172 
H. F. JAMKS. 
4 
FISTULA OF THE COLON FOLLOWING ENTEROTOMY. 
By H. F. James, V.S., St. Louis, Mo. 
The occurrence of fistulse of the rumen in cattle from the use 
of the trocar or accidental injury, has been observed somewhat 
frequently ; but although enterotomy is performed to a consider¬ 
able extent on horses in this country, this sequel of the operation, 
as far as I am aware, has not yet been recorded. 
About the middle of January I had a bad case of acute indi¬ 
gestion complicated with congestion of the brain. Performed 
enterotomy four times on this animal, twice through right flank 
and twice through the left; by so doing saving my patient from 
asphyxia. The operation was performed as carefully as was my 
wont, the trocar was clean and of right calibre and sharpness, 
and no harm was noticed for some time from the punctures. On 
recovering from the first sickness, the animal was seized with 
pneumonia of right lung, and about the eighth or ninth day of 
the pulmonary complication I was called one night by the watch¬ 
man and found my patient apparently badly colicked. This 
suddenly ceased, and I perceived a white colored stream the 
thickness of my finger running down the right flank from one of the 
punctures, a faecal odor becoming very apparent at the same time. 
The mare was too sick from the lung trouble to stand any irrita¬ 
tion at the time, or I would have blistered all around the opening, 
as we do in salivary fistula, and endeavored to close at once. 
That it was chyle was very evident, and external manipulation 
together with probing convinced me that there was no pocket in 
the abdominal muscles, but that the fistula communicated directly 
with the bowel. The angle of the puncture, with the flank now 
in its normal position, was downwards at about 45°, and the 
fistula was about six or seven inches to the bowel ; therefore the 
chyle, which ran in a continuous stream after the animal had 
been fed, and saturated both blankets and bedding, had to well 
up, as I may express it, and the natural tendency of such a 
channel to heal up quickly seemed in every way likely to me. 
The mare rapidly regained her usual health and spirits, and in 
