Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

CONCRETIONS, OR STONES IN THE RUMEN. 299
cular glands, whence is secreted a liquid called the gastric juice, and
which is the agent in producing this chyme. The change, in all
probability, merely consists in the food being more perfectly dissolved,
and converted into a semi-fluid homogeneous mass. This form it
must of necessity assume before its nutritive matter can be separated.
The solution being complete, or as much so as it can be
rendered, the food passes through the pyloric, or lower orifice of the
stomach, into the duodenum, or first intestine, (g, p. 291,) where its
separation into the nutritive and innutritive portions is effected, and
the former begins to be taken up, and carried into the system.
We are now prepared to enter into the consideration of the diseases
of this complicated apparatus, diseases of the rumen or paunch.
SWALLOWING INDIGESTIBLE SUBSTANCES.
Cattle have been known to swallow cloths, scissors, shoes, sticks,
leather, indeed all sorts of things that could pass the throat.
The presence of bodies like these in the rumen cannot fail of being
injurious to the animal. They must produce local irritation, interfer-
ing with the proper function of this stomach ; suspending the process
of rumination, or rendering it less effectually performed ; and
exciting inflammation, probably of the stomach generally, as this
foreign body is traversing its different compartments, or of some par-
ticular portion in which it may be accidentally arrested, and leading
on to abscess and perforation of the stomach at that spot. The
symptoms which would indicate this peculiar cause of disease are
not yet sufficiently known ; but there must be considerable disturbance
when a body sufficiently hard and pointed thus to force its way
commences its journey. Inflammation, as conducting to suppuration
and destruction of the living substance, must precede its course and
make way for it. The nerves and blood-vessels which lie in its way
are, with mysterious skill, unerringly avoided, and as little injury as
possible is done to the neighboring tissues ; but local inflammation
and pain attend the whole process, which, in many cases, are accompanied
by general and severe disease.
It is seldom that medical skill could be of avail here, until the
substance approaches to the skin, even if the case were understood.
CONCRETIONS, OR STONES IN THE RUMEN.
A frequent and serious complaint is the formation of. various concretions
in the rumen. They are generally round, but occasionally
of various forms, and varying likewise in weight from a few ounces
to six or seven pounds. The composition of these balls is also very
different. Those which are decidedly peculiar to cattle are composed
entirely of hair, matted together by the mucous secretion from the
follicular glands of the stomach. Sometimes they hare no distinct