in serious 

 cases because there are no contractions of the muscularis 

 to distribute them to, and through, the accumulated mass, 

 and as for eserine I am certain it is only helpful in 

 cases which would have recovered without medication. 

 The walls are too weak to cope with the heavy, dry, 

 voluminous mass impacted within them and a transient 

 stimulation, such as is produced by eserine or arecoline, 

 only adds to the enfeeblement, by impelling futile con- 

 tractions. 



We are now using for this condition three forms of 

 direct treatment, as follows : 



1. Colonic Flushing Per Rectum. — High enemas. 

 While we have not entirely overcome the difficulties at- 

 tending attempts to wash out the large colon of horses, 

 we are becoming more and more successful in injecting 

 large volumes of water into it. 



We admit there is no easy method of washing out the 

 colon. The long floating colon of the herbiverous animals 

 stands as a real obstacle against the instillation of water 

 into the larger compartment anterior to it, and since the 



