The Dog

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"When the inflammation of the lungs is very severe, he frequently dies
on the third day. I know one instance of a dog dying within
twenty-four hours after the seizure; and in that short space of time
the greater portion of the lungs was, from exudation, converted into a
substance nearly as solid as the liver of a sound animal. In this case
the liver itself was considerably inflamed, and the eyes and flesh
universally were tinged with yellow, though I did not observe anything
obstructing the biliary ducts. In other instances I have also observed
the eyes looking yellow.

"The above is a description of the disease in its several forms; but
in this, as in the diseases of the human body, there is every
gradation in its violence.

"There is also another affinity to some human diseases, viz., that the
animal which has once gone through it very rarely meets with a second
attack. Fortunately this distemper is not communicable to man. Neither
the effluvia from the diseased dog nor the bite have proved in any
instance infectious; but, as it has often been confounded with canine
madness, as I have before observed, it is to be wished that it were
more generally understood; for those who are bitten by a dog in this
state are sometimes thrown into such perturbation that hydrophobia
symptoms have actually arisen from the workings of the imagination.
Mr. John Hunter used to speak of a case somewhat of this description
in his lectures.

"A gentleman who received a severe bite from a dog, soon after fancied
the animal was mad. He felt a horror at the sight of liquids, and was
actually convulsed on attempting to swallow them. So uncontrollable
were his prepossessions, that Mr. Hunter conceived he would have died
had not the dog which inflicted the wound been found and brought into
his room in perfect health. This soon restored his mind to a state of
tranquillity. The sight of water no longer afflicted him, and he
quickly recovered." [2]

Palsy, more or less complete, is sometimes the termination of the
distemper in dogs.

It is usually accompanied by chorea, and it is then, in the majority of
cases, hopeless. Setons should be inserted in the poll, being then, as
nearly as possible, at the commencement of the spinal cord. They should
be well stimulated and worn a considerable time. If they fail, a plaster
composed of common pitch, with a very small quantity of yellow wax and
some powdered cantharides, spread on sheep's-skin, should be placed over
the whole of the lumbar and sacral regions, extending half-way down the
thigh on either side. The bowels should be kept open by mild aperients,
in order that every source of irritation may be removed from the
intestinal canal. Some mild and general tonic will likewise be useful,
such as gentian and ginger.

[Footnote 1: The following is a very frequent and unexaggerated history
of distemper, when calomel has been given in too powerful doses:

'August 30, 1828'.--A spaniel, six months old, has been ailing a
fortnight, and three doses of calomel have been given by the owner. He
has violent purging, with tenesmus and blood. Half an ounce of
caster-oil administered.

'31st.' Astringents, morning, noon, and night.

'Sept. 6.' The astringents have little effect, or, if the purging is
restrained one day, it returns with increased violence on the following
day. Getting rapidly thin. Begins to husk. Astringents continued.

'10th'. The purging is at last overcome, but the huskiness has rapidly
increased, accompanied by laborious and hurried respiration.--Bleed to
the extent of three ounces.

'11th'. The breathing relieved, but he obstinately refuses to eat, and
is forced several times in the day with arrow-root or strong soup.

'18th'. He had become much thinner and weaker, and died in the evening.
No appearance of inflammation on the thoracic viscera, nor in any part
of the alimentary canal. The intestines are contracted through the whole
extent.

'Veterinarian', ii. 290.]

[Footnote 2: 'Medico-Chirurgical Transitions', 31st March, 1809.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XV.

SMALL-POX; MANGE; WARTS; CANCER; FUNGUS HAEMATODES; SORE FEET.

SMALL-POX.

In 1809, there was observed, at the Royal Veterinary School at Lyons, an
eruptive malady among the dogs, to which they gave the name of
'small-pox'. It appeared to be propagated from dog to dog by contagion.
It was not difficult of cure; and it quickly disappeared when no other
remedies were employed than mild aperients and diaphoretics. A sheep was
inoculated from one of these dogs. There was a slight eruption of
pustules formed on the place of inoculation, but nowhere else; nor was
there the least fever.

At another time, also, at the school at Lyons, a sheep died of the
regular sheep-pox. A part of the skin was fastened, during
four-and-twenty hours, on a healthy sheep, and the other part of it on a
dog, both of them being in apparent good health. No effect was produced
on the dog, but the sheep died of confluent sheep-pox.

The essential symptoms of small-pox in dogs succeed each other in the
following order: the skin of the belly, the groin, and the inside of the
fore arm, becomes of a redder colour than in its natural state, and
sprinkled with small red spots irregularly rounded. They are sometimes
isolated, sometimes clustered together. The near approach of this
eruption is announced by an increase of fever.

On the second day the spots are larger, and the integument is slightly
tumefied at the centre of each.

On the third day the spots are generally enlarged, and the skin is still
more prominent at the centre.

On the fourth day the summit of the tumour is yet more prominent.
Towards the end of that day, the redness of the centre begins to assume
a somewhat gray colour. On the following days, the pustules take on
their peculiar characteristic appearance, and cannot be confounded with
any other eruption, On the summit is a white circular point,
corresponding with a certain quantity of nearly transparent fluid which
it contains, and covered by a thin and transparent pellicle. This fluid
becomes less and less transparent, until it acquires the colour and
consistence of pus. The pustule, during its serous state, is of a
rounded form. It is flattened when the fluid acquires a purulent
character, and even slightly depressed towards the close of the period
of suppuration, and when that of desiccation is about to commence, which
ordinarily happens towards the ninth or tenth day of the eruption. The
desiccation and the desquamation occupy an exceedingly variable length
of time; and so, indeed, do all the different periods of the disease.
What is the least inconstant, is the duration of the serous eruption,
which is about four days, if it has been distinctly produced and guarded
from all friction. If the general character of the pustules is
considered, it will be observed, that, while some of them are in a state
of serous secretion, others will only have begun to appear.

The eruption terminates when desiccation commences in the first
pustules; and, if some red spots show themselves at that period of the
malady, they disappear without being followed by the development of
pustules. They are a species of abortive pustules. After the
desiccation, the skin remains covered by brown spots, which, by degrees,
die away. There remains no trace of the disease, except a few
superficial cicatrices on which the hair does not grow.

The causes which produce the greatest variation in the periods of the
eruption are, the age of the dog, and the temperature of the situation
and of the season. The eruption runs through its different stages with
much more rapidity in dogs from one to five months old than in those of
greater age. I have never seen it in dogs more than eighteen months old.
An elevated temperature singularly favours the eruption, and also
renders it confluent and of a serous character. A cold atmosphere is
unfavourable to the eruption, or even prevents it altogether. Death is
almost constantly the result of the exposure of dogs having small-pox to
any considerable degree of cold. A moderate temperature is most
favourable to the recovery of the animal. A frequent renewal or change
of air, the temperature remaining nearly the same, is highly favourable
to the patient; consequently close boxes or kennels should be altogether
avoided.

I have often observed, that the perspiration or breath of dogs labouring
under variola emits a very unpleasant odour. This smell is particularly
observed at the commencement of the desiccation of the pustules, and
when the animals are lying upon dry straw; for the friction of the bed
against the pustules destroys their pellicles, and permits the purulent
matter to escape; and the influence of this purulent matter is most
pernicious. The fever is increased, and also the unpleasant smell from
the mouth, and that of the faeces. In this state there is a disposition
which is rapidly developed in the lungs to assume the character of
pneumonia. This last complication is a most serious one, and almost
always terminates fatally. It has a peculiar character. It shows itself
suddenly, and with all its alarming symptoms. It is almost immediately
accompanied by a purulent secretion from the bronchi, and the second day
does not pass without the characters of pneumonia being completely
developed. The respiration is accompanied by a mucous 'rale' which often
becomes sibilant. The nasal cavities are filled with a purulent fluid.
The dog that coughs violently at the commencement of the disease,
employs himself, probably, on the following day, in ejecting, by a
forcible expulsion from the nostrils, the purulent secretion which is
soon and plentifully developed. When he is lying quiet, and even when he
seems to be asleep, there is a loud, stertorous, guttural breathing.

MANGE.

The existence of certain insects found burrowing under the skin of the
human being, and of various tribes of animals, has been acknowledged
from the 12th century. In the 17th century, correct engravings of these
insects were produced. On the other hand many doubted their existence,
because it had not been their lot to see them. In 1812, Gales, a pupil
in the hospital of St. Louis, pretended to have found some of them. They
were put into the hands of M. Raspail, of Paris, who proved that they
were nothing more than the common cheese-mites; and substituted by Gales
for those seen by Bonomo.

Professor Hertwig, of Berlin, has given a graphic sketch of these
insects (Veterinarian, vol. xi. pp. 373, 489).

Mr. Holthouse states that, "placed on the skin of a healthy individual,
they excite a disease in the part to which they were confined, having
all the characters of scabies; that insects taken from mangy sheep,
horses, and dogs, and transplanted to healthy individuals of the same
species, produce in them a disease analogous to that in the animals from
which they were taken; and that there are too many well-attested cases
on record to permit us to doubt of scabies having been communicated from
animals to man."

Mange may in some degree be considered as an hereditary disease. A mangy
dog is liable to produce mangy puppies, and the progeny of a mangy bitch
will certainly become affected sooner or later. In many cases a
propensity to the disease will be speedily produced. If the puppies are
numerous, and confined in close situations, the effluvia of their
transpiration and faecal discharges will often be productive of mange
very difficult to be removed. Close confinement, salted food, and little
exercise, are frequent causes of mange.

'The Scabby Mange' is a frequent form which this disease assumes. It
assumes a pustular and scabby form in the red mange, particularly in
white-haired dogs, when there is much and painful inflammation. A
peculiar eruption, termed surfeit, which resembles mange, is sometimes
the consequence of exposure to cold after a hot sultry day. Large
blotches appear, from which the hair falls and leaves the skin bare and
rough. Acute mange sometimes takes on the character of erysipelas; at
other times there is considerable inflammation. The animal exhibits heat
and restlessness, and ulcerations of different kinds appear in various
parts, superficial but extensive. Bleeding, aperient and cooling
medicines are indicated, and also applications of the subacetate of
lead, or spermaceti ointment. A weak infusion of tobacco may be resorted
to when other things fail, but it must be used with much caution. The
same may be said of all mercurial preparations. The tanner's pit has
little efficacy, except in slight cases. Slight bleedings may be
serviceable, and especially in full habits; setons may be resorted to in
obstinate cases. A change in the mode of feeding will often be useful.
Mild purgatives, and especially Epsom salts, are often beneficial, and
also mercurial alternatives, as AEthiop's mineral with cream of tartar
and nitre. The external applications require considerable caution. If
mercury is used, care must be taken that the dog does not lick it. The
diarrhoea produced by mercury often has a fatal effect.

Unguents are useful, but considerable care must be taken in their
application. They must be applied to the actual skin, not over the hair.
In old and bad cases much time and patience will be requisite. Mr.
Blaine had a favourite setter who had virulent mange five years. He was
ordered to be dressed every day, or every second day, before the disease
was complete conquered.

Cutaneous affections have lately been prevalent to an extent altogether
unprecedented on this and on the other side of the channel. In the
latter part of 1843 the disease assumed a character which had not been
known among us for many years. The common mange, which we used to think
we could easily grapple with, was now little seen: even the usual red
mange with the fox-coloured stain was not of more frequent occurrence
than usual, but an intolerable itchiness with comparatively little
redness of skin, and rarely sufficient to account for the torture which
the animal seemed to endure, and often with not the slightest
discoloration of the integument, came before us almost every day, and
under its influence the dog became ill-tempered, dispirited, and
emaciated, until he sunk under its influence. All unguents were thrown
away here. Lotions of corrosive sublimate, decoction of bark, infusion
of digitalis or tobacco, effected some little good; but the persevering
use of the iodine of potassium, purgatives, and the abstraction of blood
very generally succeeded.

The sudden appearance of redness of the skin, and exudation from it, and
actual sores attending the falling off of the hair, and itching, that
seemed to be intolerable, have also been prevalent to an unprecedented
extent. This mange, however, is to a certain degree manageable. A dose
or two of physic should he given, with an application of a calamine
powder, and the administration of the iodide of potassium.

Mr. Blaine gives a most valuable account of mange in the dog, part of
which I shall quote somewhat at length. Mange exerts a morbid
constitutional action on the skin; it is infectious from various
miasmata, and it is contagious from personal communication. In some
animals it may be produced by momentary contact; it descends to other
animals of various descriptions; there is no doubt that it is
occasionally hereditary: it is generated by effluvia of many various
kinds; almost every kind of rancid or stimulating food is the parent of
it. High living with little exercise is a frequent cause of it, and the
near approach of starvation is not unfavorable to it. The scabby mange
is the common form under which it generally appears. In red mange the
whole integument is in a state of acute inflammation; surfeit, or
blotches, a kind of cuticular eruption breaks out on particular parts of
the body without the slightest notice, and, worse than all, a direct
febrile attack, with swelling and ulceration, occurs, under which the
dog evidently suffers peculiar heat and pain. Last of all comes local
mange. Almost every eruptive disease, whether arising from the eye, the
ear, the scrotum, or the feet, is injurious to the quality as well as
the health of every sporting dog: the scent invariably becomes diseased,
and the general powers are impaired.

There are several accounts of persons who, having handled mangy dogs,
have been affected with an eruption very similar to the mange. A
gentleman and his wife who had been in the habit of fondling a mangy pug
dog, were almost covered with an eruption resembling mange. Several of
my servants in the dog-hospital have experienced a similar attack; and
the disease was once communicated to a horse by a cat that was
accustomed to lie on his back as he stood in the stall.

WARTS.

These are often unpleasant things to have to do with. A Newfoundland dog
had the whole of the inside of his mouth lined with warts. I applied the
following caustic:--Hyd. suc-corrosivi [Symbol: ounce] j., acidi mur.
[Symbol: ounce], alcoholis [Symbol: ounce] iiij., aquae [Symbol: ounce]
ij. The warts were touched twice every day, and in less than a fortnight
they had all disappeared.

Another dog had its mouth filled with warts, and the above solution was
applied. In four days considerable salivation came on, and lasted a
week, but at the expiration of that time the warts had vanished. The
owner of the dog had applied the solution with the tip of her finger;
she experienced some salivation, which she attributed to this cause.

The skin of the dog, from the feebleness of its perspiratory functions,
is little sensible to the influence of diaphoretics: therefore we trust
so much to external applications for the cure of diseases of the skin of
that animal.

CANCER

This is a disease too frequent among females of the dog tribe, and
occasionally seen in the male. Its symptoms, local and general, are
various. They are usually very obscure in their commencement; they
increase without any limit; they are exasperated by irritants of any
kind; and in the majority of cases their reproduction is almost
constant, and perfectly incurable.

With regard to the female, it is mostly connected with the secretion of
milk. Two or three years may pass, and at almost every return of the
period of oestrum, there will be some degree of enlargement or
inflammation of the teats. Some degree of fever also appears; but, after
a few weeks have passed away, and one or two physic balls have been
administered, everything goes on well. In process of time, however, the
period of oestrum is attended by a greater degree of fever and
enlargement of the teats, and at length some diminutive hardened nuclei,
not exceeding in size the tip of a finger, are felt within one of the
teats. By degrees they increase in size; they become hard, hot, and
tender. A considerable degree of redness begins to appear. Some small
enlargements are visible. The animal evidently exhibits considerable
pain when these enlargements are pressed upon. They rapidly increase,
they become more hot and red, various shining protuberances appear about
the projection, and at length the tumour ulcerates. A considerable
degree of sanious matter flows from the aperture.

The tumours, however, after a while diminish in size; the heat and
redness diminish; the ulcer partly or entirely closes, but, after a
while, and especially when the next period of oestrum arrives, the
tumour again increases, and with far greater rapidity than before, and
then comes the necessity of the removal of the tumour, or if not, the
destruction of the animal. In the great majority of cases, the removal
of the cancer does not destroy the dog, but lessens its torture. The
knife and the forceps must usually be resorted to, and in the hands of a
skilful surgeon the life of the animal will be saved.

When the cancer is attached to the neighbouring parts by cellular
substance alone, no difficulty will be experienced in detaching the
whole of it. The operation will be speedily performed, and there will be
an end of the matter; but, if the tumour has been neglected, and the
muscular, the cellular, or even the superficial parts have been
attacked, the utmost caution is requisite that every diseased portion
shall be removed. Mr. Blaine adds to this that

"it must also be taken into the account, that, although in the canine
cancer ulceration does not often reappear in the intermediate part,
when the operation has been judiciously performed, yet, when the
constitution has been long affected with this ulcerative action, it is
very apt to show itself in some neighbouring part soon after."

FUNGUS HAEMATODES.

In the month of March, 1836, a valuable pointer dog was sent to Mr. Adam
of Beaufort, quite emaciated, with total loss of appetite and with a
large fungus haematodes about the middle of the right side of his neck.
It had begun to appear about five months before, and was not at first
larger than a pea. Mr. Adam gave him a purgative of Barbadoes aloes,
which caused the discharge of much fetid matter from the intestines. At
the expiration of three days he removed the tumour with the knife. There
was a full discharge of healthy matter from the wound. During the period
of its healing the animal was well fed, and ferruginous tonics were
given. In a little more than three weeks the wound had completely filled
up with healthy granulations, and the dog was sent home to all
appearance quite well.

At the expiration of three months another tumour made its appearance
near the situation of the former one, growing fast; it had attained
nearly the size of the other. Mr. Adam removed it immediately, ordering
a system of nutritive feeding and tonics. It appeared at first to go on
favourable; but, five days after the removal of the second one, a third
made its appearance.

This was removed at the expiration of another five days; but the animal
was totally unable to walk, with very laborious breathing and cold
extremities. A cathartic was given and the legs bandaged; but the wounds
made no progress towards healing, and at the end of three days he died.
On exposing the cavity of the thorax it was almost covered with
variously formed tumours, from the size of a pigeon's egg to that of a
small pea. The intercostal muscles had many of these adhering to them,
and a few small ones were developed on the heart. There were three on
the diaphragm, in the centre of which matter was formed. The
blood-vessels, kidneys, &c., were free from disease. These tumours were
white, or nearly so, rather hard, and of a glandular substance. The
external ones were soft, red, and almost destitute of blood-vessels,
except the first, which bled considerably. There was dropsy of the
abdomen.

SORE FEET

Sore feet constitute a frequent and troublesome complaint. It consists
of inflammation of the vascular substance, between the epidermis and the
parts beneath. It is the result of numerous slight contusions, produced
by long travelling in dry weather, or hunting over a hard and rough
country, or one covered with frost and snow. The irritation with which
it commences continues to increase and a certain portion of fluid is
determined to the feet, and tubercles are formed, hard, hot, and tender,
until the whole foot is in a diseased state, considerably enlarged. The
animal sadly suffers, and is scarcely able to stand up for a minute.
Sometimes the ardour of the chase will make him for a while forget all
this; but on his return, and when he endeavours to repose himself, it is
with difficulty that he can be got up again. The toes become enlarged,
the skin red and tender, and the horny sole becomes detached and drops.
Local fever, and that to a considerable extent, becomes established; it
reacts on the general economy of the animal, who scarcely moves from his
bed, and at length refuses all food. At other times a separation takes
place between the dermis and the epidermis, which is a perfect mass of
serosity.

Still, however, it is only when all this has much increased, or has been
neglected, that any permanently dangerous consequences take place. When
violent inflammation has set in, the feet must be carefully attended to,
or the dog may be lamed for life. One or two physic-balls may be given;
all salted meat should be removed, and the animal supplied with food
without being compelled to move from his bed. The feet should be bathed
with warm water, and a poultice of linseed meal applied to them twice in
the day. If, as is too often the case, he should tear this off, the feet
should be often fomented. It is bad practice in any master of dogs to
suffer them to be at all neglected when there are any tokens of
inflammation of the feet. The neglect of even a few days may render a
dog a cripple for life. If there are evident appearances of pus
collecting about the claws, or any part of the feet, the abscess should
be opened, well bathed with warm water, and friar's balsam applied to
the feet.