ACUTE INDIGESTION. 
317 
the condition of the animal, his treatment before and especially 
after feeding, has much more to do with causing the disease. 
Certain breeds of animals also seem to be more subject to 
the trouble, especially our heavy stock, used for heavy-draft 
purposes, consuming large quantities both of the solid and 
bulky foods, and required immediately to exert themselves be¬ 
fore digestion has hardly begun. 
Again, often the ability of the animal to thoroughly masti¬ 
cate his food is the only cause of those repeated slight attacks 
culminating later in a most severe one, because the functions 
of the stomach have been long interfered with and become 
weakened. 
How often are we called into counsel about some animal 
that has trouble with his water ” every few nights, and I ven¬ 
ture the opinion that in nine cases out of ten where colicy 
pains are present they are caused by some form of indigestion, 
and the practitioner who can discern the cause of the little 
irregularities in the digestive system of the horse is the one 
better prepared to combat the serious and often fatal complica¬ 
tions which arise, as it were, “in the twinkling of an eye.” 
It is my opinion that we often make a decided mistake in 
our diagnosis at the beginnmg of many cases of stomach and 
bowel troubles, and lose time thereby. The early symptoms of 
acute indigestion are often misleading, with scarcely no change 
in the pulse; no injection of the mucous membranes; no 
sweating or trembling ; no eructations of gases ; no particular 
change in respirations (only somewhat quickened); slight ap¬ 
parently abdominal pains, and a somewhat anxious expression 
of uneasiness, which might easily be mistaken for a slight colic 
attack, and without waiting, and more from the idea to do 
something and satisfy the owner, a good-sized opiate is admin¬ 
istered to relieve pain (tinct. opii, morphia, ether, chloral, chlor¬ 
oform, etc.), with the perfectly natural result that we do not 
quell the symptoms of uneasiness because we do not reach the 
cause. But, on the contrary, we blunt the animal’s keen sen¬ 
sibility, and gag, as it were, his only method of communication 
