1 66 CLINICAL VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



In the dog, exudative pericarditis occurs in the acute and chronic 

 forms. Attention is always first attracted by the physical symptoms. 



The acute form is indicated by loss of appetite, weakness, rapid 

 breathing, anxiety, dyspnoea, and fever, amounting to r^'^ — 2'^ C 

 Physical signs soon develop indicating its character. At the very 

 commencement auscultation may reveal a rubbing sound, produced by 

 friction between the two roughened pericardial layers ; but this sound 

 is fugitive, and can rarely be detected. Furthermore it is not constant, 

 for exudation may accompany the onset of the disease. At this initial 

 stage palpitation may also occur, particularly when the patient walks 

 or makes an}- marked effort ; percussion sometimes produces pain. 



As soon as the pericardium contains a certain quantity of liquid, 

 the heart is thrust upwards and a little forwards, the degree of dis- 

 placement depending on the amount of exudate. The pericardial sac 

 becomes distended, especially about its base, lifting the pulmonary 

 lobes, and pushing them upwards towards the vertebrae, though to a 

 much less degree than in pleurisy. Thus on palpation of the pre- 

 cordial region the heart's impulse appears weak, or seems lost. On 

 auscultation the normal sounds, clearly detected in health even in 

 very small patients, are dull, distant, and smothered, or completely 

 inaudible.. When the heart is but slightly compressed the pulse pre- 

 serves its character ; but as soon as pressure becomes marked the pulse 

 grows small, fugitive, and weak, sometimes almost imperceptible and 

 uncountable. 



Compression of the auricles — the portions of the heart which col- 

 lapse most readily — impedes the flow of blood, produces cyanosis, 

 venous pulse in the jugulars, and mechanical dyspnoea owing to stasis 

 of blood in the lungs. The symptoms of oppression at first seen are un- 

 "doubtedly of reflex origin, due to the pain in the inflamed pericardium. 



If not treated, acute pericarditis may rapidly lead to death, some- 

 times in less than a week. It may also (though exceptionally) ter- 

 minate in recovery, the exudate becoming reabsorbed, the symptoms 

 gradually diminishing and finally disappearing. In certain cases it 

 assumes the chronic form. 



The variety of pericarditis to which the term hemorrhagic has been 

 applied is characterised by a reddish, sanguineous exudate, and occurs 

 somewhat frequently in the dog. During the course of the last two 

 3'ears I have seen five cases. In three the pericardial inflammation 

 was of tuberculous origin, and in one there was no other tuberculous 

 focus save in the pericardium. In two cases the disease was of a 

 special character, independent of tuberculosis. The haemorrhage 

 occurring during the course of the disease originates in the very 



