Small bodies, especially playthings, feathers, hair, bristles, bones
of prey. Lesions: congestion, inflammation, hemorrhage, ulceration,
perforation, invagination. Symptoms: colic, vomiting, tucked up belly,
straining, palpitation, rabiform symptoms, cough, convulsions. Course:
emaciation, prostration, death in five days or two weeks according to
seat of obstruction. Treatment: Oleaginous injections, laparotomy.
_Causes._ The dog is especially liable to this form of trouble, in
consequence of his habit of carrying objects in his mouth and of playing
with different objects especially the playthings of children. Marbles,
pebbles, spinning-tops, corks, coins, nuts, peach stones, pieces of
rubber, cloth or leather, bits of wood, sponge, needles, pins, potato,
bone, cord, hair, bristles, feathers, wire, and a number of other
objects. Some of them like feathers, hair, and bones are swallowed with
food, and when that has been digested, they are either vomited or
failing in this, are passed on into the intestine. Lately the author
made a post mortem of a house dog with over 24 inches of the jejunum
virtually blocked with fragments gnawed from a caouchouc ball and pieces
of twine.
=Cats= also swallow a variety of objects. Benjamin and Megnin record
three cases of intestinal obstruction by the crystal drops of shades.
_Lesions._ When the lumen of the intestine is blocked with a round solid
body like a marble or peach stone there occur active congestion,
inflammation, blood stasis and hemorrhage, with in many cases necrosis,
ulceration and perforation. Similar lesions occur from cord. In a recent
case of impaction with gnawed fragments of caouchouc and cord, the 24
inches of the bowel implicated were the seat of extended patches of
necrosis and of deep, and even perforating ulcers on the lesser
curvature of the intestine, evidently caused by the tension of the
stretched cord on the shorter attached border of the gut. Cadeac says
the lesions from cord are always at the point of attachment of the
mesentery, whereas those coming from round or cubical solid bodies are
mainly on the greater curvature. Mathis found at the pylorus a piece of
net from which a cord extended through the small intestine and ended in
a ravelled mass near the ileo-cæcal valve. The dragging of the cord on
the intestine often causes invagination at one or several points.
_Symptoms._ There may be slight colic, dullness, a disposition to lie
curled up in some secluded place, loss or caprice of appetite, vomiting,
tucked up abdomen, arching of the back, straining, and unless the bowels
are distended with gas, the obstruction can usually be felt by the two
hands applied on opposite sides of the abdomen. The matters vomited are
at first alimentary, then bilious and in the advanced stages always
feculent.
The French veterinarians assure us that rabiform symptoms are very
common as the result of obstruction of the intestines with foreign
bodies. The indications are signs of fury without the barking which
characterizes genuine rabies. The patient becomes wicked, cross and
excitable, sometimes dull and morose, and snappish, his eyes glittering
and his mouth frothy. He has alternate paroxysms of fury and torpor, at
one time flying at and biting any living thing he meets, or tearing some
object to pieces, and at another hiding away in secluded and dark
corners. Massenat saw two dogs supposed to be affected by rabies, but
which recovered promptly after having vomited the foreign bodies which
they had swallowed. In a country where rabies is so prevalent as in
France, it would be interesting to see the results of inoculation with
some of the most pronounced of these rabiform cases.
Beside the rabiform symptoms cough and epileptic seizures occasionally
result from the foreign bodies.
_Course._ _Termination._ Unless relief is obtained by vomiting or
purging, appetite ceases altogether, emaciation advances rapidly, the
animal becomes dull and stupid, being evidently poisoned by the absorbed
toxins, and death may ensue in four or five days if the obstruction is
near the stomach, or in one or two weeks if in the large intestines.
_Treatment._ The general treatment advised for the horse is applicable
to the carnivora. Purgatives are always dangerous as threatening the
overdistension and rupture of the bowel above the obstruction.
Oleaginous and mucilaginous injections with manipulations are more
promising if the obstruction is in the colon or rectum.
In many cases laparotomy is the only hopeful resort. Felizet and Degive
have been quite successful in removing corks in this way, and Fröhner
advises the operation to be performed under opium narcosis, and with
antiseptic precautions. Make an incision of 1¾ inch near the umbilicus
and parallel to the linea alba, extract the blocked loop of intestine,
ligature it in front of the foreign body and behind it, incise, remove
the offending mass and carefully close by sutures, bringing the muscular
and serous coats in accurate opposition. Remove the ligatures,
disinfect, return the bowel into the abdomen, close the abdominal wound
with sutures and apply an antiseptic bandage.
If such cases are to be operated on it is important that it be done
early, before the occurrence of necrosis, ulceration, perforation, or
general infection.