330 The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 
MARASMUS. 
This condition is frequently dependent on mesenteric ° 
disease. The term marasmus is used to signify leanness 
or emaciation. Dogs apparently healthy in themselves, 
2.é., so far as feeding well, performing their duties, etc., 
are concerned, nevertheless do not thrive, or, to use a 
common expression, they are “out of conditzon.’ Hence 
the frequent inquiry addressed to the canine surgeon is, 
“Can you give me something to get my dogs in con- 
dition?” This leanness, however, is not necessarily a 
result of disease: in many animals it is a natural and 
hereditary condition; in others it may result from neglect 
of hygiene. 
Symptoms.—Such animals have usually large appetites, 
and an unkind and unthrifty appearance. The bowels 
are generally constipated, and attacks of colic are not 
unfrequent. 
When it proceeds from mesenteric disease, the abdomen 
is pendulous and large, the coat is particularly harsh and 
dry, the mucous membranes are pale, the eyes watery, 
and the nose often dry and hot ; the appetite is not so 
extreme as the thirst, the feces are offensive, and the 
bowels are either relaxed or costive, and the excretions 
coated with mucus. In the latter stage the pulse is weak 
and accelerated, and the animal exhibits considerable 
indisposition for exertion; the thirst increases, and the 
bowels are continually relaxed. : 
Treatment——Fresh air, daily exercise, nourishing food, 
and, in the case of disease, cod-liver oil, and the pre- 
parations of iron, are the measures chiefly indicated. 
PLETHORA. 
Dogs highly fed and allowed but little exercise are 
those generally subject to excess of blood, or what 1s 
