Common Diseases of Farm Animals

by Robert Alexander Craig

[Illustration: FIG. 10.—A section of the wall of the rumen and reticulum, showing the oesophageal groove: lips of groove; opening from oesophagus; and opening into omasum.]

RUMINANTS have a compound stomach (Figs. 9 and 10). The capacity of the stomach of the ox is between twenty and thirty gallons. The four compartments into which it is divided are the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum or true stomach. The rumen is the largest compartment, with a capacity of more than twenty gallons. The reticulum is the smallest, with a capacity of about one-half gallon.

After a brief mastication, the food passes directly to the rumen. Here it is subjected to a churning movement that mixes and presses the contents of the rumen forward in the direction of the oesophageal opening, where it is ready for regurgitation. It is then carried back to the mouth, remasticated and returned to the rumen. This is termed rumination. All food material that is sufficiently broken up is directed toward the opening into the third compartment by the oesophageal grove (Fig. 10), a demi-canal that connects this with the oesophageal opening.

The third compartment, the omasum, communicates anteriorly with the second and first, and posteriorly with the fourth compartment or true stomach. The interior arrangement of this compartment is most singular. It is divided by a number of large folds of the lining membrane between which are smaller folds. It is between these folds that the contents pass.

The first three compartments possess no glands capable of secreting a digestive juice. However, important digestive changes occur. The carbohydrates are digested by means of enzymes contained in the feed. The most important function of the rumen and omasum is the maceration of the fibrous substances, and the digestion of the cellulose. Between sixty and seventy per cent of the cellulose is digested in the rumen.

The abomasum is lined by a gastric mucous membrane. The gastric juice secreted converts the protein into peptones. In the young a milk curdling ferment is also secreted by the glands of this compartment.

THE STOMACH OF THE HOG is a type between the carnivora and ruminant. The digestive changes may be divided into four stages. The first period is one of starch conversion; the second period is the same, only more pronounced; the third period, both starch and protein conversion occurs; and the fourth period is taken up mostly with protein digestion.

ACUTE INDIGESTION OF THE STOMACH OF SOLIPEDS.—Diseases of the stomach are less common in solipeds than in ruminants. The simple stomach of the horse and the comparatively unimportant place that it occupies in the digestion of the feed renders it less subject to disease. Only under the most unfavorable conditions for digestion of the feed does this class of disorders occur. Acute indigestion in the form of overloading and fermentation occurs in the stomach (Fig. 11).

The predisposing causes that have to do with the development of these disorders, are the small capacity of the stomach and the location and smallness of the openings leading from the oesophagus and into the small intestines. Greedy eaters are more prone to indigestion than animals that eat slowly and are fed intelligently.

[Illustration: FIG. 11.—Dilated stomach of horse.]