Part 21 (2/2)
”Having pa.s.sed an hour in the company of my friend, when about to leave I requested to see the dog once more. The animal had been put into a hayloft, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear it give tongue on our approach: it came to meet us, and the change was such as I could not have antic.i.p.ated. The parts had regained almost their natural appearance; certainly they presented nothing to indicate the aspect they had exhibited only a few hours before.
”A mild aperient was given. The animal had no other medicine, neither was any local application used. For three days a slight discharge of a blackish color ensued; but when this stopped, the animal was returned to its owner cured.”
Hardened swellings, or indurated tumors in the teats, are very common in the b.i.t.c.h. They are caused by the milk being allowed to acc.u.mulate in the glands, and there to curdle or act as a foreign body on the parts immediately around it. The b.i.t.c.h will secrete milk, although she has had no pups; and a virgin b.i.t.c.h will do so quite as actively as one that has been a mother. When heat has subsided, although no intercourse has been permitted at the period, when the birth would have taken place the glands will swell; and on squeezing them, a full stream of thick milk will flow forth. Nine weeks, therefore, after oestrum, whether the desire has been gratified or denied, the teats should be examined and relieved. If this should not be done, small lumps will appear. These are round, not sensitive; but generally roll under the fingers, and appear at first to be perfectly detached, though more or less deep seated. No time should be lost in removing them; for if allowed to remain they rapidly increase, and often become of an enormous size. Others also appear until the whole of the glands are involved; and the extent of the implication renders an operation, which in the first instance would have been both simple and safe, so complicated and hazardous as not to be risked. The tumors, moreover, as they enlarge, by their weight and size, become exposed to numerous accidents; either they are excoriated by the movements of the legs, hurt by blows, or lacerated by being dragged along the ground.
Anything that interferes with their integrity seems to change their character. From having been dormant they start into activity, and the slightest wound degenerates into a wide-spreading ulcer. When this last appearance is established, no treatment I know of can effect a cure. If there be a hope, it lies solely in the skilful use of the knife; but generally the const.i.tution is so much exhausted, and the disease so firmly established, that surgery is but a desperate resort.
When taken in time, the situation of the tumor being ascertained, the skin is divided and the growth dissected out. This is easily done, and it is seldom that a vessel requiring ligature is divided. The care required is to spare the skin, no portion of which, unless it should be implicated, ought to be excised. Neither plaster nor suture will afterwards be wanted.
The b.i.t.c.h would with her teeth remove either; and as the healing process is established, the integument will contract and unite.
When there is more than a single tumor to take away, or one of large dimensions to remove, though there may be no important vessels to ligature, the oozing of blood is sometimes greater than may with safety be disregarded. In such cases, the application of cold water, or of oil of turpentine, or the tincture of ergot of rye, or blowing upon the part by means of a pair of bellows, will be of service, and may each be tried; but the actual cautery, though held in high esteem by veterinarians, is not suited to these instances.
After the tumor or tumors are cleanly removed, a course of iodine should be enforced; and it should be persevered with for several months, nor given up simply because all present symptoms have disappeared. The tendency has been exhibited, and the medicine is now employed to prevent its development for the future; and, by the continued use of the agent, we hope to accomplish that intention.
SKIN DISEASES.
Every affection of the skin in the dog is termed mange. This is very wrong; and receipts for the cure of mange are all nonsense, unless we can imagine that one physic is good for various disorders. The dog is very subject to mange; that is, the animal's system can hardly suffer without the derangement flying to and developing itself externally, or upon the skin. True mange is chiefly caught, being mainly dependent upon contagion; but all the other varieties have the seats internally, and are chiefly owing to the keep or lodging. Too close a kennel will give rise to mange, as will too spare or too full a diet; too much flesh or unwholesome food; too hard or too luxurious a bed. In fact, there is hardly a circ.u.mstance to which the animal is exposed which will not cause this malady to be developed. Peculiar kinds of bedding, as barley straw, will give rise to it; and particular kinds of diet, as subsisting entirely upon flesh food, will produce it. In short, I know a few, and only a few, of those things which will cause it; and my time has been so taken up that I have been able to observe but five distinct varieties; though my reason informs me there are many more than I here describe. However, as, in describing five kinds of mange, I do more than either of my predecessors, the public must be content with the moiety for the present; and wait till either I find time to accurately note, if possible, the different forms which mange in the dog will a.s.sume, or some more close observer comes forth to take the task from before me.
True mange is dependent, as in the horse, upon an insect; and though not commonly met with, is known by the same symptoms, as the similar affection in the more valuable animal. The skin is partially denuded of hair, but never perfectly so; for in the most bare place, hairs, either single or in small and distinct patches, will be seen adhering to the surface of the body: these remaining hairs are very firmly planted in the skin, have a coa.r.s.e or unnatural feel, and look all awry and unthrifty. The skin appears very dry and scaly; it is corrugated, or thrown into ridges. The parts chiefly affected have been the back, eyes, neck, &c.; though no part of the body is exempt, for I have seen it virulent upon the feet, and the rest of the body comparatively untouched.
The animal appears dejected, though at seasons he may a.s.sume his usual liveliness; but when nothing attracts his attention, his time is nearly consumed in scratching himself violently. His appet.i.te generally remains good, notwithstanding the torture he endures; but the heat of the body denotes fever, and his thirst may be excessive.
The treatment consists in rubbing the body over with some of the various dressings for mange; some of which, however, are compounded for the horse, and do not very well suit the canine race. Care should be taken that the dressing, of whatever nature it may be, reaches and is expended upon the skin, as simply anointing the dog or smearing the salve upon the hair is of no earthly use. The unguent which I have employed, and with such success as emboldens me to recommend it, is composed of--
Ung. resini As much as you please to take.
Sulph. sub } A sufficiency to make the rosin ointment } very thick.
Ol. junip. } Enough to make the unguent of a proper } consistency, but not too thin.
This is to be applied one day; washed off the next; and then the dressing repeated until the dog has been dressed three times, and washed thrice; after which the ointment may be discontinued; but again had recourse to if the animal exhibits the slightest signs of uneasiness; when the entire process may be gone through once more. Mercurial ointments are the most certain remedies for this disorder; but then they are not safe, and should always be avoided where the dog is concerned.
The second kind of mange is where hair partially falls off; and this kind of disorder is well marked by bare patches of small dimensions, showing themselves on the point of the elbow and any part which is prominent, and which the animal might be supposed to have rubbed as he lay in his kennel.
The patches are small and free from hair; but at the same time the skin exposed is rough, scaly, thickened, and corrugated. The itching is intense; but it does not particularly affect the exposed part; it rather seems to reside in those portions of the body which are well covered with hair.
For this form of disease the cure begins with tonic medicine; and after this has been administered a week or a fortnight, as the strength may appear to require restoration, it is suddenly left off; and liquor a.r.s.enicalis in gradually increasing doses is administered. If it be a little dog, let the first day's dose consist of half-a-drop each time; and if for a large animal, of two drops each dose; three doses in either case to be given in the course of the day. In the former case, the quant.i.ty of a.r.s.enicalis is to be increased half-a-drop each day, and in the latter instance one drop daily is to be the advance; the quant.i.ty in both cases to be distributed over three doses, one to be given in the morning, one at noon, and the last at night.
The medicine is to be kept on increasing each day, until the dog loathes his food; has a running from the eyes; a scarlet conjunctiva; or exhibits some symptom that denotes the physic has hold of his system; when the a.r.s.enicalis is to be discontinued for three days, and then steadily persevered with at the dose which preceded the derangement. Thus, supposing it requires three and a half drops to throw the small dog off his appet.i.te, the quant.i.ty to resume with will in that case be three drops.
There is no power I possess which can predicate the quant.i.ty of the liquor a.r.s.enicalis which an animal will bear; its effects on different creatures of the same species are so various, that what one can gorge with impunity would kill his companion. On this account no fixed quant.i.ty of the medicine can be recommended; but the pract.i.tioner must be satisfied to watch the symptoms induced, and be content to be guided by these. So soon as the physiological symptom is beheld, the good results of the medicine may be antic.i.p.ated; and no compound in the pharmacopoeia works with greater certainty. The disease will begin to decline; and in a month, six weeks, or two months at furthest, will be thoroughly eradicated. In the course of that period, however, it may be as well to give Nature a jolt every now and then, by occasionally increasing the dose, being always prepared to diminish it on the symptoms giving the slightest hint that it is prudent so to do. The a.r.s.enicalis should be used simply diluted with water; and during the period occupied by the cure, no other medicine whatever will be required.
The next form of mange attacks very fat and cruelly overfed animals. The poor dog is very foul. He, as it were, smells aloud; and his hide is enormously thickened, being everywhere devoid of sensation. Pinch it as hard as you can--even until the moisture be forced through the pores by the pressure--and the operation which should inflict pain, will only communicate pleasure.
The animal, instead of crying out or endeavoring to snap, will stand altogether quiet, the expression of the face announcing the perfect delight it experiences; or the head turns round to lick the hand of the pincher, thereby entreating him to continue the delicate recreation.
The hair is generally more or less removed from the back; and the thickest portions of the skin are either above the neck, or just before the tail. The animal is the whole day dull, never being alive except at meal-times, when it is all activity; the rest of the day is pa.s.sed in sleeping, licking, scratching, biting, and gnawing its person--to the infinite annoyance of an indulgent master, who looks on the ma.s.s of disease before him, and with regret pictures the animated creature which it once was.
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