38 
SPASMODIC COLIC. 
Symptoms . — The animal, as a rule, gives no previous in- 
dications of its approach. We have neither any indications 
of fever, nor any variations of the pulse. At first he 
appears uneasy in his stall, shifts his feet, looks round to his 
side uneasily, and makes frequent efforts both to micturate 
and fsecate, not always successfully ; if so, the urine is small 
in quantity, dark in colour, and highly ammoniacal, some- 
times viscid ; while the fteces will be dark in colour, hard in 
consistence, and mostly coated with mucus, sometimes small 
in quantity, and frequently voided. After this he will bend 
his knees, crouch his back, and after being a short time in 
this position falls. 
He now looks round to his side, paws and strikes out with 
his fore and hind feet, lies down, and tries to throw himself 
on his back, and if successful rests in that position for a 
minute or two, which appears to give him great relief. Now, 
perhaps, he will get up, shake himself, and commence to eat, 
but it is only a feint, as recurrence of the symptoms soon 
follows. 
In most cases a favorable result succeeds after the patient 
has been attacked for an hour or so ; when the severity of 
the symptoms will be noticed to subside, the intervals of 
ease to increase in duration, and he speedily regains con- 
valescence. 
If a fatal termination be the result, the exacerbations be- 
come more severe, and the intervals of ease become shorter 
in their duration, until they are no longer discernible. The 
animal now looks anxiously and haggardly at his flanks, 
surface of the body is bedewed with a cold perspiration, he gets 
up and down frequently, and the pulse, which up to this 
period was unaltered both in frequency and force, now be- 
comes quickened and hardly to be felt. Then phrenitic 
symptoms supervene, tympany and torpidity of bowels; this 
torpidity lasting throughout the disease. Shortly after death 
closes the scene. 
Cases now and then occur in which the animal continues 
to have intervals of ease for a much longer duration, and the 
severity of the symptoms are, to a great extent, modified. 
He will lie down, look round to his side, then get up and eat 
for a brief period until the recurrence of the pain. I have 
known these cases to last two or three days, and then ulti- 
mately either to recover or die. In this phase they will take any 
amount of physic or any other drug with impunity ; indeed, 
I have heard veterinary authorities say that they will 
swallow an apothecary’s shop. 
Treatment . — Quot homines tot sententise may not without 
