The stomach and intestines are always involved

The stomach and intestines are always involved

The stomach and intestines are always involved

The stomach and intestines are always involved; I have never known a case in which either escaped. The affection of the first is generally shown by sickness during the earliest stage; when also the derangement of the last is denoted by either costiveness or relaxation, the bowels never being perfectly regular; towards the latter stages, or about the third or fourth week, the appetite sometimes becomes enormous; the craving for food is then unnatural, and is so intense that no quantity can appease the hunger. The animal will eat anything; dry bread is taken with avidity, and stones, cinders, straw, and every species of filth are eaten with apparent relish. Such, however, is not always the case, since it is not unusual for the appetite entirely to fail. In either instance the dog rapidly wastes; the flesh seems to melt as it were away, and the change produced by a few days is startling; from having been fat, a thinness which exposes every bone is witnessed in a shorter time than would be supposed possible. At this period vomiting may come on; but when the animal is morbidly ravenous, the stomach does not generally reject its contents. After death I have found it loaded with the most irritating substances, and always acutely inflamed; but no sickness in any instance of this kind has been observed. Vomiting is most generally absent, but the protruded and reddened appearance of the anus will give a clue to the actual condition of the alimentary tube. The stomach is inflamed, not throughout, but in various parts which are in different stages of disease. The pyloric orifice is always more affected than the cardiac; the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum, are inflamed; the cæcum is enlarged, inflamed, and generally impacted. The rectum, however, suffers most severely; it is much reddened and thickened, often to an extraordinary degree. I have known blood to be exuded from the surface of this bowel in such quantities as to destroy the life from actual hemorrhage. In one case, however, a spaniel vomited more than half-a-pint of blood previous to its death, which took place two hours afterwards. A small quantity of blood is ordinarily passed with the fæces toward the latter stage; but in several cases a large amount of pure blood, partly coagulated and unmingled with any fæcal matter, has flowed from the body in a continued stream, to which there will be cessation only as death approaches. The possibility of this occurring will give the reader some idea of the extent and degree in which the bowels are or may be diseased; the symptoms, nevertheless, are not such as would suggest the danger which may be shortly violently exemplified. Irregularity of the intestines may be remarked; but it is not so characterised as to force itself upon the attention. The belly during distemper mostly appears tucked up and small; the intestines, even when costiveness exists, are seldom loaded, but all except the rectum may feel empty. The animal is always bound when the bowels are acutely attacked. The first indication we get of this is often colic. The cries are high and yet full at first; but they only occur at periods, between which the dog seems easy and inclined to sleep; gradually the exclamations become more sharp and short, a quantity of dark-coloured fæces are voided, and relief is for a time experienced; the cries, however, return and become continuous; diarrhœa sets in; the excretions become more and more liquid, by degrees mixed with blood, and of a lighter color. Whenever they are discharged, pain is expressed; but as the animal sinks the cries grow less frequent, till at last the excrements pass involuntarily, and death soon takes place.