TOXIC GASTRITIS IN SOLIPEDS.
Causes: caustics or irritants acting on mucosa, accidently, or maliciously. Symptoms: colics, pinched face, small rapid pulse, hurried breathing, hyperthermia, sometimes salivation, color of buccal mucosa, odor, congestion of tongue, thirst, urination, icterus, albuminuria, analysis of urine or vomited matter. Lesions: congestion, corrosion, necrosis or ulceration of gastric mucosa, discoloration. Treatment: antidote, stomach pump, demulcents, coagulants.
Causes. Toxic gastritis in solipeds is peculiar in this that it must be due to one or other of the more caustic or irritant agents, which act chemically on the tissues, while those agents that require to be absorbed to establish a physiological irritation are comparatively harmless. This depends on the fact that few or none of the poisonous agents are absorbed by the gastric mucosa of the soliped, and if ingested they must pass on into the duodenum before they can be absorbed into the tissues and blood-vessels. Hence the horse is injured mainly by actual caustics like mercuric chloride, zinc chloride, ferric or cupric sulphate, the caustic alkalies or earths, or alkaline carbonates, and the mineral acids. These may be taken accidently or administered maliciously, or as medicines.
Symptoms. Morbid symptoms vary according to the agent swallowed. There are colics, anxious countenance, small accelerated pulse, rapid breathing, hyperthermia, and salivation, especially marked with mercuric chloride. The buccal mucosa may give valuable indications, becoming white with muriatic acid, or zinc, or antimony, or mercuric chloride, yellow with nitric acid, and white changing to black with sulphuric acid or silver nitrate. Ferric or cupric sulphate may give their respective colors to the saliva, and the former will darken the fæces.
The mouth is usually dry, hot, and clammy, and the edges of the tongue red. Temperature is usually elevated, yet with tartar emetic it may be distinctly reduced. Thirst is usually marked, and urination frequent. Icterus and albuminuria attend on phosphorus poisoning. When vomiting takes place the appearance or analysis of the matters rejected, or otherwise of the urine, will often indicate the nature of the poison.
Lesions. The gastric mucosa is congested and discolored, but the corrosion and even the ulceration are especially characteristic. Patches of necrotic mucous membrane may be more or less detached exposing a deep red submucosa. The coloration otherwise varies;—white or black with sulphuric acid or silver nitrate; white with muriatic acid, the caustic alkalies, or zinc chloride; yellow with nitric acid; or green with salts of copper.
Similar lesions are found on the buccal, œsophagean and intestinal mucosæ, and even at times on the respiratory.
Treatment. In the treatment of this form of gastritis the first consideration is to expel, or use an antidote to, the poison. In the soliped, emetics are useless. The stomach pump or tube may, however, be applied with good effect in nearly all cases, alternately throwing in water and drawing it off. Demulcents and coagulants are also universally applicable. Milk, eggs beaten up in milk, blood albumen, flaxseed tea, well boiled gruels, or slippery elm bark, may be used as may be most convenient. Next come the other chemical antidotes the use of which however demands a previous knowledge of the poison present. For the mineral acids one can make use of calcined magnesia, lime water, chalk, or carbonate of soda in weak solution. For alkalies the appropriate antidote is vinegar. For carbolic acid, vinegar, alcohol, or failing these a weak solution of soda or oil. For tartar emetic, gallic or tannic acid. For bichromate of potash or chromic acid, calcined magnesia, magnesia carbonate, or lime carbonate. For phosphorus, old oil of turpentine and demulcents—no oil. For ammonia, vinegar followed by almond, olive or sweet oil. In case of œdema glottidis, tracheotomy. For copper salts yellow prussiate of potash, which precipitates the copper in an insoluble form, and demulcents. For mercuric chloride, demulcent drinks can be resorted to, there is no other reliable antidote. In all cases after the evacuation of the stomach and the use of the antidote, mucilaginous agents must be given freely with morphia or other anodynes.