Fig. 70.—Ulcerative gastritis. 1, Typical round ulcer; 2 and 3, ulcers perforating folds of the abomasum; 4, 5, and 6, old-standing ulcers with sclerosis of the walls of the abomasum and adhesive perigastritis.
Treatment should be directed towards checking hæmorrhage, diminishing intolerance to food, and assisting the healing of the lesions. These objects are facilitated by prolonged complete rest in the stable, by injecting ergotine, or, ·7 per cent. saline solution, at the time when the hæmorrhage occurs, and, if possible, by placing the animals on milk diet or on emollient food, like gruels, emollient infusions, barley, milk, cooked roots, etc.
Stimulation over the region of the abomasum is also of value. At a later stage, when the acute symptoms have diminished, Carlsbad salts, in doses of 1 to 2 ounces per day, can be given. Bicarbonate of soda is also of considerable value.
CHRONIC TYMPANITES.
Chronic Indigestion—Obstruction of the Abomasum—Chronic Gastritis—Dyspepsia.
Among pathological conditions of the stomach in ruminants a certain number are clinically marked by one constant symptom, viz., chronic tympanites, a fact which was formerly recognised as indicative of chronic indigestion.
It is evident that such titles have only the significance accorded them, and the term chronic indigestion used only to mean that gastric digestion was badly performed, and that the condition was more or less permanent. It being granted, on the other hand, that the term indigestion is used to characterise temporary conditions during which digestion is suspended, and produces immediate disturbance, it would appear that the term gastric dyspepsia is more exact and more in conformity with the present state of our knowledge of general physiology. In studying this question it is clear a number of facts still require explanation, for, as has been previously indicated, we know almost nothing concerning the variations in the chemical phenomena of gastric digestion under different morbid conditions; nevertheless, the dominant fact, the imperfect or irregular digestion, is easily appreciable. Future discoveries will no doubt enable us more exactly to differentiate several dyspeptic conditions due to chemical or mechanical causes and with or without anatomical lesions. At present it is sufficient to indicate the limits of inquiry.
Causation. The symptom of chronic tympanites accompanies a great number of very different conditions—some due to disease of the digestive tract itself, others to general diseases or lesions of neighbouring parts. In the latter cases the tympanites is only indicative of secondary dyspepsia; in the former, on the other hand, the dyspepsia is primary.
Secondary dyspepsia occurs very commonly during tuberculosis, diseases of the liver, subacute or chronic peritonitis, gestation, lesions of the mediastinum, etc., etc.
(a) Secretory or Chemical Dyspepsia. In primary dyspepsia it is impossible to discover any lesion sufficient to explain the disturbance. Chronic tympanites, for instance, follows prolonged consumption of rough or bad food (in years when forage has been scarce or winter food has been lacking), and too short a supply of water for weeks in succession. It also occurs as a consequence of acute inflammation of one or other of the gastric compartments—rumenitis, reticulitis, gastritis. Sometimes it assumes an insidious, slow, progressive form, without any apparent cause whatever.