Many persons have a very foolish custom of throwing stones, that their
dogs may dive or run after them, and bring them to their owner's feet:
the consequence is, that their teeth are soon worn down, and there are
too many cases on record in which the stone has been swallowed. It has
been impeded in its progress through the intestinal canal, inflammation
has ensued, and the animal has been lost, after having suffered the most
dreadful torture.
Professor Simonds relates a case in which a dog was thus destroyed. The
animal for some days previous to his admission into the hospital had
refused his food, and there was obstinate constipation of the bowels, to
remove which aperient medicine had been given. The pulse was
accelerated, there was distension of the abdomen with evident tenderness
on pressure, the extremities were cold, no fæces were voided, and he
occasionally vomited. Some aperient medicine was given, which was
retained on the stomach, and enemas and external stimulants were
resorted to, but two days afterwards he died.
The intestines were examined, and the offending body was found to be a
common pebble. The dog had long been accustomed to fetch stones out of
the water. One of these stones had passed through the stomach into the
intestines, and, after proceeding some distance along them, had been
impacted there. The inflammation was most intense so far as the stone
had gone; but in the part of the intestine to which it had not reached
there was not any. This was an interesting and instructive case, and
should make its due impression.
Another account of the strange contents of the intestines of a bitch may
be here introduced.
A valuable pointer-bitch was sent to the infirmary of Mr. Godwin of
Litchfield. She presented a very emaciated appearance, and had done so
for four or five months. Her evacuations for a day or two were very thin
and copious, and afterwards for several days nothing was passed. When
pressing the abdomen with both hands, a hard substance was distinctly
felt in the inferior part of the umbilical region. She was destroyed,
and, upon 'post-mortem' examination, a calculus was discovered in the
ileum about the size and shape of a hen's egg, the nucleus of which was
a portion of hair. The coats of the intestines were considerably
thickened and enlarged, so as to form a kind of sac for its retention.
Anterior to this was another substance, consisting of a ball of hair,
covered with a layer of earthy matter about the eighth of an inch thick,
and next to this another ball of hair of less dimensions, intermixed
with a gritty substance. The stomach contained a large quantity of hair,
and a portion of the omentum, about the size of n crown piece, was
thickly studded with small white calculi, the largest about the size of
a pea, and exceedingly hard.
INTUSSUSCEPTION.
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