1 68 Surgical Diseases and Surgery of the Dog 



effort it is often possible to push obstructions which are situated 

 in the colon past flexures into the rectum. When the mass is too 

 hard or of such enormous dimensions that this method of delivery 

 is quite impracticable, nothing short of enterotomy offers any hope 

 of success. 



Administration of eserine in the presence of considerable 

 tympanitis has led to rupture of the bowel. 



(b) Obstruction by Foreign Bodies. This form of ob- 

 struction is ge'nerally of a sub-acute type and accompanied sooner 

 or later with inflammatory changes in the wall, leading to gangrene 

 and perforation. The duration of this trouble is never long. The 

 animal may last for one or two weeks, to die from toxemia through 

 absorption of the inflammatory products or of microorganisms 

 themselves. The manner in which this takes place will be discussed 

 under the next group. 



It occurs mostly in the narrowest portion of the small intes- 

 tine—the ileum. Any foreign body that has remained in the 

 stomach for a longer or shorter period may ultimately find en- 

 trance into the bowel. The rapidity with which such objects may 

 travel depends upon a variety of factors, chief of which is probably 

 their character. Fibrous material would seem to be capable of 

 very rapid passage. Delperier treated a case where a dish-cloth, 

 which had been used to enwrap a hare, had been swallowed. On 

 the third day a portion of the cloth appeared at the anus. This 

 was seized, and the animal in pulling away, supplied the traction 

 necessary to effect its complete withdrawal. Smooth and hard 

 substances may remain for weeks, all the while slowly traveling in 

 response to the peristaltic waves, and without other reactive effect 

 than to induce some local ulceration. Senn introduced tubes of 

 glass and other material into the lumen, a few inches above the 

 ileo-cecal region, and found that it took thirty to forty days for 

 these objects to pass per attum. 



Among the articles that have from time to time been re- 

 corded as forming obstructions may be mentioned: pebbles, but- 

 tons, portions of bones, rubber-balls, coins, spinning tops, fruit- 

 kernels, nuts, marbles, tacks, cork, and cork stoppers, and even 

 infant's shoes; in fact almost every conceivable article. Cork is 

 particularly dangerous, as what would otherwise pass safely through 

 will swell by absorption of moisture in the canal. Mathis, how- 



