PUERPERAL FEVER. I7I 
When puerperal fever is the result of septic infection its symptoms are gen- 
erally too pronounced to be mistaken on the second day after whelping. They 
may, however, be manifested in great intensity on the first day, or much less 
often be delayed until the third day. But when the cause is putrid infection, its 
evolution being much slower, the fever and associate symptoms are, as a rule, 
seldom appreciable to the ordinary observer before the third day; and they may 
even be delayed until the fifth or sixth. 
In the development of complications there is also a notable difference 
between the two forms of infection. Asa result of the septic, the pelvic organs 
are speedily involved; whereas, while it is possible for the putrid to produce 
any and all the complications of which the septic is capable, such unhappy 
result is not the rule. 
Puerperal fever may rightly be considered one of the most serious maladies 
with which dog breeders are obliged to contend; and all cases considered, in 
much the largest proportion death occurs. Of course in very many instances 
the chances of recovery depend greatly upon the cause and treatment applied, 
yet in not a few the unhappy end is in sight from the first, and medical skill 
utterly powerless even to delay its coming. These cases are largely made up of 
those in which septic infection has occurred, the rule being with them that the 
poison in the blood is of such extreme virulence or in such overwhelming quan- 
tities that the victims succumb before the second or third days. 
Were the proper treatment applied promptly in all cases of putrid infection 
the mortality from it would be infinitely less than now. And indeed sponta- 
neous recovery without medical intervention is not very infrequent, the putre- 
fying mass in the uterine cavity being voluntarily expelled. While in many 
cases local treatment has the happiest effects, — removing the infectious material, 
and thereby arresting absorption before the quantity of poison taken up is 
sufficient to destroy life. 
Wise treatment will do this and save life in most cases of puerperal fever 
caused by putrid infection, but now and then, complications speedily occur in 
the pelvic organs, and the outlook is well nigh hopeless with their advent. 
Puerperal fever manifesting itself, the first steps should be to remove the 
puppies from the breast, give them to a foster if one can be obtained, and then 
determine if possible if there is infectious material, as a dead puppy, in the 
genital canal. And it follows that if anything is found there it should be 
promptly removed to prevent any further production of blood poisoning. But 
even so large a mass as a putrefying puppy may be lodged in the uterus and yet 
not be detected by the ordinary examiner. Again, although one is with 
certainty made out, speedy removal of it may be impossible. Consequently in 
all instances where nothing is found in the uterus or passage from it, or there is 
a mass in the former which cannot be at once removed, those parts should be 
deluged with a disinfectant without delay. 
