FOREIGN BODIES SWALLOWED BY THE DOG. 



135 



^id vised for human beings, are inefficient in the dog.^ The action 

 -of the clysters is completed by massage of the rectum through the 

 abdominal wall, or by a frequent rectal exploration with extraction 

 of tlie accessible fecal matters. 



Purgatives are generally favorable. We give castor oil in doses 

 of from 20 to 50 grammes and calomel in doses of 0.05 to 0.1 

 gramme, with sugar as the excipient; subcutaneous injections of 

 sulphate of eserine in proportions of 0.001 to 0.003 have been 

 advised ; in obstinate cases and when the intestine is not the seat 

 of an inflammatory affection, we can resort to croton oil (castor oil 

 10 to 20 grammes, croton oil 1 to 5 drops). These purgatives act 

 perfectly in many cases, but we must not trust them too much ; the 

 most powerful drastics are sometimes unable to move the enclosed 

 •excrementitious mass. 



In order to avoid a return of constipation, the cured animals 

 must be subjected to a special diet. The same precautions should 

 be taken for pet dogs and for those having intestinal diverticulse. 



[Constipation in dogs is often of such a character that the fecal 

 masses can only be removed by mechanical means (curette). In old 

 'dogs the prostate gland is very frequently the cause of the trouble; 

 in this case the curette may be inadvisable ; we then must have 

 recourse to continuous inter- rectal irrigation daily for half an hour, 

 accompanied by massage of the abdominal walls. In this way we 

 may succeed in removing all of the fecal mass from the intestine in 

 from two to three weeks. Constipation may persist in dogs for 

 very long periods — in one case coming under my notice it was of 

 over ninety days' duration. — w. L. z.] 



FOREIGN BODIES SWALLOWED BY THE DOG. 



Etiolog-y. Accidents caused by the deglutition of foreign bodies 

 in the food are frequent in the dog, much more rare in the cat. 

 These accidents deserve a special mention, first, because it is often 

 possible to make the diagnosis intra viiam, and further because the 

 symptoms that they provoke have sometimes been confounded with 

 those of hydrophobia. A certain number of these cases occasion 

 gastro-intestiual hemorrhage or perforations followed by fistulse — 

 all purely surgical accidents ; others produce special phenomena 

 which will be studied in the section on Peritonitis by Perforation; 



1 Hanson : Wiener medicin. Zeitung, 1879. 



