A REMARKABLE HORSE DISEASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 6

A REMARKABLE HORSE DISEASE.

The following lette- appears in a recent issue of the Town and Country Journal : —

Sir,— l wish to describe to you one of the most remarkable diseased malformations I ever witnessed. It is interesting chiefly because it furnishes us with some facts showing what may actually exist in an animal's stomach, or, rather, abdominal cavity, without in any way causing grave suspicion on the part of the owner. Briefly, the animal had two stojnachs — the false and diseased one, weighing, with its putrid contents, 221b, and yet this animal was at work eight days before its death. What really took place— probably a year or two before sickness — was the formation of a pouch on the spot where the spleen is attached to the stomach. This formation may have occurred from a chronic dragging of the spleen, thus forming a receptacle for undigested food and for parasites. These, acting as irritants, established a cyst, which in process of time enlmged; while accumulated putrescence also increased in bulk, until a bag was formed equal in size to the stomach itself; packed with parasitical forms, solidified pus, aud decayed animal and vegetable matter. Altogether it was one of the monstrous pathological conditions very seldom met with in this advanced stage. These dilated stomach pouches are not uncommon

in cattle, but they seldom occur in horses, owing to the great gastric disturbance which is so easily set up in the horse. The kidneys of this mare were completely destroyed with Bright' s disease, but this had no connection with the stomach disease, unless the excretion of so much effeto matter set up pyaemia in the kidneys. The remarkable thing was, the owner says he never observed anything the matter with the animal until a few days before death. I saw her one evening, and thought she was suffering from a bad attack of bots or sand, but this conclusion was more negative than positive. I saw that the animal was beyond the power of remedies then, but had no idea of the terrific condition of the stomach. With the exception of the kidney?, the animal's .viscera was sound. — Yours, etc.,

JOHN POTTIE, Vet. Surgeon. Sydney, March 12.