SKIN DJSEASES. 621 



Causes. It is more frequent in gross, plethoric, soft-fleshed dogs, in whom it is often the 

 result of a sudden check to the perspiration from immersion, and subsequent exposure to the 

 cold. It is caused also by falls and blovvs and from wounds. The worst case we remember 

 was in a Greyhound. The poor animal had taken a sudden affection for a butcher's sausages, 

 and had been wounded by the proper owner's knife. 



Symptoms and Treatment. The symptoms are great pain in the part, redness, and swelling, 

 with constitutional disturbance, dry nose, injected eye, heat of skin, staring coat, and heightened 

 pulse. The treatment must be both local and constitutional. It will be as well to begin with 

 a gentle purge of castor oil. The diet must be light at first. We cannot do wrong to give 

 plenty of milk, and either boiled rice or oatmeal porridge, according to the fancy of our patient, 

 but no meat. We cannot speak from experience of the treatment in the dog of giving large 

 doses of the tincture of iron three or four times a day, but have often seen the very best results 

 from it in human practice, and think it deserves a fair trial in canine. Port wine and quinine, 

 or the liquid extract of cinchona, we recommend to be given from the commencement. Dose 

 of the latter, five to thirty drops three times a day. 



The local treatment consists in the application of repeated hot fomentations of poppy- 

 heads. In the intervals, the application of a lotion consisting of the diacetate of lead, and sesqui- 

 carbonate of ammonia, one drachm each, laudanum half an ounce, and camphor water one pint, 

 will do good; or .gentle inunction with an ointment containing morphia may be tried. If pus 

 should come to be formed, the earlier free incisions are made the better ; and after the wounds 

 are carefully fomented, a large charcoal poultice will greatly assist nature in completing the cure. 



3. Prurigo. 



We give the name of Prurigo simplex to an ailment in the dog which, in most cases, it must 

 be confessed, is more of a symptom than a real disease. The dog is troubled with a constant and 

 evidently distressing itching in many parts of the body, and there is very little to show for it. 

 The skin may be found scurfy, and probably in some parts slightly thickened, and the hair or 

 coat is usually not in good form. 



Although it is well known that scratching in the dog is often a habit, and comes to be such 

 a common one that the animal engages in the luxurious exercise when he is not thinking, still 

 we always associate the disorder with some constitutional disturbance of the system. At all 

 events, the habit is neither very polite nor agreeable, especially if the dog is a pet, and consequently 

 it ought to be remedied. 



No local treatment is required if there be little or no evidence of skin deterioration, but give 

 tonics internally ; carefully regulate the diet, which must be neither over-abundant nor over- 

 stimulating. Insist upon plenty of exercise, and the daily use of the bucket-bath before a slight 

 farinaceous breakfast. We never knew this treatment to fail, unless the dog is troubled either 

 with hemorrhoids or worms. This must in all cases of pruritis be ascertained and remedied. 



4. Ekzema. 



We had purposed describing a skin disease sometimes, though rarely, seen in the dog, and 

 termed by medical men lichen, but as it resembles in many respects the disease at present under 

 consideration, we refrain from doing so. 



Ekzema synonyms: Blotch or Surfeit, and Red Mange. Of the two terms, blotch or surfeit, 

 and red mange, we feel naturally inclined to give the former to the more simple kind or type of 

 ekzema, retaining the latter name of red mange for the more virulent. 



