1 Sepr., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 263 
The pain of colic is often so acute that a delicate lamb will succumb before 
a purgative can take effect, so that it is well to give a cordial dose of sweet 
nitre and peppermint, with a little laudunum or gin added to allay pain, and 
followed quickly by a dose of castor oil or salts, with ginger and capsicum or 
gentian. The trouble is likely to recur unless the bowels are acted upon, as in 
all the gastric troubles there is curdled material to be got rid_of. 
“ Hoven,” “blown,” or “blast,” is a complaint known by a yariety of 
different names, but readers will probably recognise the disorder to which we 
refer. 
THE CAUSE. 
Fermentation of the food contained in the first stomach (rumen), is the 
cause. A greater amount of gas is eliminated than the animal can expel, either 
by eructation or rectal flatus. It is not often we see it in yery young lambs, 
but, after they have been changed from dry to moist food, quickly-grown clover, 
or other succulent food, with which they fill themselves rapidly. To prevent 
this, they should not be put on it until nearly satisfied with the food they have 
been having previously. 
The symptoms are distension of the abdomen, especially on the left side, 
standing with legs apart, and apparently afraid of falling down, the breathing 
hurried and difficult, while the countenance ean only be deseribed as haggard. 
The claim has often been made for certain remedies, that they would 
decompose the gases, so that, from a great bulk, a small amount of some 
harmless salt in solution would be produced, and the distention, of course, 
immediately got rid of, but none of them are to be depended upon. It is a fine 
idea—a truly scientific one—but the gases to be dealt with are not always the 
same, or, at any rate, do not undergo the conversion inside the animal that they 
will in a chemical apparatus. We are thrown back upon the old remedy of 
linseed oil as one of the best, since it has the undoubted property of masking the 
gas as fast as produced, and thus enabling the digestive apparatus to get rid of 
it, if not already too greatly distended to act. In this connection it may be said 
that for adult ruminants it is still the best remedy in ordinary cases. 
PUNCTURING THE SIDE. 
Where the patient is ix extremis, there is not time for any drug to act, and 
no choice but to puncture the side—the left side, be it remembered—and the 
lace to be chosen, midway between the last rib and the hip. The instrument 
used should be thrust in in a direction downward, and slightly forward, to avoid 
injuring other structures. 
There are very nice instruments made for the purpose, but not usually 
found in the possession of farmers, while the veterinary may not be summoned 
in time. It may be remarked, inter alia, that this is one of the cases in which 
the importance of messages are demonstrated, it being no use to telegraph, 
“Very bad; come at once,” if you don’t say what is the matter; and if you do 
say, ““ Blown; urgent,” he will bring whatis wanted. Inthe part of the country 
from which I write (I’m not chained up at the back of 6, Essex street, like the 
tame authors we read of), the farmers improvise a canula by cutting a stick 
of alder, and pushing out the pith; they then make an incision with a clean 
knife, and introduce the extemporised instrument, and let off the gas. It may 
be adyisable, in cases of some standing and persistence, to add a few drops of 
carbolic acid, as it prevents decomposition of retained food, which might other- 
wise be got rid of without further trouble. A proper canula has the advantage 
of being left in the orifice without danger of slipping inside, but the crude 
instrument referred to must be held until the apparently inexhaustible gases 
have escaped. The belly goes down like a pricked balloon, and the breathing 
becomes natural almost at once. When it is found that there is a tendency to 
refill when the instrument is withdrawn, some small doses of hyposulphite of 
soda or chlorinated lime are recommended, but the oil advised has in the mean- 
time had opportunity of giving relief both as a gas-destroyer and aperient, 
inducing the expulsion of wind per rectum.. 
