280 DISEASES OF DOGS. 



248. Sore eyes, though not in general ending in blindness, are 

 very common among dogs. It is an affection of the eyelids, is not 

 unlike the scrofulous affection of the human eyelids, and is equally 

 benefitted by the same treatment : an unguent made of equal parts 

 of nitrated quicksilver ointment, prepared tutty and lard, very lightly 

 applied. Dropsy of the . eyeball is likewise sometimes met with, 

 but it is incurable. 



249. Cancer. The virulent dreadful ulcer, that is so fatal in the 

 human subject, and is called cancer, is unknown in dogs ; yet thero 

 is very commonly a large schirrus swelling of the teats in bitches, 

 and of the testicles (though less frequent) in dogs, that as it some- 

 times becomes ulcerated, so it may be characterized by this name. 

 In the early state of the disease discutients prove useful, as vinegar 

 with salt, and camphor and Spanish flies, with mercurial ointment, 

 have sometimes succeeded ; taking care to avoid irritating the part 

 so much as to produce blister. Bat when the swelling is detached 

 from the belly, and hangs pendulous in the skin, it had better be 

 removed, and as a future preventative suffer the bitch to breed. 

 Schirrus testicles are likewise s )nietimes met with ; for these no 

 treatment yet discovered succeeds but the removal of the part, and 

 that before the spermatic chord becomes much affected, or it will 

 be useless. 



250. Colic. Dogs are subject to two kinds of colic; one arising 

 from constipation of the bowels, the other is a kind peculiar to dogs, 

 apparently partaking of the nature of rheumatism, and also of spasm. 

 From a sudden or violent exposure to cold, dogs become sometimes 

 suddenly paralytic, particularly in the hinder parts ; having great 

 tenderness and pain, and every appearance of lumbago. In every 

 instance of this kind, there is considerable affection of the bowels, 

 generally costiveness, always great pain. A warm bath, external 

 stimulants, but more particularly active aperients, remove the coliCi 

 Colic arising from costiveness, is not in general violently acute frofii 

 tiie pain it produces ; sometimes, however, it appears accompanied 

 with more spasm than is immediately dependent on the confinement 

 of the bowels. In the former give active aperients, as calomel with 

 pil. cochiffi, i. e. aloetic pill and clysters ; in the latter castor oil 

 with laudanum and ether. 



251. Cough. Two kinds of cough are common among dogs, one 

 accompanying distemper, the other in an asthmatic affection of the 

 chest. (See 245, 252.) 



252. Distemper. This is by far the most common and most fatal 

 among the diseases of dogs ; hardly any young dog escapes it — and 

 of the few who do escape it in their youth, three-fourths are attacked 

 with it at som.e period afterwards : it being a mistake that young 



