(a) Suppression or irregularity of rumination. This very important symptom suggests the degree of gravity of the digestive disturbance, and to some extent the gravity of the general condition. Suppressed rumination is a common symptom in many diseases, some of which are purely digestive, though all are not. It is, however, a grave sign in most cases.
(b) Eructation, which is usually frequent, may be regarded as normal provided the exhaled gas preserves the fresh odour of grass or of the food swallowed, like brewers’ grains, turnips, etc. Sometimes the gas is sour, acid, fœtid, or putrid, all of which conditions indicate disease.
(c) Yawning is not common. It becomes frequent and attracts attention in certain abnormal conditions; in others, again, it may be completely suppressed.
(d) Nausea and vomiting are rare. Vomiting is commoner in calves, and results from inability to digest the milk, or simply to over-distension of the abomasum. The matter vomited by adults usually consists of partly masticated food, and is derived from the rumen; while the contents of the abomasum are occasionally rejected, in which case the material is of pulpy consistence and has an acid smell.
(e) Digestive disturbance is sometimes accompanied by various modifications in the breathing, such as immobilisation of the hypochondriac region and of the diaphragm; abnormal sensibility and reflex coughing on palpation, and, in inflammation of the reticulum due to foreign bodies, costal respiration.
Fig. 61.—Position of the abdominal viscera, seen from below. Gi, large intestine; V.c.g., left pouch of the rumen; E, E, epiploon (line of insertion); P, paunch or rumen; Ax, xiphoid appendix of the sternum; R, reticulum; C, abomasum; V.c.d., right pouch of the rumen; Ig, small intestine.
It is by methodically observing, grouping, and classifying the symptoms presented that one is enabled to detect the links connecting them.
Intestine. The intestinal mass is contained in the right half of the abdomen above the compartment of the stomach. The large intestine occupies the upper zone, corresponding externally with the hollow of the flank from the thirteenth rib to the haunch. The small intestine occupies the middle zone from the thirteenth rib to the entrance to the pelvis and the stifle region; the inferior zone is occupied by the rumen and abomasum, and in pregnant females by the gravid uterus.
Notwithstanding these indications it is somewhat difficult to examine the mass of the large intestine, separated as it is from the abdominal wall by the U-shaped inflection of the duodenal loop, of which the deep retrograde branch is in contact with the terminal portion of the floating colon.