Causes: green leguminosæ, dew, rain, dry indigestible food, lack of water or exercise, debility, torpid liver. Symptoms: firm, small, coated stools, obstruction, straining, tympany, rumbling, vomiting, anorexia, lies on belly, secludes himself, restless, grinding teeth, diarrhœa. Diagnosis from hog cholera. Treatment: laxatives, enemata, antiferments, rubbing, massage, mechanical unloading of rectum, puncture, dieting, bitters.
Causes. The leguminosæ in their green state are liable to produce indigestion and flatulence in the pig. If covered by dew or rain this tendency is increased. Dry, fibrous or indigestible food with privation of water and of exercise tends to intestinal impaction. Debility from any cause, by weakening the contractility and secretory power of the bowel strongly predisposes to this condition. Torpid liver with diminished secretion of bile is another common factor.
Symptoms. The defecations are infrequent, and small, and covered by a mucus film on a glazed surface. This increases steadily until they cease altogether, when straining, tympany, rumbling and vomiting follow. The animal refuses food, and lies on its belly, hiding under the straw when that is available. Restlessness with frequent change of place and grinding of the teeth are noticed. A spontaneous cure may take place by a free secretion of liquid in which the impacted mass is loosened, disintegrated and floated off, the costiveness being succeeded by diarrhœa. Once established this diarrhœa may become persistent, causing serious loss of condition, and simulating hog cholera. It may be distinguished by the fact that it occurred without the introduction of a contagium, is easily accounted for by the nature of the food and is not communicated to adjacent herds treated in a different way. There is also the absence of the petechiæ on the skin, and, on post mortem, of the specific round necrotic intestinal ulcers of hog cholera.
Treatment. The first object is to rid the intestines of the irritating impacted masses, and this may be secured by giving 1 oz. castor oil, 2 drs. jalap, or 3 grs. croton farina to a 150 lb. pig. This may be seconded by frequent and copious injections of soapsuds. If fermentation and tympany are troublesome 30 grs. chloral hydrate may be given and repeated as circumstances demand it. Active rubbing of the abdomen or kneading of the same will prove useful. If tympany becomes dangerous the gas may be safely evacuated by trochar and cannula, the point of puncture being selected by the clearness of the resonance. When the impaction has reached the rectum and prevents the use of enemata, it may be extracted with the oiled fore finger. An injection of sweet oil may then be given and the finger may be used again and again as the impacted fæces come within reach. When diarrhœa has set in it may be checked by doses of 30 to 60 drops of laudanum, and a diet of boiled milk, well boiled flaxseed or other starchy gruel or mush. A course of bitters with chalk, bismuth or antiseptics will prove serviceable during convalescence.
INTESTINAL INDIGESTION IN THE DOG WITH CONSTIPATION.
Usual seat. Causes: house life, neglect of call to defecate, lack of exercise, overdistension, atony, watch dogs, over feeding, obesity, ill health, debility, loss of teeth, paraplegia, spiced and sweet food, matting of hair over anus, tumors round anus. Symptoms: small, hard, white, glazed stools, straining, no stools, hot, tender, swollen, bulging anus, abdominal manipulation, dullness, laziness, seeking seclusion, colics, tender abdomen, stiffness, arched back, drooping head and tail, vomiting—sometimes feculent, fever. Lesions: impacted mass of hard, gritty particles, catarrhal congested or necrotic mucosa, and outer coats, perforating ulcers. Treatment: air, exercise, laxative diet, mechanical extraction, purgatives, enemata, demulcents, laparotomy, enterrectomy.
In the dog, atony and impaction are common especially in the rectum, where the fæces are unduly retained in connection with house life until accumulated and dried. The impaction tends to extension forward, the new material adding continually to the old, and the overdistended rectum becoming more and more atonic in proportion to the increase of the distension.
Causes. The most prominent factor is denial of nature’s call to defecate, on the part of house dogs trained to habits of cleanliness. The accumulated mass distends and weakens the rectum, enabling it to hold more without suffering, making the call of nature less imperious, and diminishing the power of expulsion. Lack of exercise usually operates in the same animals, as it also does in watch dogs, the movements of which are limited by the length of their chains.
Overfeeding contributes, in various ways, by increasing the amount of feculent matter passed on into the rectum, by hastening the food through stomach and small intestine imperfectly digested and therefore in a more irritating condition, and by contributing to obesity and lack of tone.
In mastiffs, hounds, bull-dogs, etc., which are naturally gluttonous and swallow animal food in large masses without tearing apart, or mastication, portions pass into the intestine undigested and tend to disturb and block the terminal bowel.