Fecal matter sometimes slips from the caecum into its narrow opening, or lumen, putrifies there and causes the various forms of appendicitis.
Water, in the case of the horse, passes almost immediately to the caecum, or "blind gut.
A dog has no appendix, so is spared the need for an appendectomy, but he has a human-type caecum (a dead-end pouch at a turn in the intestines), which is the favorite hideaway of .