I40 DISEASES OF THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



Indigestion in Cattle (Chronic). — The treatment of 

 chronic indigestion in animals is of necessity crude. This follows 

 because we have not the means of making a precise diagnosis. In 

 human medicine no practitioner would think of making a positive 

 diagnosis in such conditions, by means of symptoms alone, although 

 at a great advantage in having the patient's feeling to guide him. 

 In humans, the size and position of the stomach is determined by in- 

 flation with air; and the state of the secretion and movements, by 

 inspection and analysis of the gastric contents. To attempt exact 

 diagnosis of the various forms of chronic indigestion by means of 

 objective symptoms alone, and treatment based on the same, is, then, 

 an impossible task in man or animals. 



Nevertheless, Moussu, by special study and observation of in- 

 digestion in cattle has formulated certain symptoms as more or 

 less characteristic of the different forms of functional disturb- 

 ances of the stomach. It must not be forgotten that these dis- 

 turbances are not uncommonly combined, however, which would 

 then render diagnosis by symptomatology absolutely out of the ques- 

 tion. 



One must first determine whether the indigestion is functional 

 or organic, or, if functional, whether it is secondary to organic 

 disease, as tuberculosis of neighboring organs, malignant growths, 

 echinococcus cyst, renal disorders, or to pregnancy. If functional, 

 then there are two chief types — disturbances of secretion (abo- 

 masum), with either hyper- or hypo-secretion of HC1, and disturb- 

 ances of movements of the gastric compartments. The latter usually 

 takes the form of motor insufficiency or lack of peristalsis with dila- 

 tation from loss of tone. The same disturbances are seen in organic 

 diseases, however, as hypersecretion of HC1 in ulcer of the stomach 

 in cattle, etc. Chronic indigestion in cattle, in whatever form, is 

 commonly associated with tympany. 



According to Moussu, in simple motor insufficiency of the gas- 

 tric compartments, there is chronic tympany alone — without either 



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