IX.— BLENNORRHOEA IN THE DOG. 



In dogs brought to the cHnique, and in those treated for varying 

 diseases in our infirmary, you have often noticed a discharge from the 

 prepuce which at first sight seems to present a distinct analogy with 

 the discharge of blennorrhoea in man. Among the twenty-five dogs at 

 this moment in my portion of the hospital eight are affected, and at all 

 times of the year you will find a somewhat similar proportion. The 

 condition, therefore, is very common. It will form the subject of my 

 lecture to-day. 



This disease has been termed blennorrhoea and gonorrhoea. The 

 first title, under which Renault mentions it in the Recueil of 1834, is the 

 more appropriate, because it does not in any way prejudge the nature of 

 the affection. That of gonorrhoea has the disadvantage of suggesting an 

 analogy between this discharge and that of the same named condition 

 in man. The term " echauffement " is wrong, for the discharge may 

 appear in animals of very phlegmatic temperament, without having 

 been produced by violent sexual excitement or by repeated sexual 

 intercourse. 



Almost always localised in the mucous membrane lining the prepuce 

 and covering the base of the penis, the common form of this affection 

 consists in a chronic catarrh which even at the outset is very rarely 

 accompanied by appreciable inflammatory symptoms. Some writers 

 aver that the disease is always limited to the lining membrane of the 

 sheath, but in point of fact that of the penis is also affected, particu- 

 larlv about and behind the corona glandis. 



The catarrh produces a more or less abundant though usually 

 trifling muco-purulent secretion, which exudes from the orifice of the 

 sheath, gluing together the hairs surrounding this point. Except 

 when the animal has just urinated, and especially in the morning, these 

 hairs are soiled with a greenish, greyish, or yellowish-white muco-pus, 

 viscous in character, sometimes fairly thick, sometimes serous, which, 

 by drying, may form little crusts fixed to the base of the hairs, and 

 covering the parts surrounding the preputial opening. The amount of 



