Double colon cannot be invaginated, floating small intestine, cæcum
and floating colon can. Causes. Lesions. Symptoms: Acute, violent,
persistent colic, palpation of right flank causes gurgling, rectal
exploration, prostration, collapse. Duration 1 to 5 weeks. Treatment:
Laxative, enemata, injections of sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid,
laparotomy.
In these animals the double colon is rolled around itself between the
folds of the great mesentery the free border of which supports the small
intestine. The arrangement is as if a piece of rubber tubing were first
doubled upon itself, and the end of the loop were then turned inward and
the remainder wound round it as a centre. If this were then sewed
between two pieces of cloth, the stitches passing between the different
windings of the tube at all points, we would have an arrangement fairly
representing that of the double colon of ruminants, and, for our present
purpose, of swine as well. It must be evident that no portion of a tube
arranged in this way can slide into another. It would also appear that
the small intestine cannot become invaginated to any extent into another
portion or into the cæcum without extreme stretching or laceration of
the small portion of mesentery left between it and the coils of the
double colon above. The anatomical arrangement is therefore opposed to
the formation of invaginations in a way that is not the case in the
horse.
Yet invaginations are by no means unknown in these genera. The small
intestine can be invaginated into itself or into the cæcum. The cæcum,
which floats loose at the right side of the mesentery that envelopes the
double colon, can be invaginated into the colon, and the floating colon
can be invaginated into the double colon on the one hand and into the
rectum and through the anus on the other. Invagination into the rectum,
for eight inches, in a bull calf, of six days old, is reported by
Cartwright in the _Veterinarian_ for 1829. In a similar case of Youatt’s
the intussuscepted portion sloughed off and was discharged per anum.
The _causes_ are like those acting in solipeds, and which give rise to
excessive and irregular peristalsis. A drink of ice cold water,
indigestions and colics of various kinds, diarrhœa, chills, the
irritation caused by poisons or parasites, and the paresis and
dilatation of portions of the intestine into which the more active
portions can easily pass. Almost any irritation or congestion may cause
intussusception, and young animals in which peristalsis is most
energetic are the most liable.
_Lesions._ The intussusception is usually found in the ileum and to a
less extent in other parts of the small intestine, or involving the
cæcum and colon, or again the floating colon and rectum. The successive
conditions of congestion, exudation, adhesion, obstruction, necrosis,
sloughing, and repair by union of the remaining ends are the same as in
the horse.
_Symptoms._ There is acute, agonizing and dangerous colic in an animal
in which these troubles are usually comparatively slight and transient.
The animal looks at the right flank, paws or stamps with fore feet as
well as hind, lies down and rises often, strains to pass manure but
passes only mucus or a few small hard masses, if anything. If pressure
is made on the right side of the abdomen and the hand suddenly withdrawn
there is a significant gurgling and the corresponding hind foot is
lifted or moved forward or backward, appetite and rumination are lost,
the pulse becomes rapid and weak, and the animal becomes prostrate, dull
and stupid, often remaining recumbent in spite of all efforts to raise
him. Rectal exploration may detect the firm tender mass in the seat of
the invagination. The disease may last from one week to five, according
as the obstruction is complete or partial. The usual termination is a
fatal one, though a certain number of spontaneous recoveries are met
with.
_Treatment._ By a happy accident the peristalsis or anti-peristalsis
determined by a purgative will sometimes disengage the intussuscepted
bowel. Copious injections into the rectum may also prove useful in case
of intussusception of the floating colon or rectum. Or the disengagement
of carbon dioxide from the injection of solutions of sodium bicarbonate
and tartaric acid may be tried. Laparotomy is however the most radical
measure when a certain diagnosis has been made and this is less
dangerous in the cow than in the horse in which peritonitis is so grave.
Under antiseptic precautions an incision is made in the right flank and
the invagination found and reduced. In case firm adhesions have already
taken place, and above all if the included gut is apparently gangrenous,
the latter may be exposed by breaking down the connections at the side
opposite to the attachment of the mesentery, or where the adhesions are
least firm, then cutting out and removing the incarcerated gut and
carefully closing the opening between the ends by suture. The use of a
sublimate or carbolic acid solution and careful suturing and bandaging
of the external wound with carbolated cotton wool will often give a
successful issue.