350 
STENOSIS OF THE RECTUM. 
growths, within or without the bowel, may compress it and narrow its 
lumen. 
Johow saw a cow which stood with the back arched and continually 
attempted to defsecate ; a ring-shaped stenosis of the rectum existed at the 
entrance to the pelvis, and was barely large enough to admit two or three 
fingers ; the rectum was greatly distended in front of the spot, which was 
about half an inch wide. After incising the stenosis and using clysters, a 
cure was effected. The nature of the case seems obscure. 
Eogerson diagnosed in a mare and a foal, which both suffered from stoppage 
of the bowel, well-marked stenosis of the rectum about 20 inches in front of 
the anus; the post-mortem examination showed the rectum to be greatly 
thickened, of cartilaginous consistency, and to some extent ossified. Johne 
saw the same condition in a cow, Meyer in a horse. Gurlt found the rectum 
of a foal so narrow that only a good-sized goose-quill could be passed 
through it. 
Pathological dilatations of the pelvic portion of the rectum are not 
infrequent in horses. They are seldom partial—so-called diverticula— 
but usually the entire pelvic portion is dilated. They are oftenest seen 
in old horses which have long been fed on bulky food, and in dogs which 
have suffered from habitual constipation or enlargement of the prostate, 
which interferes with defecation; dogs also show this dilatation in 
hernia perinealis. Old horses often suffer from extensive dilatation of 
the pelvic portion without showing distress, though they have difficulty 
in defecation, especially if paralysis of the rectum accompanies dilatation. 
Hengst speaks of an old horse which suffered from colic, and showed a 
rectal sacculation 12 inches in front of the anus, which was the size of two 
fists and filled with feces. After emptying and washing this out, the colic 
disappeared. Martin noted the formation of a diverticulum in a horse after 
injury to the rectum ; 16 inches in front of the anus was a wound about 
6 inches long and 2 broad, which caused severe fever and colic ; it was 
washed out with solutions of boric acid and permanganate of potash, and 
later of carbolic acid. Cicatrisation occurred, but a diverticulum as large as 
a man’s fist formed, from which the dung had to be daily removed. Stock- 
fleth described in a horse a diverticulum which lay on the upper wall of the 
rectum about 5-|- inches from the anus, and opened into the lumen of the 
bowel by means of a narrow slit. Moller found one about the size of a hen’s 
egg in a Dalmatian dog on the left wall of the rectum, close in front of the 
anus, which was thrust forward during defsecation, and was filled with soft 
faeces. This was possibly an enlarged anal pouch ; but as the dog was only 
seen during life, the point could not definitely be decided. 
Paralysis of the rectum is generally associated with paralysis of the 
tail, or of the bladder and hind legs, and apart from the general paralysis 
caused by fractures of the vertebrae, &c., occurs most frequently in the 
horse. It is particularly common in mares. Harms found rectal 
paralysis in a cow to be due to fracture between the sacrum and first 
vertebra of the tail. Though this paralysis is usually spontaneous, the 
immediate cause can often be traced to severe bruising or injury in the 
