Part 13 (1/2)
STOMACH.--ST. VITUS'S DANCE.
This disease generally is a.s.sumed to be a nervous disorder, and so the symptoms declare it to be; but on _post mortem_ examinations no lesion is found either upon the brain, spinal marrow, or the nerves themselves. This last circ.u.mstance, however, proves nothing; for the same thing may be said of teta.n.u.s in the human being, and of stringhalt in the horse; both of them being well-marked nervous affections. I append St. Vitus's Dance to the stomach, not because of that which I have not beheld, but because of that which I have positively seen.
It follows upon distemper. I do not know it as a distinct disorder, though it is a.s.serted to exist as such when the greater or leading disease is un.o.bserved. It then follows up the affection which primarily involves the stomach and intestines, and to which indications all other symptoms are secondary. On every _post mortem_ which I have made of this disorder, I have discovered the stomach inflamed; and, therefore, not because the nerves or their centres are blank, but because on one important viscus I have found well marked signs to impress my reason, I propose to treat of this disorder as connected with the stomach.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE POINTER.]
The signs to which I allude, consists of patches of well-defined inflammation; and hence, knowing how distemper has the power to involve other organs, I conclude it has caused the spinal marrow to be sympathetically affected.
The symptoms of the disease are well marked. The poor beast, whether he be standing up or lying down, is constantly worried with a catching of the limb or limbs--for only one may be affected, or all four may be attacked.
Sleeping or waking, the annoyance continues. The dog cannot obtain a moment's rest from its tormentor. Day and night the movement remains; no act, no position the poor brute is capable of, can bring to the animal an instant's downright repose. Its sleep is troubled and broken; its waking moments are rendered miserable by this terrible infliction. The worst of the matter is, that the dog in every other respect appears to be well. Its spirits are good, and it is alive for happiness. If it were released from its constant affliction, it is eager to enjoy its brief lease of life as in the time of perfect health. Plaintive and piteous are its looks as, lying asleep before the fire, it is aroused by a sudden pain; wakes, turns round, and mutely appeals to its master for an explanation or a removal of the nuisance. When stricken down at last, as, unable to stand, it lies upon its straw, most sad is it to see the poor head raised, and to hear the tail in motion welcoming any one who may enter the place in which it is a helpless but a necessary prisoner.
In this disorder the best thing is to pay every attention to the food. The wretched animal generally has an enormous appet.i.te, and, when it is unable to stand, will continue feeding to the last. This morbid hunger must not be indulged. One pound of good rice may be boiled or cooked in a sufficiency of carefully made beef-tea, every particle of meat or bone being removed. This will const.i.tute the provender for one day necessary to sustain the largest dog, and a quarter the amount will be sufficient for one of the average size. Where good rice is not to be obtained, oatmeal or bread, allowing for the moisture which the last contains, may be subst.i.tuted. No bones, nor substances likely, when swallowed, to irritate the stomach, must on any account be allowed. The quant.i.ty given at one time must ever be small; and every sort of provender offered should be soft and soothing to the internal parts; though the poor dog will be eager to eat that which will be injurious. Water should be placed within its reach, and offered during the day, the head being held while the incapacitated animal drinks.
When a dog is prostrated by this affliction, it must on no account be suffered to remain on the floor, where its limbs would speedily become excoriated, being forcibly moved upon the boards; anything placed beneath the animal to save the limbs, would be saturated with the urine and faeces the poor beast is necessitated to pa.s.s. The best bed in such cases is made of a slanting piece of woodwork, of sufficient size to allow the animal to lie with ease at full length. The planks composing the wooden stage must be placed apart, be pierced with numerous holes, have the edges rounded, and be elevated at one end so as to allow all moisture readily to run off. The wood must be covered with a quant.i.ty of straw; which sort of bedding is convenient, not only because it allows the water to speedily percolate through it, but because it is warm, and being cheap, permits of repeated change.
Physic is not of much avail in this disorder; kind nursing and mild food will do more towards recovery. Still, medicine, as an accessory, may be of considerable service, and in a secondary view deserves honorable mention.
Alkalies, sedatives, and vegetable bitters, may be combined in various forms. The author's favorite sedative in stomach diseases is hyoscyamus, and alkali potash. For a bitter, qua.s.sia is a very good one; better than gentian, a small amount of the extract of which, however, may be used to make up the pill. When speaking of the pill, the most important ingredient must not be forgotten--I mean nux vomica. Some people employ strychnia, but such persons more often kill than cure their patients. Strychnia in any doses, however minute, is a violent poison to the dog. While at college I beheld animals killed with it; and there does not live the person who knows how to render this agent safe to the dog. Nux vomica, even, must be used in very minute doses, to be entirely safe--from a quarter of a grain to a small pup, to two grains to the largest animal.
That quant.i.ty must be continued for a week, four pills being given daily; then add a quarter of a grain daily to the four larger pills, and a quarter of a grain every four days to all the smaller ones; keep on increasing the amount, till the physiological effects of the drug, as they are called, become developed. These consist in the beast having that which uninformed people term ”a fit.” He lies upon the ground, uttering rather loud cries, whilst every muscle of his body is in motion. Thus he continues scratching, as if it was his desire to be up and off at a hundred miles an hour. No sooner is he rid of one attack than he has another. He retains his consciousness, but is unable to give any sign of recognition. It is useless to crowd round the animal in this state; the drug must perform its office, and will do so, in spite of human effort.
The very best thing that can be done, is to let the animal alone until the attack is over, when writers on Materia Medica tell us improvement is perceptible. I wish it was so in dogs. I have beheld the physiological effect of nux vomica repeatedly, but cannot recollect many instances in which I could date amendment from its appearance.
The following is the formula for the pill recently alluded to:--
Potash Two to seven grains.
Extract of hyoscyamus Half a grain to four grains.
Qua.s.sia powder Three to sixteen grains.
Nux vomica A quarter of a grain to two grains.
Extract of gentian A sufficiency.
The above quant.i.ties are sufficient for one pill, four of which are to be given daily for a week, at the expiration of which period the increase may begin. If the above, after a fair test has been made of it, does not succeed, trial may be inst.i.tuted of the nitrate of silver, the trisnitrate of bis.m.u.th, or any of the various drugs said to be beneficial in the disease, or of service in stomach complaints. In this disorder the same drug never appears to act twice alike, therefore a change is warranted and desirable.
Hopes of restoration may be entertained if the animal can only be kept alive to recover strength; then confident expectation can be expressed that the dog will outgrow the disease. The first signs perceptible which denote recovery are these:--The provender the beast consumes is evidently not thrown away. Instead of eating much, and ungratefully becoming thinner and thinner upon that which it consumes, the animal displays a disposition to thrive upon its victuals. It does not get fat on what it eats, but it evidently loses no flesh. It grows no thinner; and if the strength be not recruited, it obviously is not diminished. The animal does not gorge much wholesome diet daily, to exhibit more and more the signs of debility and starvation. If only a suspicion can be felt that the poor dog does not sink, then hope of ultimate success may warm the heart of a kind master; but when the reverse is obvious, though killing a dog is next to killing a child--and he who for pleasure can do the one, is not far off from doing the other--yet it is mercy then to destroy that existence which must else be miserably worn away. When there is no chance left for expectation to cling to, it becomes real charity to do violence to our feelings, in order that we may spare a suffering creature pain; but when there is a prospect, however remote, of recovery, I hope there is no veterinary surgeon who would touch the life. When the animal can stand, we may antic.i.p.ate good; and whatever is left of the complaint, we may a.s.sure our employers will vanish as the age increases; for St. Vitus's Dance is essentially the disease of young dogs. But as recovery progresses, we must be cautious to do nothing to fling the animal back. No walks must be enforced, under the pretence of administering exercise. The animal has enough of that in its ever-jerking limbs; and however well it may grow to be while the disease lasts, we may rest a.s.sured the dog suffering its attack stands in need of repose.
BOWEL DISEASES.
Continuous with the stomach are the intestines, which are equally subject to disease, and more exposed to it in an acute form than even the former viscus. The dog will fill its belly with almost anything, but there is little that positively agrees with it. Boiled rice or lean meat, &c., and coa.r.s.e biscuit, are the best general food; but without exercise, even these will not support health. The dog requires constant care if it is deprived of liberty: and those who keep these animals as pets, must submit to trouble, for though art may do much, it cannot conquer Nature.
The intestines of the dog are peculiar. In the first place, it has no colon, and all the guts are nearly of one size from the commencement to the termination; the duodenum and the most posterior portion of the r.e.c.t.u.m being the largest, though not so much so as materially to destroy the appearance of uniformity. The caec.u.m is no more than a small appendage--a little sac attached to the main tube; it has but one opening, and that is very diminutive. I think all the food, as in other animals, pa.s.ses into and out of this intestine; which, because of its peculiar formation, is therefore particularly liable to be disordered. In the dog which has died of intestinal disease, the caec.u.m is almost invariably found enlarged and inflamed. In it, I imagine, the majority of bowel affections have their origin. The gut is first loaded, and the consequence of this is, it loses its natural function. The contents become irritants from being retained, and the whole process of digestion is deranged; other parts are involved, and inflammation is induced.
Writers do not notice the tendency of the caec.u.m to be diseased, or remark upon its disposition to exhibit signs of alteration; but the fact being so obvious, I wonder it should have escaped observation.
COSTIVENESS is, in some measure, natural to the dog, and in that animal is hardly to be viewed as a disease. In health, the faeces are not expelled without considerable straining, and the matter voided ought to be of a solid character. It nevertheless should not be absolutely hard, or positively dry, for in that case the want of moisture shows the natural secretion of the r.e.c.t.u.m is deficient; the hardness proving prolonged detention, denoting the intestines have lost their activity.
Both Blaine and Youatt were educated in the old school of medicine, which taught them to regard purgatives as the surgeon's best friends, and the sheet-anchors of his practice. They prescribe them in almost every case, and almost on every occasion; but I rarely give these agents. In the dog I am convinced they are not safe, and their constant use is by no means imperative. Should an animal be supposed not to have been relieved for a week, this fact is no proof that a purgative is required. The animal may have eluded observation, and it cannot inform us if such has been the case. The intestines may be slow, or the digestion may be more than usually active. It is foolish to lay down rules for Nature, and punish her creatures if these laws are not obeyed. There are, however, means of ascertaining when a purgative is needed; and these, if employed, will very rarely deceive.
The muscles covering the abdomen of the dog are very thin, and through them the contents of the cavity may be plainly felt. By squeezing these together, the fingers will detect whether the r.e.c.t.u.m, which lies near to the spine, and of course backward or towards the tail, contains any substance. Should the presence of any solid body be ascertained, its character ought to be noted. If round and comparatively soft, a little exercise will cause it to be expelled; but if hard-pointed in places, and uneven, a.s.sistance should be afforded. An enema, of the solution of soap--or of Epsom salts, from half an ounce to a quarter of a pound, in a quarter of a pint to a quart of water--may be administered. A more active injection will be, from half a drachm to four drachms of turpentine, beaten up with the yolks of so many eggs as there are drachms of the oil, and mixed with the quant.i.ty of water just named.