RUPTURE OF THE INTESTINES IN RUMINANTS.
From blows of horns, tusks, etc., from rectal abscess. Symptoms: colic, resulting in septic peritonitis and sinking. Treatment.
Lesions of this kind usually come from blows with the horns of others. They may lead to artificial anus as in a case reported by Rey, or the formation of a connecting sac as in that of Walley. In a case seen by the author a large abscess formed above the rectum, from injuries sustained in parturition. This ruptured into the gut leaving an immense empty cavity in which the hand could be moved about freely, but which gradually contracted so that the cow made a good recovery.
André furnishes an extraordinary record of rupture of the colon, blocked by a potato. It seems incredible that a potato could have traversed the stomachs and intestine without digestion.
The symptoms are those of violent colic suddenly appearing in connection with some manifest cause of injury, and going on to septic peritonitis and gradual sinking.
Treatment is manifestly useless excepting in the case of some such fortunate condition as in the case of abscess of the rectum in which the free use of injections and the antisepsis of the abscess cavity proved successful.