The illustrated horse doctor : $b being an accurate and detailed account of the various diseases to which the equine race are subjectedMayhew, Edward
Science
The illustrated horse doctor : $b being an accurate and detailed account of the various diseases to which the equine race are subjected
Mayhew, Edward
Horses -- Diseases
=Ruptured stomach= mostly happens with old and enfeebled horses. Night
cab-horses are very liable to it; so also are animals of heavy draught.
The drivers often neglect to take out the nose-bags. The horse's most
urgent necessities always yield to man's passing convenience; so the
creature has to journey far or to remain out till the empty stomach
grows debilitated. It is then taken home and placed before abundance.
Elsewhere this folly has been commented upon. It was shown that light
food and perfect rest were the best restoratives for an exhausted frame.
The drivers, however, refuse to be taught. The horse eats and eats. No
contraction of the exhausted stomach warns the animal when to stop. The
viscus is crammed. Then digestion endeavors to commence. With rest the
organ recovers some tone. The muscular coat of the sac starts into action,
and, encountering opposition, the vital powers exert themselves with the
greater energy. The stomach is thus burst by its own inherent force; the
largest division of its various structures always being exhibited by the
elastic peritoneal covering--the lesser rent being left upon the inelastic
mucous lining membrane. Excessive colic, followed by tympanitis, are the
only general symptoms which attend ruptured stomach. The history of the
case, if it can be obtained, is, however, a better guide; but there are
too often interested motives for distorting the facts. Vomition through
the nostrils has been thought to particularize ruptured stomach; but
experience has ascertained that vomition may be induced by any lesion
which is sufficiently great to cause revulsion of the system.
[Illustration:
THE INTESTINE DIVIDED SO AS TO CLEARLY SHOW THE NATURE OF
INTRO-SUSCEPTION.
]
=Intro-susception= is always preceded by colic. The last-named affection
causes portions of the bowels to contract. Such contracted intestines
become small, firm, and stiff. They are, while in that condition, by the
peristaltic action readily pushed up other portions of the canal, which
are of the natural size. The entrance of the contracted bowel acts upon
the healthy tube as if it were a foreign substance. Contractibility is
excited. The displaced and intruding bowel is grasped as by a vice, and
the accident is of that kind which provokes its own continuance. Cure is
hopeless, while consciousness remains; the only hope is the administration
of chloroform in full and long-continued doses; thereby to arrest vitality
and chance the release of the imprisoned gut. While intro-susception
lasts, all passage is effectually stopped. Inflammation soon commences,
and the symptoms of outrageous colic are exhibited. However, such is
not always the case. Mr. Woodger, veterinary surgeon of Bishop's Mews,
Paddington, attended a case of this description, in which the symptoms
present seemed to denote congestion of the lungs.
[Illustration: THE CŒCUM INVAGINATED WITHIN THE COLON, AND BLACK FROM
INTENSE INFLAMMATION.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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