JAUNDICE. 581 



When the urine is very scanty and red good will be done by giving from three to thirty 

 grains of the benzoate of ammonia in water twice a day, morning and afternoon. 



Never let the dog want for plenty of nice cold clean water, and if he should be at all 

 thin he ought to wear a blanket whenever he goes out. A judicious amount of exercise must 

 likewise be given, and a comfortable, airy place allowed to sleep in at night. 



Friction with some stimulating liniment to the region of the abdomen, twice or thrice a 

 day, might be tried with good results. 



The more obscure diseases of the liver in the dog are far from easy to deal with ; they 

 often lead on to dropsy and death. 



3. Jaundice. 







Jaundice, called also icterus, and by kennel-men and the public generally known as " the 

 yellows." We have been taught to consider jaundice as merely symptomatic of other disease or 

 diseases, and, properly speaking, it is really nothing else ; and we must be excused for treating 

 it herein as a distinct disease, yet how often in our practice are we not obliged to treat 

 symptoms where we can, as in many disorders, merely guess at their cause ! And, after all, 

 the term or name "jaundice" is a handy one. 



There are a great many diseases of the liver which we have purposely avoided giving any 

 description of, which dogs at times undoubtedly suffer from. We allude to cirrhosis, or hobnail- 

 liver, cancer of the liver, fatty degeneration, atrophy, hypertrophy, softening of the liver, and 

 some others. A detailed account of these and their pathology would, we think, only tend to 

 confuse the general reader. At the same time, the knowledge of them which even the pro- 

 fession possesses is, it must be confessed, far from perfect. Such diseases when they occur or 

 perhaps, to put it more truthfully, when their existence is suspected in the dog must be 

 treated symptomatically. 



Pathology of Jaundice. Before attempting to treat a case of jaundice we must endeavour 

 to ascertain its cause. We have already hinted that there are, as it were, two kinds of jaundice 

 the same, but different in their causes, and requiring somewhat different treatment. There is 

 the jaundice arising from re-absorption of the bile, and the jaundice. of suppression of bile; 

 although Frierichs and some others seem to dispute the correctness of the theory embodied in 

 the words " suppression of bile," still nearly all medical authorities are now agreed that the 

 theory is a correct one. 



Causes. I. Jaundice from obstruction and re-absorption may be produced by some state of 

 the gall-ducts, which cause a stoppage therein, as by (i) inflammation of the mucous membrane 

 thereof caused by cold ; (2) by pressure on the common duct by a tumour, a collection of 

 fceces, &c. (3) The duct may be closed up by the passage of a gall-stone. (4) Enlargement or 

 hypertrophy of the liver, congestion * of the liver, or cancer of that organ, may cause obstruction 

 to the mechanical flow of the bile, and determine its re-absorption into the blood. (5) The 

 common duct has been found choked by liver flukes, a parasite common to the livers of dogs 

 and other animals. 



Jaundice of suppression, or non-secretion of bile, may be produced from an impeded cir- 

 culation through the gland from disease of some distant organ, or from some morbid change 

 in the blood, or from enervation, or from all three combined. On the other hand, the 

 ingredients of the bile may be present in the blood in such excess that the liver is unable to 



* Dogs that are over-run and over-heated are subject to congestion of the liver, which may end. in 

 jaundice. 



