488 TUMORS 



Infectious Genital Tumors. 



This condition seems to be almost entirely confined to the higher 

 bred animals. Particularly since careful selection in breeding has been 

 made, and the best bred dogs are apt to be infected. It was first observed 

 on the continent and later in Great Britain, and then from the large 

 number of dogs that have been imported into the United States, it made 

 its appearance in America. Its peculiar character of reaching its highest 

 development in three months or about that time and then commencing 

 a retrograde degeneration and healing up, has to a certain extent checked 

 its development and has a tendency to keep it within bounds, and also 

 that it is rarely seen in common bred dogs. Its chief mode of dissemina- 

 tion seems to be from the male, for when a particularly good stud-dog 

 is affected numbers of bitches become inoculated, thus the disease is 

 carried in all directions. 



The disease commences by a circumscribed tumefaction, deep red 

 in color and by a gradual elevation of the tissue and develops into round 

 nodular tumors, these become lobular masses, are grayish-pink, varying 

 to purplish red; they bleed easily on th-e slightest manipulation. There 

 is more or less discharge of bloody muco-purulent fluid from the prepuce, 

 and that organ is sw^ollen and deepened in color at the free portion (see 

 Plate). If there is a chance to observe the disease from the onset, it is 

 found to commence with a slight tumefaction of the tissues and formation 

 of small firm nodules, which increase slowly and finally develop into 

 rounded masses; then these masses become softened, break down and 

 leave a deep ulcer with raised edges from which a thin tenacious discharge 

 flows. 



In the bitch the tumors are rarely noticed until a discharge is seen 

 at the vagina, or she shows great pain during copulation and will generally 

 refuse to take the male. A digital examination shows a number of 

 tumors in the form of elevations either sessile or pedunculated, in severe 

 cases the walls of the vagina are covered with them. The sessile seems to 

 be commonest in the bitch; they lie, as a rule, well up in the anterior 

 portion of the vagina. 



The tumors will break down and disappear, but in the bitch they 

 invariably leave a cicatricial contraction so that while the bitch may 

 become pregnant she has great difficulty in parturition, the vaginal walls 

 in that particular portion becoming inelastic. In other cases if the 

 bitch becomes inoculated ])y the dog the tumors grow so rapidly that 

 they practically close the vagina so as to produce dystocia. 



That this disease is contagious there is not the slightest doubt, and 

 that it is easily transmitted experimentally has been shown by Wash- 

 burn and Smith, who state that, "For the first few days after inoculation 



