Diagnosis is helped by the fact that the animal is a steer, and in a locality where the above-named mode of castration is in vogue. It is completed by feeling the imprisoned intestine and the constricting cord just under the right or left transverse processes of the sacrum.
Treatment. The gut will sometimes escape from the sac if the animal is turned quickly on its back. Another method is to invoke the influence of gravitation by jumping the animal from a high step down to a lower level, or by trotting him down a steep incline. A still more effective method is to introduce the hand into the rectum and press the palm upward and forward against the soft mass of the imprisoned intestine. In this way the gaseous, liquid and solid contents are passed over into the portion of the gut in front of the constriction, and by continuing the process the intestine itself can usually be pressed out and the suffering relieved. It is further suggested to press the thumb or the whole hand forward against the constricting band and tear it in two. A certain amount of to and fro movement is usually required and in exceptional cases the cord is so strong that the measure has to be abandoned.
Another resort is to pass a cannula and trochar through the adjacent part of the rectum, and withdrawing the trochar, to pass a probpointed bistoury through the cannula, and beneath the cord and cut it in two.
These measures failing an incision must be made in the right flank, following the line of the fibres of the external oblique, and the hand being introduced and passed round the posterior border of the omentum the seat of the disease is found and the constricting cord is cut with a probpointed bistoury or a bistouri caché. The wound is then sutured, disinfected and covered with antiseptic gauze or cotton and bandage. The sounds of peristalsis are resumed and in five or six hours defecation is restored.
2nd Form. Another alleged condition vouched for by English and continental veterinarians depends on drawing down the spermatic cord as far as possible, cutting it off and allowing it to be retracted into the abdomen. Having been detached by the traction from the abdominal wall it is alleged to float free, sometimes establishing an adhesion to one of the intestines of which it later limits the movements; sometimes forming a connection with the abdominal wall and forming a sling in which the intestines may be snared, and sometimes swelling at its free end to form a pedunculated tumor, and winding around a loop of intestine so as to strangle it. For these conditions incision of the abdominal wall and section of the offending cord are recommended.
3rd Form. Lobbe tells us that the disease is common in bulls as well as oxen in mountainous regions, being determined by violent exertions, or by the struggle to rise, when the animal has accidently fallen. In this alleged form there is the suggestion of the heavy pendent testicles as factors in detaching the cord with its vessels and nerves from the abdominal wall, so as to form a loop or snare for the intestine.
DIAPHRAGMATOCELE. DIAPHRAGMATIC HERNIA. PHRENIC HERNIA.
Definition. Susceptibility by genera, horse, dog, ox. Enterocele, epiplocele, gastrocele, hepatocele. Congenital, arrest of development and of closure of foramen or elsewhere, diaphragm absent. Traumatic, blows on false ribs by pole, shaft, buffer, gate, bars, beams, kicks, blows with horns, tusks, clubs, fractured rib perforating diaphragm, falls on projecting bodies, muscular strains in draught, plunging, falling, slipping, casting, parturition; trotting or galloping down hill, jumping to lower level, slipping to knees, dystokia, colic, tympany. Symptoms: extreme dyspnœa and asphyxia; or difficult breathing slowly increasing, colics, dilated nostrils, retracted angle of mouth, projecting eyeballs, shallow, rapid catching respirations, gurgling in chest, drumlike percussion sounds, with perhaps flat areas; in slight cases, listlessness, colics, double lift of flank, tender intercostals; in chronic cases, short wind on exertion, sluggishness, colics after meals. Hernia through intercostal space. Lesions: unduly large foramen sinistrum or dextrum, lacerations of all forms and sizes, edges ragged, thickened, bloody, broken rib, inflated stomach causes shreddy tear; post mortem lacerations show no inflammatory products; chronic cases have edges devoid of inflammation and often smooth, serosæ usually perforated, nature of hernial mass, omentum, intestine, colon, cæcum, stomach, spleen, liver, congestion of viscera involved. Prognosis: slight cases may survive, to be fattened or to breed, but are useless for work. Treatment: quiet, sedatives, antiferments, cathartic, concentrated food, lift by fore limbs, incline stall backward and downward, laparotomy in cattle, dogs, and swine.
As this lesion is shown by symptoms referable to internal organs only, and as it is considered irremediable by surgical measures, it may be properly considered in the class of medical affections.
Definition. A displacement of one or more of the abdominal organs into the cavity of the thorax.