334 THE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



of water there came away a most abnormal quantity 

 (for so small an animal) of hard pellets of faeces. What 

 was more to the point, instant relief was thereby afforded. 

 What would have occurred had sedatives been given to 

 ease the pains, and the rectum left unexplored, because 

 the animal was so small ? 



Strangulated Hernia. — Lastly, one word of caution 

 to the beginner. When called to a case of colic in a 

 young colt foal, always lay him down, have the top 

 hind limb drawn back, and examine the contents of his 

 scrotum. If suffering from hernia, it happens some- 

 times that the portion of bowel in the scrotum becomes 

 impacted. It is thus unable to pass its contents along, 

 and finally becomes strangulated. When present, the 

 rupture should be carefully manipulated in order to judge 

 of the state of its contents. Should any doubt exist, 

 everything in the scrotum should be gently pressed back 

 into the abdominal cavity. 



These few scattered remarks on this last subject do 

 not pretend to be even an epitome of the treatment to be 

 adopted. They simply offer a groundwork on which the 

 veterinarian must build up his own methods of practice. 

 The subject is yet too indefinite to lay down any dog- 

 matic rules upon, and much may be done by future 

 writers in contributing to this branch of our literature. 



With this my small work on ' Colic ' is finished. I do 

 not claim that it is exhaustive, but I do hope that I have 

 been successful in placing some matters in such a light 

 as to lead to newer lines of thought and fuller investiga- 

 tion. 



If we are ever to better our means of diagnosis in these 

 troublesome and vexatious complaints, and lead the way 

 to a fuller understanding of the more fearsome-sounding 

 conditions among them, it will only be by commencing 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



