42 ACUTE LARYNGITIS. 



IProg n os is.— The prognosis depends essentially upon the severity of 

 symptoms and efficiency and promptness of the treatment. When there 

 is little or no infiltration of the sub-mucous tissues as inferred by the com- 

 parative ease in breathing, the chances are favorable. If the obstruction 

 aside from that due to spasm, be sufficient to interfere greatly with respi- 

 ration, a fatal result may be anticipated. 



Treatment \ —The injurious influences of changes in the air, should be 

 avoided by maintaining a uniform temperature in the room in which the 

 animal is placed. A sponge should be wrung out in hot water, and applied 

 to the neck, being frequently changed. Five grain doses of Dover's powder 

 will greatly relieve the discomfort, and in the milder cases its use is admis- 

 sible. Opiates, in the severer forms of the disease, should be given 

 guardedly, and not carried so far as to blunt the perception of the want of 

 breath. A full dose of castor oil should be given early in the affection, to 

 draw the blood to the intestines. Spasms in breathing are often relieved 

 by emetics, and twenty grains of ipecac can be wisely given during an 

 attack. The oil of copaiba is admirable in its action, and when inflamma- 

 tion of the larynx first manifests itself, doses of fifteen drops may be given 

 from three to six hours as the severity of the symptoms indicate. It will 

 be well to emulsify it in this way; add a teaspoonful of the oil to a raw 

 egg, and beat well with a fork ; give one fourth of the quantity at each 

 dose. The following mixture is also very efficacious in this disease. — 

 R Potass. Chloratis 3 i 

 Ammon. Mur. 5 i 



Syr. Tolu. g i 



Aquae 5 ij 



Ft. Mist. Sig. Dose one teaspoonful in mild cases, every two hours. In 

 very severe attacks, the same dose every fifteen minutes. 



If the disease assumes a severity threatening suffocation, the dog should 

 be made to inhale steam or medicated vapors. If the room be too large 

 to moisten the entire atmosphere, a tent can be made by placing a sheet 

 over two chairs, under that the dog be placed, and a hot iron or stone be 

 thrown into a pan of water. To medicate the steam add a tablespoonful 

 of the compound tincture of benzoin for every quart of water. "When 

 death from suffocation is imminent and all other means prove futile, 

 tracheotomy is the only hope remaining. 



It is important to remember that a symptom which is considered highly 

 characteristic of rabies, and one which frequently appears early in the 

 disease, is the peculiar alteration in the tone of the voice. The bark is 

 described as a sound between a bark and a howl uttered in a rough, 

 hoarse tone, which might be called croupy, and is attributed by some to a 

 swollen condition of the pharynx and larynx. 



