To relieve the digestive symptoms purgatives are at first given, even though diarrhœa is marked from the onset; for purgatives still constitute the best intestinal antiseptics, because they get rid of the intestinal contents and microbes. The diet should be carefully selected, and may consist of gruel, mucilaginous materials, linseed tea, cooked roots, etc.
Of drugs, sulphate of sodium in doses of 10 to 15 ounces is probably the best. It can gradually be replaced by 2 to 3 drachm doses of bicarbonate of soda or of ordinary salt per day. Laudanum, camphor, and bismuth relieve persistent colic and diarrhœa. Pilocarpine, veratrine and eserine, though recommended by some authors, present no advantage in our opinion. The first two of these substances certainly cause purgation, but the action is quite temporary. The last induces violent contraction of the striped muscular tissue, and may produce grave lesions or invagination when the bowel is diseased, thickened or infiltrated.
HÆMORRHAGIC ENTERITIS.
This form of enteritis derives its name from the dominant symptom, which consists in the passage of unaltered or clotted blood in the fæces. In the former case the blood is bright in colour, as if it came directly from an open vessel. In the second it is coagulated, and assumes the form of fibrinous clots, which seem to result from the superposition, in the intestinal tract of their constituent elements, viz., serum, blood corpuscles, and fibrin.
Causation. Hæmorrhagic enteritis is rarely seen except during the hottest days of summer, and in young animals which have previously shown nothing abnormal. The high temperature seems to favour its appearance, but is always supplemented by another cause, viz., the ingestion of irritant food, particularly of weeds and toxic plants or herbage of bad quality; amongst such may be mentioned dog’s mercury, and plants of the order Papaveraceæ, Euphorbiaceæ, etc. Otherwise the often rapid manner in which the disease develops indicates toxic enteritis.
In other cases, more benign in appearance, but quite as grave in reality, blood is passed continually, and the disease assumes a chronic form. It is then of parasitic origin, and is due to intestinal psorospermosis.
Symptoms. The primary symptoms are similar to those of acute enteritis, and consist of fever, dryness of the muzzle and of the mouth, colic and constipation. This is soon followed by loose motions containing blood or blood clots, according as the hæmorrhage occurs at a greater or less distance from the rectum. The fæces are then ejected violently to a considerable distance, on account of the exaggerated intestinal peristalsis.
The disease may produce death in twenty-four hours, though usually the end is deferred for several days, or, in cases due to sporozoa, for a considerably longer time. In these cases there is some chance of recovery, provided that treatment be prompt.
The diagnosis is very easy.
The prognosis is in all cases grave.