CONSTIPATION IN THE DOG. 



133 



affections. It is often seen to complicate acute gastro-intestinal 

 catarrh, icterus — a disease in which the bile no longer exerts its 

 excitant action upon the intestinal walls ; peritonitis and enteritis 

 — affections in the course of which costiveness happens through 

 œdema or paralysis of the intestinal muscular fibre ; also the dis- 

 eases of the diaphragm and abdominal walls ; or it is produced by 

 the suppression of abdominal contractions. It appears also during 

 the course of or after paraplegia and cerebral affections : it is then 

 the expression of disease affecting the intestinal innervation. Lastly, 

 it may be determined by abundant perspiration, by very active 

 lactation, and causes of a similar nature. 



Symptoms. The principal symptom is the difficulty, scarcity, 

 or suppression of defecation. The animals often make violent ex- 

 pulsive efforts which are manifestly painful ; in general, these efforts 

 are without result, but in some cases there is an expulsion of small, 

 dry dung, of earthy color, of penetrating fetid odor, and containing 

 undigested bone fragments, sometimes covered with mucus and 

 blood. 



Some patients will at first continue to eat, but later there is com- 

 plete anorexia for whole weeks. The peristaltic movements are much 

 less active. The abdomen is sometimes voluminous and hard ; at other 

 times distended with gas. In making an exploration we find a kind 

 of hard voluminous roller, formed by the rectum stuffed with excre- 

 ment. This organ, thus distended, may touch the lower abdominal 

 wall and advance as far as the sternum. Any manipulations per- 

 formed upon the abdomen are very painful to the animal. The 

 circumference of the anus is the seat of an inflammatory tumefac- 

 tion, and it is sometimes soiled with yellowish or grayish fecal 

 matters. In false constipation the hair in the neighborhood of the 

 anus becomes agglutinated by the excrementitious matters and offers 

 a mechanical obstruction to their exit. Eectal exploration, which 

 is always painful for the animals, shows an increase of temperature, 

 dryness, and swelling of the mucous membrane, and the presence 

 of hardened excrements or bones in the rectal cavity. There are 

 cases where the obstructed and distended rectum is difficult or even 

 impossible to recognize through the abdominal walls. The mat- 

 ters contained in the anterior portion of the intestine in front of 

 the hardened mass sometimes break through and are ejected in 

 the shape of a diarrheic fetid liquid, more or less mixed with 

 gas. Occasionally we notice the appearance of colicky symptoms. 



