[A portion of sponge may be securely tied on the end of a piece of
ratan, whalebone, or other flexible material, and inserted in the mouth,
may be carried over the tongue down the throat against the foreign
article, which may then be gently pushed before it. If this should not
succeed, and the substance appears firmly imbedded in the throat, an
incision may be made in the oesophagus and the bone extracted.--L.]
BRONCHOCELE OR GOITRE
in the dog is almost daily forced upon our notice. If a spaniel or
pug-puppy is mangy, pot-bellied, rickety, or deformed, he seldom fails
to have some enlargement of the thyroid gland. The spaniel and the pug
are most subject to this disease. The jugular vein passes over the
thyroid gland; and, as that substance increases, the vein is sometimes
brought into sight, and appears between the gland and the integuement,
fearfully enlarged, varicose, and almost appearing as if it were
bursting. The trachea is pressed upon on either side, and the oesophagus
by the left gland, and there is difficulty of swallowing. The poor
animal pants distressingly after the least exertion, and I have known
absolute suffocation ensue. In a few cases ulceration has followed, and
the sloughing has been dreadful, yet the gland has still preserved its
characteristic structure. Although numerous abscesses have been formed
in the lower part of it, and there has been considerable discharge,
viscid or purulent, the upper part has remained as hard and almost as
scirrhous as before.
'Cause of Goitre'.--In many cases, this enlargement of the thyroid
glands is plainly connected with a debilitated state of the constitution
generally, and more particularly with a disposition to rickets. I have
rarely seen a puppy that had had mange badly, and especially if mange
was closely followed by distemper, that did not soon exhibit goitre.
Puppies half-starved, and especially if dirtily kept, are thus affected;
and it is generally found connected with a loose skin, flabby muscles,
enlarged belly, and great stupidity. On the other hand, I have seen
hundreds of dogs, to all appearance otherwise healthy, in whom the
glands of the neck have suddenly and frightfully enlarged. I have never
been able to trace this disease to any particular food, whether solid or
liquid; although it is certainly the frequent result of want of
nutriment.
Some friends, of whom I particularly inquired, assured me, that it is
not to any great extent prevalent in those parts of Derbyshire where
goitre is oftenest seen in the human being.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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