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DISEASES OF THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



pelvis. It is an infection produced more commonly by streptococci, 

 staphylococci and bacillus coli. Inflammations, ulcerations, and 

 perforations of the intra-abdominal organs lead to peritonitis. 

 Foreign bodies, worms and obstructions in the bowels may also 

 induce it. A common source of peritonitis is infection from the 

 female genital organs following parturient sepsis. Wounds, blows 

 and operations upon the belly frequently eventuate in peritonitis. 

 Infection of the liver, spleen, gall or urinary bladder, and kidney 

 often terminate in this disease. The treatment should then be di- 

 rected rather to the source of peritonitis, than to the disease itself, 

 as very little can be done in a curative way for well marked periton- 

 itis. In human practice the treatment of peritonitis is almost wholly 

 surgical. The focus of infection is removed (appendix, repair of 

 perforations, removal of ileus, etc.) and the peritoneum is drained. 

 This, unfortunately, can not be successfully done in the larger ani- 

 mals but should be attempted in dogs. It is difficult to diagnose 

 peritonitis in the large animals. Persistent colic, with belly tender- 

 ness on palpation, rapid, wiry pulse, nausea and vomiting (more 

 especially in dogs), arrest of all digestive functions, with tympanites 

 or ascites, great apathy and progressively increasing weakness, are 

 the chief symptoms. While there is usually high fever, it may be 

 absent. If at the same time a local lesion is present in the belly 

 which would account for peritonitis, the diagnosis is assured. 



Treatment. — The main attempt in medical treatment is to quiet 

 pain and peristalsis and enable nature to shut off the local source of 

 infection in the belly by protective lymph, — after attempting to re- 

 move any possible source of infection (strangulated hernia, wounds, 

 puerperal sepsis, ileus, etc.) by surgery. For this reason, cathar- 

 tics are contraindicated. Large doses of opium (H. and C, 3iii-iv; 

 D., gr. ii-x), laudanum (gii-iv), or morphine under the skin (H., 

 gr. v-x ; D., gr. % to y 2 ) , and repeated often enough to subdue pain 

 and slow the respirations to below normal, are essential. All food 

 by the mouth should be withheld. The bowels should be moved 



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