^32 The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 



Treatment. — If the enlargement is due to the first-named 

 cause, rest, tonics (particularly the iodide of iron and 

 potassium), and nourishing food are indicated. If from the 

 second-named cause. Nature should without question be 

 allowed to follow her course, or relief by depletion from 

 internal and local agents must be adopted. If it results 

 from the latter-named causes, antiphlogistic measures must 

 be had recourse to— aperient medicine, leeches, fomenta- 

 tions, and quietude. Castration is occasionally necessary 

 in the last-named causes, but rarely if ever in the former. 



INVERSION OF THE VAGINA. 



This is very commonly seen in bitches who have had many 

 litters of puppies, and who are of a relaxed and debilitated 

 condition of system. It is frequently present during the 

 period of oestrum, and as frequently disappears with the 

 decline of that function. It has also arisen after connection 

 when the animals have been suddenly or violently separated. 



Symptoms. — The presence or protrusion of a red, soft, 

 smooth body at the orifice of the vagina, easily returnable, 

 but which is again, unless proper means be resorted to 

 quickly re-inverted.* In chronic cases the tumour invariably 

 remains persistent. Difficulty in micturition is more or less 

 manifested, and febrile disturbance is occasionally present. 



Long exposure to air gives the mucous membrane a 

 somewhat leaden tint, and it becomes wrinkled and covered 

 with epithelium of a leathery nature. 



* In the bitch, inversion of the vagina has been sometimes mistaken 

 for a condylomatous tumour; and cases are recorded in which tumours 

 of this kind, protruding beyond the vulva, through insufficient exami- 

 nation have been mistaken for inversion. Inversion of the bladder 

 has also been confounded with that of the vagina. The pyriform cysts 

 which sometimes form in that canal, and contain a clear citron-coloured 

 fluid, have likewise been sometimes confounded with inversion of the 

 vagina. 



To avoid errors which might have a serious tendency, a careful ex- 

 amination must be made, and nothing should be attempted in the way 

 of operation until the state of affairs is exactly determined. 



