202 Diseases of the Digestive System. 



of strong iodine liniment, or ointment of biniodide of 

 mercury — half strength, and repeated as needful — to the 

 side afcer removal of the hair. The diet must be 

 carefully regulated as well as digestible, and the action 

 of the bowels should be largely maintained by enemas 

 when the salines are not employed. Pet dogs recovering 

 from the disease may prove useful as previously, but 

 animals from which constant or phenomenal work is 

 required are rarely capable, and for breeding purposes 

 they should not be selected. 



Fatty Degeneration of the Liver is an occasional 

 result of hepatitis. In some instances it is enormously 

 enlarged, and capable of being manipulated by the hand, 

 causing a largely distended abdomen, irregular bowels, 

 and anpemia, the patient finally becoming excessively 

 lean and weak, with all the indications of chronic 

 hepatitis. 



Treatment. — Withdraw food containing fat, and sub- 

 stitute fibrine biscuits in moderate quantities, with 

 enforced excercise daily. As a treat, give a meal of 

 fresh liver, cut up and mixed with the usual food, and 

 as a medicine give ten grains of chlorate of potash twice 

 daily for some time. 



Old and uwni-oiit dogs frequently exhibit peculiar 

 forms of malignant disease of the liver, spleen, mesentery, 

 omentum, &c., which present some of the strangest 

 combinations of incurable states. In all such instances 

 common humanity suggests their destruction by a painless 

 death, as prussic acid or an overdose of chloroform. 



Parasitic Disease of the Liver is due to the presence 

 of the fluke Distovia conjujictirm in the biie ducts, inducing 

 inflammation and numerous small abscesses. Various 

 cysiic or bladder forms of parasitism are also common ; 

 and round worms {Filaria hepatica) occupy the substance 

 as well as the ducts of the liver, leading to the formation 

 of cysts in the walls of the intestines. 



Obstruction to the functions of the liver occasionally 

 arises from the formation of biliary calcuh', or gall-stones. 

 Jaundice is a common sign, with more or less indigestion, 

 and acute pain, evidenced by violence during their 



