Foreign bodies are usually arrested in the rumen of cattle and unless
sharp, pointed or rough so as to cause mechanical trouble or caustic so
as to act chemically, rarely do much harm. The most extraordinary
objects that have found their way into the intestine are snakes.
Gherardi claims that he found in the intestines a snake of 25 inches
long; Jager found one of 21 inches in length, in an advanced state of
decomposition, in the rectum of a calf. It is supposed that both had
been taken in with the food. In each case there was obstruction of the
intestine with severe colicy symptoms.