260 
BOWEL FISTULA. 
is generally found on the lower surface of the abdomen, in horses often 
close behind the last rib. 
Bowel or gastric fistulse—not infrequently produced for physio¬ 
logical objects—may also result from accidental injuries penetrating 
the abdominal coats, and Curdt related cases of the kind both in the 
horse and the ox. Howard produced fistula of the colon in a sucking- 
pig, which was suffering from atresia ani, in order to save the animal. 
If, in penetrating abdominal wounds, the intestine is laid open, its edges 
may unite to the abdominal wound and external skin, and produce a 
bowel fistula. Arndt, Lindenberg, Dammann, and others have described 
such cases in horses and oxen. The injury, however, sometimes originates 
in the gastric or intestinal mucous membrane. The serosa becomes 
inflamed and firmly adherent to the wall of the abdomen, and if now 
abscess formation occurs, the abdominal walls may be perforated and a 
bowel fistula produced. Korber saw a horse suffer in this way after an 
attack of colic. Perforation had occurred close to the middle line of the 
abdomen behind the umbilicus. Urban reported a similar case in a foal, 
in which an umbilical hernia had been opened, producing bowel fistula. 
Bayer noted a like accident after dressing an umbilical hernia with nitric 
acid. Furstenberg describes a fistula of the abomasum in a cow. Seven 
to ten minutes after receiving water, a stream of fluid mixed with food was 
projected several feet beyond the wound. Flourens produced fistulae of 
the rumen artificially for the purpose of studying rumination in oxen and 
sheep, and Haubner saw gastric fistulse in sheep result from giving 
arsenic insufficiently powdered. Foreign bodies swallowed by cattle 
often perforate the wall of the abdomen, or that of the thorax close 
behind the elbow, and produce gastric fistulse, but these generally heal. 
Strecke found one half of a pair of scissors in the abscess. Dammann 
describes a case complicated with hernia in a nine-year-old mare. The 
fistula had resulted from an external injury. 
Symptoms and course. Animals, with intestinal fistula, may survive 
a long time, and, if liberally fed, may even remain in good condition, 
though the constant discharge constitutes a blemish. Urban kept a foal 
under observation for two years. In spite of generous feeding it remained 
thin, and was finally killed on that account. In another case recovery 
took place. 
Treatment should be directed to preventing discharge of bowel contents, 
which is the chief obstacle to healing. Korber succeeded by passing a 
red-hot wire into the fistula, after which cicatrisation occurred in twelve 
days. Lindenberg recommends a purse-string suture, inserted as deeply 
as possible so as to bring together the inner end of the fistula, i.e., the 
opening into the intestinal wall. It is not sufficient to close the external 
opening by bringing the skin together, as new abscesses continually form. 
