DIAGNOSIS. 
as to its frequency, this varies with the 
breed of the dog and with his age. In 
tiny dogs the pulse of the adult may be 
100 and over, in the Mastiff and St. 
Bernard it should be about 80 or 85 beats 
to a minute. In young dogs it is very 
much more frequent, and in old animals 
it ranges from 60 to 80, according to the 
breed. The owner of a pet dog should 
make himself acquainted with its pulse by 
frequently feeling it in health. The pulse 
is most easily felt on the upper part of the 
femoral artery, just about the middle of the 
inside of the thigh, near to where it joins 
the body. 
Now it is sometimes very difficult to 
judge of the state of a small dog’s health 
from the pulse with regard to fever or in- 
flammation, so much so that we have to 
trust to other signs and symptoms, but in 
large animals the state of the pulse often 
aids one materially in forming a diagnosis. 
Taking the state of the pulse, however, of 
any animal requires some _ considerable 
experience. 
Any transient frequency of the pulse 
might be caused by mere excitement, and, 
unless other symptoms were present, would 
not indicate fever. 
By a hard pulse is meant a pulse small 
in volume but of considerable force. A 
wiry pulse is the same, only it is of still 
smaller volume. 
A soft pulse means a pulse with plenty 
of volume but little force. 
A hard pulse is met with in many inflam- 
mations; a hard, wiry, or thready pulse is 
often present during the first rigors of 
inflammation. 
A soft pulse is indicative of general de- 
bility, and points to the necessity for good 
nutriment and support, especially if it is 
not only soft but small withal. 
3. BREATHING.—There are certain symp- 
toms of disease connected with the breath- 
ing which every dog-owner would do well 
to make himself acquainted with. Panting, 
or quickened breathing, is present in many 
inflammations of the lungs, as well as in 
other diseases. If persistent it points to 
illness of some sort, but it may be brought 
about by over-exertion or confinement in 
a close room, especially after a full meal. 
Difficulty in breathing is always a dan- 
587 
gerous symptom. It is present in many 
diseases: in pneumonia and _pleurisy, 
where we have other signs of inflamma- 
tion to guide us to a correct diagnosis. 
The air-cells may be blocked up with 
exudation, or exudation into the pleura 
may be pressing on the lungs and imped- 
ing the breathing. But from whatever 
cause dyspnoea may arise, it must always 
be looked upon as a very serious symptom 
indeed, for if the blood cannot be properly 
oxygenated, it is of course poisoned. 
Snoring or stertorous breathing is present 
in disease of the brain. So long as the 
breathing is regular and comparatively 
easy, it is not a dangerous symptom. If, 
however, this is not the case, and the 
breathing is slow and laboured, and the 
animal cannot be roused, the case is bad 
indeed. Snoring in simple sleep is nothing 
to speak of, but it points nevertheless to 
deranged digestive organs, and ought to 
be looked to. Abdominal breathing points 
to pleurisy or some other painful disease of 
the chest. Thoracic breathing, again, 
when the abdomen does not partake of a 
share in the rise and fall, points to some 
mischief in the regions below the dia- 
phragm. Coughing is either dry or moist. 
Whenever the discharge from the mucous 
membranes of the chest is abundant, it is 
moist. In the first stages of catarrh and 
bronchitis, while yet the membranes are 
merely roughened, the cough is dry; and 
in pleurisy, unconnected with bronchitis 
or pneumonia, it will continue dry. The 
cough of chronic laryngitis is harsh, that 
of croup a ringing cough. The cough of 
emphysema, again, is a soft, wheezy, voice- 
less kind of a cough, for the air-cells are 
enlarged, and have not the power properly 
to expel the air. Other dry coughs are 
caused by reflex action, indicating various 
diseases—teething, worms, indigestion, etc. 
6. The SECRETIONS in disease of an in- 
flammatory nature are diminished; the 
urine, for instance, is scanty and high 
coloured, there may be more or less con- 
stipation, and the skin becomes dry and 
hot. The secretion of the inflamed surface 
—say of a mucous membrane, as in bron- 
chitis, or a serous membrane, like the 
pleura—is at first dry, and afterwards in- 
creased and perverted. 
