PERIPROCTITIS. 
341 
attempts to pass faeces. The animals stand with the back arched, and 
the continuous severe straining often leads to prolapsus ani or recti. 
The mucous membrane is more or less intensely reddened. 
Injuries to the anus may be directly seen ; and where the hairs have 
become adherent and occluded the orifice, the neighbouring skin appears 
reddened and often excoriated. 
Disease of the perineal glands may be recognised by inflamma¬ 
tory swelling ; defecation is painful and often repressed ; after some 
time fluctuation and perforation occur, and the swelling subsides, 
though relapses are common and sometimes cause laymen to suspect 
hemorrhoids. 
These conditions are seldom dangerous, but occlusion of the rectum 
and of the anus may result from chronic catarrh in young animals. 
Injuries sometimes lead to inflammation of the perineal or paraproctal 
connective tissue and thus cause trouble. 
Treatment. Inflammation of the rectal mucous membrane is treated 
with mucilaginous and oily clysters ; in larger animals starch paste is 
suitable. In dogs, lukewarm oil may be used, and when tenesmus is 
marked, opium can be added. Foreign bodies and hard masses of feces 
should be removed cautiously. The long adherent hairs about the anus 
must be cut away with scissors, the anus cleansed, and powdered with 
some material like iodoform and tannin. 
Suppurating swellings of the anal glands must be opened, the contents 
removed, and, after thoroughly cleansing, the surfaces of the wound 
strewed with iodoform powder. For inflammation produced by removal 
of oestrus larvae, lukewarm lotions and dusting powders are recommended. 
In all these diseases it is of importance to render defecation as easy as 
possible. For this purpose suitable nourishment should be given, and 
clysters and laxatives administered. 
I¥.—INFLAMMATION OF THE CONNECTIVE TISSUE 
SURROUNDING THE RECTUM (PERIPROCTITIS 
OR PARAPROCTITIS APOSTEMATOSA). 
This disease, though not common, is sometimes seen in large animals, 
and is caused by wounds of the posterior portion of the rectum becoming 
specifically infected. Metastatic abscesses have been seen here during 
the course of strangles. In females peri- or para- proctitis may result 
from injury of the vagina. 
The loose connective tissue surrounding the end of the rectum appears 
particularly liable to cellulitis, and it depends principally on the action 
of the infecting material what course the disease takes. In general, 
however, septic cellulitis is rarer than one would expect, perhaps because 
