329 
TREATMENT OF INVAGINATION OF THE BOWEL. 
appetite is wanting. Rumination ceases, tympanites and cLschaige of 
blood-stained mucus set in, or obstinate stoppage of the bowel occurs ; 
peristalsis is in complete abeyance ; the pulse becomes frequent and 
small, but the temperature seldom rises. On examination per rectum, 
the invaginated spot may sometimes be felt as a cord-like, painful 
swelling. Slight colicky symptoms, straining to pass faeces, and discharge 
of small quantities of mucus or blood continually recur. Merten says the 
animals show a desire to lie on the back. 
Dogs show no signs of colic. They move about restlessly, and usually 
lie down flat on the belly. Appetite completely disappears, but water is 
often taken greedily. Water, food, and medicine are, however, usually 
vomited at once. The vomit is bile-stained. No faeces are passed, though 
there may be straining. Local examination (palpation) of the abdomen 
reveals the invagination as a sausage-shaped, painful swelling. 
Diagnosis is often difficult; in oxen and dogs it may be necessary to 
perform an exploratory laparotomy under antiseptic precautions. 
Treatment. Medical treatment is worthless, and purgatives cannot, of 
course, reduce the invagination. 
Siebert attempted reduction by generating carbonic add gas m the body. 
After giving aloes with sulphate of soda in linseed tea, he injected 25 ounces 
of bicarbonate of soda suspended in water into the rectum, winch had pre¬ 
viously been emptied as far as possible, with the hand and tobacco clysters. 
Diluted hydrochloric acid was then passed in, and the anus closed with t ie 
hand. In a short time the right, and later the left, side became greatly 
distended, and the animal strained so much that it was difficult to keep tie 
anus closed. After a time the hand was removed, a large quantity of carbonic 
acid gas and feces escaped, and the animal recovered. Siebert states having 
thus cured a cow of invagination of five days’ standing; but his Meatmen 
scarcely recommended by the fact that he afterwards found the cast-off portion 
of bow Y el in the dung If invagination had really existed, recovery was 
due less to the treatment than to the vis medicatnx nature. The method 
may, however, be tried when operation is out of the question, and other means 
are ineffectual. 
Surgical treatment consists in opening the peritoneal cavity from the 
right side with antiseptic precautions, and reducing the invagination or 
resecting the affected piece of bowel. The animal is placed with the left 
side against a partition, and is fastened with cords and planks. The 
hand is introduced into the abdomen, the diseased spot discovered, drawn 
forward, and an attempt first made to reduce the invagination, but this 
often fails because the opposed surfaces of serosa have become firmly 
adherent. Degive’s experience shows, however, that when the union is 
not intimate there need be no hesitation in effecting it. The abdominal 
wound should then be closed with the usual precautions. 
Deduction failing, resection becomes the only alternative, and has been 
performed by Meyer with success in oxen. In his ‘ Manuel opeiatoiie 
