TRAUMATIC INDIGESTION OF THE OX 131 



toms of traumatic indigestion (stiffness, intermittency), and 

 in tuberculosis through the tuberculin test. 



Course. — The course of the disorder produced by foreign 

 bodies is generally chronic, lasting for weeks or months. 

 Occasionally, due to the fact that a blunt foreign body ob- 

 structs a natural opening or a sharp one begins to wander in 

 the body, symptoms such as described are suddenly precipi- 

 tated, which result in death in a short time; thus accumula- - 

 tions of sand in the rumen may cause death in two or three 

 weeks, obstructing hair or wool balls in one or two days. In 

 some instances the condition may heal spontaneously if the 

 sharp foreign body works back into the stomach or in case it 

 perforates the wall of the abdomen, producing an abscess 

 and subsequently a fistula, through which it makes its escape 

 into the outside world. These terminations, however, are 

 comparatively rare. In practice most of the patients which 

 develop clinical symptoms either die of traumatic heart dis- 

 ease or pyemia. 



Prognosis. — The prognosis is usually bad. Most cases die 

 with pyemia or heart disease. 



Treatment. — Medicinal treatment is of little value, although 

 until a diagnosis is established it is recommended to treat as 

 in gastro-intestinal catarrh. In a few instances surgical inter- 

 ference has been successful. Rumenotomy may be per- 

 formed and the foreign body removed, provided, of course, 

 it has not completely penetrated the wall of the reticulum. 

 Another method is to cast and place the patient on its back. 

 The operator stands with one foot on a chair and the other 

 on the body of the patient over the region of the ensiform 

 cartilage. By pressing the abdominal wall in this region 

 downward with his foot seven to ten times it is claimed the 

 foreign body will be made to slip back into the reticulum. 

 However, it would be just as liable to penetrate in some other 

 direction, injuring new organs. Its use is therefore not 

 unattended with danger. 



As a general proposition the immediate slaughter of the 

 patient is recommended. From a prophylactic standpoint, 

 removing foreign bodies from the mangers, keeping cattle 

 away from where hay has been baled, etc., are important. 



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