ACUTE GASTRIC INDIGESTION IN SWINE.
The causes comprise putrid food, swill, spoilt turnips, potatoes, apples, succulent vegetables, frozen food, and the admixture of caustic alkaline powders (used in washing table dishes) with the swill. Indigestible matters—hoof, horn, hair, bristles, tree bark, etc.—when not rejected by vomiting, cause gastritis and indigestion. Lastly, medicinal substances and poisons, paint and lead, sometimes produce the disease.
Among the symptoms may be mentioned dulness, arching of the back, standing with the feet brought together, erection of the bristles, hiding under the litter, grunting, uneasiness, shifting from place to place, tenseness of the abdominal wall, borborygmus; these may be followed by diarrhœa and recovery. Speedier relief is afforded by copious vomiting of irritant matters.
The treatment should commence with the free administration of emetics. To combat alkaline poisoning vinegar may be given, followed by a laxative. Prophylaxis calls for greater care in feeding.
CHAPTER V.
ACUTE INFLAMMATION OF THE GASTRIC COMPARTMENTS.
RUMENITIS—RETICULITIS—GASTRITIS.
Causation. Acute primary inflammation of the first gastric reservoirs, viz., the rumen and reticulum, is not common. It sometimes accompanies such infectious disorders as foot-and-mouth disease, gangrenous coryza, etc., but then constitutes an added phenomenon which should be studied along with the original disease itself. Rumenitis or reticulitis may however follow the ingestion of irritant foods or plants, of very hot liquids, and more frequently still of unskilfully compounded medicines. In such cases the mucous membrane is directly attacked, and pathological congestion, infiltration, and desquamation may follow, or even vesicles and ulcerations may rapidly be formed.
Symptoms. Inflammation of the rumen or reticulum is announced by loss of appetite, suspension of rumination or of regular peristalsis, slight tympanites, and particularly by excessive sensitiveness to palpation. This sensitiveness is general, but is more specially marked in the left lower third of the abdominal cavity, and in the retro-ensiform region which corresponds to the position of the reticulum. Moderate fever is present.
These symptoms, which indicate the gravity and intensity of the inflammation, may persist, become aggravated, provoke vomiting from the rumen, and leave as a legacy motor dyspepsia, or even more serious consequences. On the other hand, they may progressively diminish and disappear for good.
Lesions. The lesions comprise hyperæmia of the walls of the rumen and of the mucous membrane, extensive local exfoliation of epithelium, and sometimes true ulceration of the mucous membrane.