COLICS FROM OVERLOADING. 



159^ 



of the same consistence as the ingested fodder. Its quantity varies 

 from a few spoonfuls to the contents of a stable bucket or more. 

 The animals perspire abundantly, the members are gathered under 

 the body and the eye is haggard and fixed. Soon after vomiting 

 the patients are very weak ; they tremble and stagger ; some 

 animals are affected by violent coughing-spells. Sometimes the 

 phenomena do not go to the extreme of vomiting; we simply 

 observe salivation, nausea, and regurgitation. 



Formerly vomiting was considered a fatal symptom/ but strict 

 observation of the facts teaches that this is erroneous. In some 

 cases, indeed, it has a clearly favorable action, in others it has no 

 harmful consequence. If any reason exists for regarding it as a 

 grave prognostic symptom, it is because considerable distention of 

 the stomach is always liable to cause rupture of the walls of that 

 organ. Vomiting is sometimes a symptom of other affections of 

 the gastro-intestinal canal, such as ulcerations, constrictions of the 

 intestine, or peritonitis and even lesions of the diaphragm. 



[Vomiting is also a symptom of dilatation of the œsophagus 

 (jabot), and of spasmodic constriction of this organ due to the 

 presence of a foreign body (choke), from which horses sometimes 

 recover. Complete rupture of the stomach often takes place with^ 

 out symptoms of vomiting. But when true vomiting occurs — that 

 is, ejection of the contents of the stomach — as a complication of 

 colic from overloading, it is almost invariably an indication of 

 rupture of the. organ, and may be looked upon as a fatal prognostic 

 symptom ; exceptions to this rule are very rare. — w. L. z.] 



2. Rupture of the stomach. This may be the result of an extreme 

 distention taking place by gradual enlargement, or it may be the 

 effect exerted by a sudden fall (chute) on the stomach filled to 

 excess with alimentary matters ; sometimes also it is due to spas- 

 modic constrictions of the gastric walls, when the patients make 

 efforts in order to vomit and the cardiac orifice remains closed.^ 



Concerning the relations existing between vomiting and rupture 

 of the stomach, erroneous opinions have existed for a long time; it 

 was thought that vomiting was not the cause, but indeed the con- 

 sequence of the rupture. But it would seem illogical, certainly, 

 to conceive that the alimentary matters would pass through the 

 cardiac orifice, which is so narrow, while a wide opening of escape 

 is actually formed for them toward the abdominal cavity. The 



1 Kolb : Adam's Wochenschr., 1882. 2 Rabe : Hannov. Jahresber., 1875. 



