132 



DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



For convalescents we must avoid heavy food which is difficult 

 to digest. 



Ancient authors, from having seen constipated dogs eat grass, 

 thought that material to be necessary in the treatment of constipa- 

 tion, attributing to this aberration of the taste the value of an 

 instinctive medication. Some have gone so far as to grant to 

 couch-grass (^Triticum repens) cei^tain specific properties. We look 

 upon the act of grass- eating as a caprice of the taste, or kind of 

 play; we have never noticed it in sick dogs; on the contrary, it is 

 common in healthy animals, in which it provokes diarrhea much 

 rather than vomiting. 



CONSTIPATION IN THE DOG. 



Btiolog'y. This affection, which is very frequent, consists essen- 

 tially either in a mechanical obstacle preventing defecation or in 

 insufficient peristaltic movements. Its principal causes are : 



1. Heavy food not containing any exciting principles ; also food 

 composed exclusively of bones, bread, leguminous plants, and flour 

 pap ; dry alimentation. 



2. Forced idleness or insufficient exercise, as in house-dogs or 

 those tied by a chain. 



3. Also advanced age, which weakens the peristaltic movements 

 as a result of atrophy of the mucous membrane and the muscular 

 fibre of the intestine. 



4. Chronic intestinal catarrh, which deprives the mucous mem- 

 brane of its sensibility by covering it with a mucous exudate and 

 causing its atrophy. In this affection the reflex movements of the 

 intestine are lost and the intestinal secretions diminished, a dual 

 condition favoring constipation. 



5. Mechanical obstacles opposing the progress of the intestinal 

 contents. We must especially mention here; coprostasis, constric- 

 tion of the intestine by compression (tumors, hypertrophy of the 

 prostate, abscesses) ; also dilatation and paralysis of the intestine, 

 hemorrhoidal nodes, tumefaction of the anal glands, and qpmpres- 

 sion of the anus by agglutinated and packed hair, preventing the 

 exit of fecal matters (false constipation). 



6. Constipation is a symptom of a large number of general 

 febrile diseases in which the secretion of intestinal fluids is inter- 

 fered with; it accompanies also most of the chronic or asthenic 



