648 



CHAPTER XIV. 



DISEASES OF THE GENITAL ORGANS. 



DOGS are often the subjects of a kind of non-inflammatory gonorrhoea or gleet, which not 

 only causes the animals themselves a good deal of distress, but also makes them offensive to 

 their owners. 



This discharge should never be neglected, for if so ulceration is apt to take place, and 

 the whole of the organ to become the seat of loathsome disease. 



Treatment. Simple local treatment will give relief for a time, but only for a time. The 

 dog's general health needs seeing to. Probably he is suffering from ekzema or some other 

 form of mange, of which the gleet is merely concomitant ; or the dog may be simply over- 

 pampered and over-fed. General hygienic measures, if adopted, will be found better for the 

 dog than any amount of medicine. However, a short course of liquor arsenicalis will do good ; 

 and if the dog is weak or debilitated, quinine, with an allowance of cod-liver oil, will soon 

 pull him together. Meanwhile, the parts must be gently bathed three times a day with any 

 of the lotions recommended for canker, pulling back the sheath of the organ for that purpose 

 as far as possible. 



Paraphymosis is a condition in which the penis, having been protruded, the glans refuses 

 to retract again into the sheath. It thus becomes strangulated, and much swelling and great 

 pain is the result. 



Treatment. We must endeavour first to reduce the swelling by cold water douches or 

 lotions ; if we succeed in this the glans will easily be returned. If not, an operation must 

 be performed, and this can only be done by a skilled vet. It consists in dividing by 

 longitudinal section that portion of the prepuce which is causing the stricture. Care must be 

 taken not to cut too far. Lead lotion will require to be used afterwards, and probably' a 

 suture will be needed. 



Cancer of the scrotum is a name given to a diseased state of the scrotum. It com- 

 mences superficially, with some degree of redness and irritation of the skin ; pustules form, 

 and burst, and the matter forms a scab. On the removal of the scab, the skin is found to 

 be moist and inflamed and tender. If the disease progresses the skin hardens, becomes 

 corrugated, and ulcerates. The ulceration usually assumes a malignant character, and attacks 

 the tissues lying underneath. 



Causes. Derangement of the general health is the usual cause ; scratches or wounds may 

 determine the ulceration in the first instance. 



Treatment. This must be both constitutional and local. If you see the animal before 

 much mischief has been done, change the diet, and do everything in your power to re-establish 

 him in good health. Meanwhile, brush the scrotum with a weak solution of nitrate of silver 

 (four grains to an ounce of water), keep the parts very clean, and use the benzoated zinc 

 ointment ; or the green iodide of mercury ointment diluted with four parts of common lard 

 may be applied twice or thrice daily. 



