Enteritis (Gr. enteron, 'an intestine'), inflammation of the bowels. Under this name are grouped cases of every possible degree of severity. In the slighter forms the symptoms are, generally speaking, lassitude, loss of appetite, foul tongue, vomiting (if the upper part of the intestine be affected), griping pains, diarrhoea (if the lower part be involved). Such cases are very rarely dangerous, except in young children; for their treatment the measures recommended under Diarrhoea are usually effective. The severer forms of the disease usually depend either on external injury or on internal mechanical causes. It is often associated with Peritonitis (q.v.). The treatment must depend on an accurate diagnosis, often a matter of extreme difficulty. The symptoms are pain, tenderness, fever, prostration; generally obstinate vomiting with constipation, owing to paralysis of the portion of gut affected; and rapid failure of strength, without delirium or insensibility. If enteritis does not arise from mechanical obstruction, it may be combated by hot fomentations, with moderate leeching and counter-irritation, and the internal administration of opium. Injections of warm water, or of asafetida and turpentine (see CLYSTER), should be at the same time given to clear the lower bowel; and all purgatives, except in some cases castor-oil, should be avoided. The disease is, however, one of great danger, often rapidly fatal, and should never be incautiously treated with domestic remedies.
In the Lower Animals.—Among horses, inflam- mation of the bowels generally results from some error of diet, such as a long fast followed by a large, hastily devoured meal, such as raw potatoes, boiled or indigestible and easily fermentable food, or large draughts of water at improper times. When thus produced, it is frequently preceded by colic, affects chiefly the mucous coat of the large intestines, and often runs its course in from eight to twelve hours. With increasing fever and restlessness, the pulse soon rises to 90 or upwards, and, unlike what obtains in colic, continues throughout considerably above the natural standard of 40 beats per minute. The pain is great, but the animal, unless delirious, instead of recklessly throwing himself about, as in colic, gets up and lies down cautiously. Respiration is quickened, the bowels torpid. Cold sweats, stupor, and occasionally delirium, precede death. When connected with, or occurring as a sequel to influenza, laminitis, and other complaints, the small intestines are as much affected as the large, and the peritoneal as well as the mucous coat of the bowels. When the animal is seen early, whilst the pulse is still clear and distinct, and not above 70°, and the legs and ears warm, bloodletting is useful, as it relieves the overloaded vessels, and prevents that extravasation of blood which speedily becomes poured out in the interior of the bowels. This disease should be treated as follows: Care should be taken not to further irritate the bowels by the administration of purgative or even aperient medicines, as the supposed constipation is due to the bowels having lost their function—loss of function being one of the phenomena of inflammation—and not to a dry condition of their contents. Anodynes and sedatives, as landanum in two-ounce doses, or belladonna extract in two or three drachm doses, should be repeated every two hours until pain is relieved. Morphia and atropia subcutaneously injected are also now largely used by veterinarians with fomentations to the surface of the abdomen and an occasional clister of warm water. No attempt should be made to force the bowels to action after apparent recovery, or the inflammation may be re-excited.
Enteritis in cattle is mostly produced by coarse wet pasture, acrid or poisonous plants, bad water, and overdriving. The symptoms are fever and thirst, a quick but rather weak pulse, restless twitching up of the hind limbs, tenderness of the belly, moaning and grinding of the teeth, and torpidity of the bowels. Calves generally die in three or four days, other cattle in a week or nine days. Enteritis in sheep mostly occurs in cold, exposed localities, and where flocks are subjected to great privations or improper feeding. The symptoms and treatment resemble those of cattle. The treatment prescribed for the horse is applicable to the cow, the doses being one-third larger.