Bronchitis
Dogs that have been exposed to wet, or that have been put to lie in a
damp or draughty kennel with insufficient food, are not less liable
than their masters to catch a severe cold, which, if not promptly
attended to, may extend downward to the lining membranes of bronchi or
lungs.
In such cases there is always symptoms more or less of fever,
with fits of shivering and thirst, accompanied with dullness, a tired
appearance and loss of appetite. The breath is short, inspirations
painful, and there is a rattling of mucus in chest or throat.
The most prominent symptom, perhaps, is the frequent cough. It is at first dry,
ringing, and evidently painful; in a few days, however, or sooner, it
softens, and there is a discharge of frothy mucus with it, and, in the
latter stages, of pus and ropy mucus.
_Treatment_--Keep the patient in a comfortable, well-ventilated
apartment, with free access in and out if the weather be dry. Let the
bowels be freely acted upon to begin with, but no weakening discharge
from the bowels must be kept up.
After the bowels have been moved we should commence the exhibition
of small doses of tartar emetic with squills and opium thrice a day.
If the cough is very troublesome, give this mixture: Tincture of squills,
5 drops to 30; paregoric, 10 drops to 60; tartar emetic, one-sixteenth of a
grain to 1 grain; syrup and water a sufficiency. Thrice daily.
We may give a full dose of opium every night. In mild cases carbonate
of ammonia may be tried; it often does good, the dose being from two
grains to ten in camphor water, or even plain water.
The chronic form of bronchitis will always yield, if the dog is young,
to careful feeding, moderate exercise, and the exhibition of cod-liver
oil with a mild iron tonic. The exercise, however, must be moderate,
and the dog kept from the water.
A few drops to a teaspoonful of paregoric, given at night, will do
good, and the bowels should be kept regular, and a simple laxative pill given now and then.
CONSTIPATION,
more commonly called costiveness, is also a very common complaint. It
often occurs in the progress of other diseases, but is just as often a
separate ailment.
Perhaps no complaint to which our canine friends are liable is less
understood by the non-professional dog doctor and by dog owners
themselves. Often caused by weakness in the coats of the intestine.
_The exhibition of purgatives can only have a temporary effect in
relieving the symptoms_, and is certain to be followed by reaction,
and consequently by further debility. Want of exercise and bath common
cause.
Youatt was never more correct in his life than when he said: "Many
dogs have a dry constipated habit, often greatly increased by the
bones on which they are fed. This favours the disposition to mange,
etc. It produces indigestion, encourages worms, blackens the teeth,
and causes fetid breath."
_Symptoms_--The stools are hard, usually in large round balls, and
defecation is accomplished with great difficulty, the animal often
having to try several times before he succeeds in effecting the act,
and this only after the most acute suffering.
The faeces are generally covered with white mucus, showing the heat and semi-dry condition of
the gut. The stool is sometimes so dry as to fall to pieces like so much oatmeal.
There is generally also a deficiency of bile in the motions, and, in
addition to simple costiveness, we have more or less loss of appetite,
with a too pale tongue, dullness, and sleepiness, with slight redness
of the conjunctiva.
Sometimes constipation alternates with diarrhoea, the food being improperly
commingled with the gastric and other juices, ferments, spoils, and becomes,
instead of healthy blood-producing chyme, an irritant purgative.
_Treatment_--Hygienic treatment more than medicinal. Mild doses of
castor oil, compound rhubarb pill, or olive oil, may at first be
necessary. Sometimes an enema will be required if the medicine will
not act.
Plenty of exercise and a swim daily (with a good run after the swim),
or instead of the swim a bucket bath--water thrown over the dog.
Give oatmeal, rather than flour or fine bread, as the staple of his
diet, but a goodly allowance of meat is to be given as well, with
cabbage or boiled liver, or even a portion of raw liver.
Fresh air and exercise in the fields. You may give a bolus before dinner, such as
the following: Compound rhubarb pill, 1 to 5 grains; quinine, 1/8 to
2 grains; extract of taraxacum, 2 to 10 grains. Mix.
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