130 



DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



the floor of their kennels or seek cool places. Pressure upon the 

 stomach is often very painful. 



3. Catarrh of the intestine. In intestinal catarrh the 

 appetite is less changed, the region of the stomach is not sensitive 

 to pressure, and as a rule there is no vomiting. The most impor- 

 tant symptom, which is always present, is diarrhea. Its characters 

 vary with the degree of intensity of the disease. At the beginning 

 there is a simple softening of the excrementitious matters, then they 

 become serous, and finally bilious and bloody ; but, in these intense 

 conditions they are always frothy and fetid, and soil the parts adjacent 

 to the anus. We detect tenesmus and violent expulsive efforts ; in 

 young patients we may also notice the appearance of prolapsus of 

 the rectum. The urine contains the coloring matters of the bile 

 (Frohner) The fever is always quite high, it may become very 

 intense (40° to 41° C). Icterus is a common complication of 

 duodenal catarrh, and is much more frequent in the dog and cat 

 than in the horse and ox. 



Recovery is the common termination of the disease in adult dogs, 

 but, in young or weak animals, severe diarrhea often persists and 

 produces exhaustion and death. 



Chronio catarrh is more common in the dog than is generally 

 admitted — at least this is what the detection of the coloring matters 

 of the bile in the urine tends to establish. It is ordinarily a termi- 

 nation of acute catarrh, but its prognosis is much more serious than 

 that of the latter. When left to themselves, the animals lose flesh, 

 become anemic, and succumb to marasmus. 



Treatment. In most cases diet alone is sufficient to obtain a 

 cure; it must be absolute and also be directed to the drink, espe- 

 cially water. When we judge it to have been enforced for a suffi- 

 cient time, the patients should be fed on raw meat given in small 

 quantities at a time. 



In overloading of the stomach by tainted or toxic food which has 

 already produced a certain degree of irritation of the mucous mem- 

 brane, an emetic is to be prescribed : this frequently cures catarrh 

 of the stomach and prevents that of the intestine, which would 

 unavoidably be developed otherwise, on account of the passage of 

 irritating alimentary matters along the latter. Hydrochlorate of 

 apomorphine must be used in preference to others, because it does 

 not irritate the stomach (3, 5, or 10 milligrammes in the dog and 

 20 to 25 milligrammes in the cat, in a 1 : 100 solution, by hypo- 



