Treatment. The first desideratum is the elimination of the irritant ingesta from the stomach. But for this purpose emetics are useless and we must fall back on laxatives. Again we are met by the consideration that the inflamed stomach will neither readily absorb nor respond to a stimulus. Yet as a rule the viscus is not equally inflamed throughout, and even the affected parts do not necessarily have the whole muscular coat involved and paralyzed. We can therefore hope for a measure of response which once started will deplete and improve the adjacent and more violently affected parts. But irritant and drastic purgatives like croton, podophyllin or gamboge are proscribed as very liable to aggravate the inflammation. Pilocarpin 3 grs. hypodermically may be given or in default of this, 1 lb. each of Glauber and common salt in not less than six quarts of water, free access being allowed to pure water until it shall have operated. Bismuth may also be given as a calmative. Active rubbing of the abdomen will assist in rousing the stomachs to action, and hasten the action of the purgative. If there should be any sign of cerebral disorder, cold water or ice may be applied to the head, and oil of turpentine, followed by a pulp of the best ground mustard may be applied to the epigastrium and right hypochondrium. This may be accompanied and followed by copious enemata, and doses of quinia, gentian or still better nux vomica three times a day.
CATARRHAL GASTRITIS IN SWINE.
Definition. Causes, irritants, fermented, putrid swill, spoiled vegetables, irritant molluscs or larvæ, hot or cold food, alkalies, indigestible food, specific germs and toxins, parasites. Symptoms: inappetence, restlessness, vomiting, colic, constipation, diarrhœa, fever, stiffness, tender abdomen, arched back, chill, plaintive grunting, drooping tail. Lesions. Treatment: change diet, mucilaginous, milk, protection from saprophytes, change pen, emetic, laxative, calomel, bismuth, cleanliness, washing.
Definition. Inflammation of the gastric mucosa with mucopurulent discharge.
Causes. Irritants of various kinds, fermented or putrid swill, spoiled vegetables, irritant molluscs or larvæ, too hot or too cold aliment, excess of brine, excess of alkalies, in swill (dishwashings), indigestible foods of all kinds. The stomach may also be the seat of catarrhal inflammation in hog cholera, swine plague, rouget, diphtheritic affections and in the case of gastric parasites, so that it is very important to distinguish the affections due to simple irritants, from those dependent on plagues and parasitism.
Symptoms. There is inappetence, vomiting, restlessness and constant movement, colics, vomiting, constipation or diarrhœa, hyperthermia, stiffness, tenderness of the abdomen to handling, arched back, a disposition to hide under the straw, plaintive grunting when roused, drooping of the tail. The tendency is to a rapid recovery after the evacuation of the stomach by vomiting, though it may persist under a continuance of the irritating ingesta.
In these last cases the lesions may closely resemble those of the contagious affections of the abdomen, but the disease may be distinguished by its indisposition to spread beyond the herd which is subjected to the unhealthy dietary.
Treatment. Change the diet to one of pure and easily digestible materials, soups, mush, fresh whey or buttermilk, boiled farinas or flax seed, and even fresh grass. If there is violent diarrhœa boiled milk is often of great value.
Whatever food is given should be furnished in a vessel into which the animal can’t get his feet, as these are usually charged with septic germs which are pathogenic to the diseased stomach, though they may have started from ordinary saprophytes.
For the same reason it is usually desirable to change the pen, as the animal grubbing in the ground charges the snout with the same offensive microbes.