Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparisonFox, Herbert
Science
Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparison
Fox, Herbert
Veterinary medicine
Having excluded a doubtful invagination in a small rodent there remains
an interesting though somewhat obscure case in a porcupine (_Erethizon
dorsatus dorsatus_). This animal suffered with an acute hemorrhagic and
catarrhal enteritis while the colon seemed free of change until the
rectum was reached. Here was a stretch of a foot with the purple,
lusterless but translucent appearance of a strangulated intestine
although no involution or twisting remained. This was looked upon as a
volvulus which had untwisted a few hours before death.
Intussusception was seen only once in the Ungulata, a tapir (_Tapirus
terrestris_) with chronic enteritis. Here the ileum had passed into the
colon for a distance of nine inches, it being much swollen and congested
but not gangrenous. Its condition warranted the idea that the process
was antemortem but a peritonitis had not arisen, death having occurred
from the slight extra shock in an animal suffering with chronic
malnutrition. Volvulus was encountered three times, two deer and a
zebra. The last was the animal already described that carried such a
heavy load of sand in the gut tract, a factor in the production of the
twist probably although this might have been aided by a fibromyoma of
the colonic wall. The location of the volvulus in this order was twice
in the dilated descending colon, the third in the jejunal area. This
last was a twist which resembled an internal strangulation because of
the intricate knot-like windings of the small bowel.
The marsupials present two interesting cases. A rock kangaroo
(_Petrogale pencillata_) had chronic gastric ulcerations with local
peritoneal adhesions which apparently obstructed nearby coils of
intestine so that they became inflated and twisted over. An opossum had
a volvulus of the stomach which performed one and a half turns from left
to right; its protocol follows.
Common Opossum ♂ (_Didelphys virginiana_). Ileus. One and one-half
complete volvulus turns of stomach on duodenum. General condition
fairly good. Abdomen quite prominent, a condition found to be due to
great dilatation of the stomach which occupied the whole anterior part
of the abdominal cavity. The organ is blue and the vessels stand out.
Postmortem changes are occurring everywhere favored by the obstruction
to the circulation. The dilated stomach has undergone a volvulus upon
the third part of the duodenum making one and a half turns. The spleen
lies upon the right side well below the liver; it is swollen, soft and
deep purple. The duodenum in its upper half takes part in the
dilatation and beginning gangrene. The pedicle of the twist is made of
the duodenum, esophagus, edge of the mesentery and the middle part of
the pancreas; the end of the tail of the last is gangrenous. There is
no apparent obstruction lower down to explain the twist of the
stomach.
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