Special report on diseases of the horse / by Drs. Pearson [and others].

Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Special report on diseases of the horse / by Drs. Pearson [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    56/690 (page 50)
    stomach and intestines and to point out such localizations in one organ or another as are of importance in recognizing and treating the dis- eases of the digestive organs of the horse. It should be understood that gasti'itis signifies an inflammation of the stomach and enteritis an inflammation of the intestines. The two terms may be used together to signify a disease of the stomaeh and intestines, as gastro-enteritis. COLIC. The disease of the horse that is most frequently met with is what is termed “colic,” and many are the remedies that are reputed to be “sure cures” for this disease. Let us discover, then, what the word “colic” means. This term is applied loosely to almost all diseases of the organs of the abdomen that are accompanied by pain. If the horse evinces abdominal pain, he is likely to be put down as suffering with colic, no matter whether the difficulty be a cramp of the bowel, an internal hernia, overloading of the stomach, or a painful disease of the bladder or liver. Since these conditions differ so much in their causation and their nature, it is manifestly absurd to treat them alike and to expect the same drugs or procedures to relieve them all. Therefore it is important that the various diseased states that are so roughly classed together as colic shall, so far as possible, be separated and individualized in order that appropriate treatments may be pre- scribed. With this object in view, colics will be considered under the following headings: (1) Engorgement colic, (2) obstruction colic, (3) tympanitic colic, (4) spasmodic colic, (5) worm colic. The general symptoms of abdominal pain, and therefore of colic, are restlessness, cessation of whatever the horse is about, lying down, looking around toward the flank, kicking with the hind feet upward and forward toward the belly, jerky switching of the tail, stretching as though to urinate, frequent change of position, and groaning. In the more in tense, forms the horse plunges about, throwTs himself down, rolls, assumes unnatural positions, as sitting on the haunches, and grunts loudly. Usually the pain is not constant, and during the inter- missions the horse may eat and appear normal. During the period of pain sweat is poured out freely. Sometimes the horse moves con- stant^7 in a circle. The respirations are accelerated, and usually there is no fever. (1) Engorgement colic.—This form of colic consists in an over- loading of the stomach with food. The horse may have been overfed or the food may have collected in the stomach through failure of this organ to digest it and pass it backward into the intestines. Even a normal amount of food that the horse is unaccustomed to may cause disease. Hence a sudden change of food may produce engorgement colic. Continued full rations while the horse is resting for a day or