Treatment. A rational treatment is only possible in those rare cases in which the diagnosis is certain. When the lesion can be reached in the rectum or adjacent part of the floating colon, the oiled hand may be made to drag on the interior of the viscus so as to restore it to its normal position.
Cadiot has had recoveries from supposed volvulus by the use of eserine hypodermically, and Trasbot by the use of castor oil and it is just possible that active peristalsis, and plenitude of the bowel running into the volvulus, may serve to unwind slight cases. When the diagnosis is certain and the case, as usual, intractable the resort of laparotomy and the attempt at untwisting is fully warranted. The case is a fatal one if unrelieved.
VOLVULUS IN RUMINANTS.
This condition is almost unknown in ruminants, Reichert recording a single case of volvulus of the ileum involving 8 inches of the gut. The reason for the habitual immunity is to be found in the arrangement of the small intestine at the end of a mesentery which is strengthened and stiffened by the winding folds of the colon until twisting is practically impossible. There remains, therefore, only the floating colon and rectum at all exposed to the lesion. The isolated case of Reichert only proves the rule.
VOLVULUS IN DOGS.
Rare. Short mesentery hinders. Occurs with hernia. Symptoms: obstruction, prostration, colic, tense, painful abdomen, retching, anorexia, exhaustion. Treatment: laparotomy.
The carnivora seem to be protected against volvulus by the shortness of their mesentery, the comparative lightness of the intestinal contents, and the restricted area of the abdominal cavity. Cadiot, Müller, and Friedberger and Fröhner agree in ignoring the subject as a canine disease, while Cadeac mentions only such cases as are complicated by mesenteric hernia, the protruding loop becoming twisted in the wound through which it has protruded.
“The symptoms are those of invagination or intestinal obstruction; sometimes the animal is dull, anxious, resting almost constantly down on his belly, and this prostration dominates the table of symptoms; sometimes, on the contrary, the subject manifests signs of excitement and intestinal pain; it trembles, lies down, glances at its flanks; sometimes it even lets itself fall abruptly, straightens out stiffly its limbs and head, clenches its jaws and rolls its eyes.”
“In all cases the belly is hard, drawn up, painful to pressure or palpation; but these means of exploration are insufficient to feel the intestinal knot.”
“Constipation is persistent, obstinate, and efforts at vomiting continuous; anorexia is incomplete, or the animal rejects the solid and liquid aliments immediately after their ingestion. Vomited matters, when they exist, become glairy, bilious toward the end of the attack; but sometimes the animal becomes exhausted in his fruitless efforts; one is rendered uncertain and hesitates to confirm his diagnosis by laparotomy.”