340 
PROCTITIS. 
desirable. Oxen and sheep are best killed at once. Should the attempt 
be made, the rectum must first be carefully emptied, food withheld, and 
water given only in small quantities. Clysters are better avoided, be¬ 
cause they favour the entrance of bowel contents into the peritoneal 
cavity and peritonitis. Opium might possibly be of service on account 
of its checking the movement of bowel contents towards the injured spot. 
In injuries of the pelvic portion treatment is more hopeful; the diet 
should be as above. The wound may be cleansed by clysters (which at 
the same time wash out the contents of the rectum), followed by dis¬ 
infecting materials like salicylic acid, carbolic acid, or creolin ; in horses, 
by diluted sublimate solution (1 in 5,000). Roder successfully sutured 
a recto-vaginal rupture ; recovery followed. 
Wounds in the neighbourhood of the anus may sometimes be sutured 
and bleeding vessels ligatured. Cold water clysters serve to check 
bleeding from the anterior parts of the bowel. It has also been sug¬ 
gested to introduce a bladder or rubber balloon into the rectum, and to 
exercise pressure on the bleeding vessels by inflating it or filling it with 
water; but its use is much limited in animals on account of its causing 
severe straining, and thus often proving more dangerous than useful. 
The same is true of tamponing the rectum, though in extreme cases one 
might certainly try it. 
As regards abscess-formation after injury to the rectum, see succeeding 
pages. 
III.—INFLAMMATION OF THE MUCOUS MEMBRANE OF 
THE RECTUM AND ANUS (PROCTITIS). 
Apart from inflammation of the rectum and anus, produced by grosser 
injuries, inflammatory processes are seen in severe intestinal catarrh, in 
dysentery, and after continuous diarrhoea, particularly in young pigs and 
dogs. The same result may be produced by clysters of too irritating a 
character, or administered too hot, and by very large masses of faeces. 
Schwanefeld found a piece of broomstick, 8 inches in length, in the rectum 
of an ox. In dogs, bones and firm masses of fasces often produce inflam¬ 
mation of the mucous membrane. 
Inflammatory disease of the anus in the horse has been seen after 
tearing away the larvae of cestridae, in carnivora in consequence of rubbing 
the anus to allay the irritation of pruritus ani. In long-coated dogs the 
hairs in the neighbourhood of the anus sometimes stick together, close 
the anus, and produce inflammatory irritation, or the animals may suffer 
from inflammation of the anal glands. 
Symptoms. Inflammatory disease of the mucous membrane of the 
lectum is characterised by tenesmus, that is, repeated but unsuccessful 
