Calculus in the Intestines
Many persons have a very foolish custom of throwing stones, that their dogs may dive or run after them, and bring them to their owner's feet: the consequence is, that their teeth are soon worn down, and there are too many cases on record in which the stone has been swallowed. It has been impeded in its progress through the intestinal canal, inflammation has ensued, and the animal has been lost, after having suffered the most dreadful torture.
Simonds relates a case in which a dog was thus destroyed. The animal for some days previous to his admission into the hospital had refused his food, and there was obstinate constipation of the bowels, to remove which aperient medicine had been given. The pulse was accelerated, there was distension of the abdomen with evident tenderness on pressure, the extremities were cold, no fæces were voided, and he occasionally vomited. Some aperient medicine was given, which was retained on the stomach, and enemas and external stimulants were resorted to, but two days afterwards he died.
The intestines were examined, and the offending body was found to be a common pebble. The dog had long been accustomed to fetch stones out of the water. One of these stones had passed through the stomach into the intestines, and, after proceeding some distance along them, had been impacted there. The inflammation was most intense so far as the stone had gone; but in the part of the intestine to which it had not reached there was not any. This was an interesting and instructive case, and should make its due impression.
Another account of the strange contents of the intestines of a bitch may be here introduced.
A valuable pointer-bitch was sent to the infirmary of Mr. Godwin of Litchfield. She presented a very emaciated appearance, and had done so for four or five months. Her evacuations for a day or two were very thin and copious, and afterwards for several days nothing was passed. When pressing the abdomen with both hands, a hard substance was distinctly felt in the inferior part of the umbilical region. She was destroyed, and, upon
post-mortem
examination, a calculus was discovered in the ileum about the size and shape of a hen's egg, the nucleus of which was a portion of hair. The coats of the intestines were considerably thickened and enlarged, so as to form a kind of sac for its retention. Anterior to this was another substance, consisting of a ball of hair, covered with a layer of earthy matter about the eighth of an inch thick, and next to this another ball of hair of less dimensions, intermixed with a gritty substance. The stomach contained a large quantity of hair, and a portion of the omentum, about the size of n crown piece, was thickly studded with small white calculi, the largest about the size of a pea, and exceedingly hard.
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