Of bilious disease, assuming the character of inflammation, we have too
many cases. It may be spontaneous or brought on by the agency of other
affections. Long-continued and inveterate mange will produce it. It is
often connected with, or produced by, distemper, or a dull inflammatory
disease of the liver, and it is generally accompanied by pustular
eruption on the belly. The skin is usually tinged of a yellow hue, and
the urine is almost invariably impregnated with bile. The suffusion
which takes place is recognised among sportsmen by the term "yellows."
The remedy should be some mercurial, with gentian and aloes given twice
in the day, and mercurial ointment well rubbed in once in the day. If
this treatment is steadily pursued, and a slight soreness induced in the
mouth, the treatment will usually be successful. Mr. Blaine observes,
"A moderate soreness of the mouth is to be encouraged and kept up. I
have never succeeded in removing the complaint without it."
JAUNDICE.
M. W. Leblanc, of Paris, has given an interesting account of the causes
and treatment of 'jaundice' in the dog.
The prevailing symptom of this disease in the dog is a yellow
discoloration of the skin and the mucous membranes of greater or less
intensity. It generally announces the existence of very serious disease,
as inflammation of the liver and its excretory ducts, or of the
gall-bladder, or the stomach, or small intestines, or contraction or
'obliteration' of the excretory ducts of the liver, in consequence of
inflammation of these vessels, or the presence of concrete substances
formed from the bile. The dogs in which he found the most decided traces
of this disease laboured under diarrhea, with stools of a reddish brown
or black colour for one, two or three days.
The causes of jaundice are chiefly over-fatigue (thus, greyhounds are
more subject to it than pointers), immersions in water, fighting,
emetics or purgatives administered in over-doses, the repeated use of
poisonous substances not sufficiently strong at once to destroy the
animal, the swallowing of great quantities of indigestible food, and
contusions of the abdominal viscera, especially about the region of the
liver. The most serious, if not the most common cause, is cold after
violent and long-continued exercise; and especially when the owners of
dogs, seeing them refuse their food after a long chase, give them
powerful purgatives or emetics.
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