Distemper in Dogs and Cats. 211 



Percussion of the lungs may reveal small areas of flatness from 

 exudate or collapse, and in case of pleurisy and hydrothorax there 

 is a lack of resonance up to a given horizontal line, varying in 

 position according to the position of the animal and always keep- 

 ing to that part of the thorax which may at the time be lowest. 

 Auscultation will reveal various sounds according to existing lesion ■ 

 There may be a loud blowing murmur over the large bronchia, or 

 at points to which this sound is conveyed through consolidated lung. 

 Or a coarse or fine mucous rale may be present indicating the second 

 stage of bronchitis, or a line of crepitation around a non-resonant 

 area indicating pneumonia, or there may be friction sounds or, 

 later, creaking murmurs from false membrane. Wheezing and 

 sibilant sounds are not uncommon, also sounds of the heart, 

 bronchia or bowels, heard in unwonted situations to which they 

 are conveyed through consolidated lung tissue. Dyspnoea may 

 become extreme, with pufiElng out of the cheeks, labial soufle, 

 and violent inspiratory action. Foetor of the breath is common. 

 Emaciation, marasmus, sunken, pale or dark red eyes, putrid 

 diarrhoea and nervous disorders usually precede death. 



Eye Symptoms. Conjunctival congestion is one of the earliest 

 and most constant symptoms. Weeping, swollen eyelids and red 

 turgid mucosa. Photophobia may bespeak keratitis. Soon the 

 watery tears become muco-purulent, matting together the lashes 

 and even the lids, during the night especially, so that they must 

 be sponged to get them apart in the morning. The exudate may 

 accummulate under the lower lid, or may become flocculent, and 

 usually flows down the cheeks causing matting and even shedding 

 of the hair. Vesicles exceptionally appear on the conjunctiva ; 

 more frequently it becomes cloudy and opaque, and at points near 

 the centre degeneration of the epithelium leads to the formation 

 of ulcers no larger than pinheads, but extending into the cornea 

 and sometimes perforating it so as to allow protrusion of the 

 membrane of Descemet or the escape of the aqueous humor. 

 The formation and extension of the ulcers are favored by the 

 general debility, the rubbing of the eye with the paws, and the 

 infection of abrasions, by pus-microbes. This infection may ex- 

 tend to the lining member of the anterior chamber and even of 

 the posterior with panophthalmia, but, in the absence of perfora- 

 tion, internal ophthalmia is rare. When the ulcers heal, white 



